Missouri History Museum
Jefferson Avenue Viaduct north from Chouteau Avenue, c. 1900
Earlier this week, we looked at the historic bridges—or viaducts as they were once more commonly called—that stretched across the Mill Creek Valley from downtown to the western neighborhoods of St. Louis. Leaving the western edge of downtown, Jefferson Avenue was the first bridge that crossed the train tracks.
North of the Mill Creek railroad tracks, Jefferson Avenue was originally named Pratte Street, and it continued in its orientation all the way to Chouteau Avenue. Later, when a bridge was built, it curved from Pratte over to Jefferson Avenue, which started at Chouteau and went south into the St. Louis Commons. At that point, Pratte became Jefferson north of the railroads, and the short section left to the west of the new bridge became known as West Jefferson Avenue. A pedestrian bridge, which author Vivian Gibson remembers from her childhood, was built over that vestigial portion of street. The new bridge to the east and its approaches was even known as East Jefferson Avenue for a time, as well.
Missouri History Museum
Pedestrian Bridge near Jefferson Avenue over Mill Creek Valley, 19th century
That first bridge was built in the 1880s. It was almost destroyed by a train wreck, but a telephone pole cushioned the blow of 21 train cars. The St. Louis Star and Times “Board of Aldermen Journal” reported the bridge was completed on April 20, 1916. In the 1960s, as part of the modernization of bridges over Mill Creek, it was demolished and replaced. That replacement closed in 2007 and was demolished for the current bridge.
To the west of Jefferson, the Compton Avenue Bridge has the unique distinction of being the last crossing that has not been replaced in the most recent campaign of modernization. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on January 12, 1910, that two bridges were being considered for Ewing and Compton for $700,000; previously the estimates had been $250,000–$400,000. The Globe Democrat reported that the Terminal Railroad Association (TRRA), which manages the railyards in St. Louis, met at Union Station to debate the Compton Bridge on November 14, 1910. The St. Louis Star and Times “Journal of the Board of Public Improvements” reported that the city approved plans for the Compton Bridge on December 2, 1910. The TRRA awarded the contract to Fruin-Colnan Company; interestingly, the entire cost of the bridge was paid by the railroads that made up the association. The deck was replaced in the 1960s, but it reused the old piers from the original bridge.
Carl Gaylor designed what was St. Louis’s version of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Grand Avenue Viaduct, which opened in 1889 and was demolished in 1960. Grand Avenue, now Boulevard, had long been planned to be a monumental axis that linked the north and south portions of the city, but the expanding railroad tracks had cut off the southwestern portions of St. Louis from downtown. The Post-Dispatch reported on October 4, 1885, that the Board of Public Improvements had met to plan for the construction of the new Grand Bridge. It is obvious from news reports that the new span was meant to be a centerpiece, referring to the 12th and 14th street bridges as “shabby,” and that the recently completed 18th Street Bridge had only partly relieved the traffic needs of the South Side. Now that Chouteau Avenue was transforming from a residential to a commercial street, the need for more infrastructure was immediate.
The main contractor of record for the bridge was the King Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio, who had made a failed bid to construct the Merchants’ Bridge over the Mississippi River the year before. Founded by Zenas King, the company is perhaps best known for the striking Detroit-Superior Bridge over the Cuyahoga River in its hometown, completed in 1918. The founder’s life, described in the book The Iron Age, began on a farm in Vermont, but the family then moved to New York State, before the young King moved to Ohio to go into the construction business before the Civil War. His patent for iron bridge building design helped propel the firm to prominence in the years of economic growth in the 1870s and '80s. It is little surprise that King won the contract for the massive iron superstructure of the Grand Bridge.
Apparently, there was so much public grumbling about the ostensible slow pace of construction that the Post-Dispatch felt it necessary to publish an article on August 19, 1888, explaining the intricacies of the bridge's construction. The iron superstructure was actually being pre-fabricated in Cleveland at the King foundries, and meanwhile, subcontractors were busy on the foundations and massive piers for the two towers that rise above Mill Creek. We have incredible detail of the prices and names of those companies who constructed each part of the $400,000 project; over a dozen different names, including the St. Louis Bridge and Iron Company, as well as John Bambrick. The iron and steel alone from King would cost end up costing $144,000.
Once the prefabricated steel from Cleveland arrived in St. Louis, construction must have moved quickly, as the Grand Bridge opened on August 17, 1889, according to Post-Dispatch, just over a year after the article that reported on supposedly sluggish construction. It was 1,7000 feet long and 60 feet wide in its final incarnation and was a landmark in Midtown for generations. However, age and the passage of time took its toll, and many older St. Louis residents have related stories of its severe dilapidation in its final years. Demolition began on February 15, 1960. The replacement bridge was demolished and replaced in 2011; many St. Louisans have the distinction of having lived and traveled over three different Grand Bridges in their lifetimes.
The Spring Avenue viaduct, opened in October 1, 1959, cost $924,953, closed in 1987, and was finally demolished in 2009. The Kingshighway Bridge is the last major crossing over the Mill Creek railyards. There was apparently an earlier wooden bridge in the location, but documentary evidence is sparse. In fact, despite the size of the Kingshighway Bridge, newspapers did not seem to cover its construction in much detail compared to the Grand Bridge. Real estate developers, however, trumpeted its construction, citing the “million-dollar bridge” as opening up new opportunities for housing in Southwest St. Louis.
The Kingshighway Bridge served the public well for decades, but by the 1980s, its age was beginning to show; a fifty-foot portion had collapsed in July 1987. What hadn't changed: Norbert A. Groppe, who had ushered in replacements of Mill Creek bridges since the 1960s, was still President of the Board of Public Service at the time.
