The new bridge over the Mississippi, opening as the Stan Musial Veterans’s Bridge six months shy of the 140th anniversary of the Eads Bridge, is probably the most spectacular bridge since its first counterpart in 1874. St. Louis will again have a Veterans’ Bridge after the original one was renamed the Martin Luther King Memorial Bridge, just south of the new bridge. While it does not have the hulking confidence of the MacArthur Bridge or the historicity of the Eads, the new bridge is truly a marvel, seemingly based on geometric equations that combine for fascinating, almost abstract photographs.

Many visitors soon realized that the towers create echo chambers when standing directly underneath them, providing a surprise for people walking through them. It is a pity that pedestrians will not be able to experience this again unless their car breaks down on the bridge.

Oh, and some important people showed up.

While the bridge is best viewed as a whole, it is still interesting to examine the giant cables that hold up the bridge deck.