St. Charles City-County Library District

PAGE LAST UPDATED:... 08/05/2002 - MPFsR


ST. CHARLES BRIDGES & TRANSPORTATION
HISTORICAL IMAGES of ST. CHARLES COUNTY








Scene on Missouri River, Steamboat at landing, Highway bridge, St. Charles, MO.

This photograph shows a steamboat docked at the St. Charles riverfront. The bridge in the background is the Highway 115 bridge, which crosses the Missouri River from St.Charles to St. Louis County. It opened for automobile and streetcar traffic in 1904. Steamboats began to travel the Missouri River during the 19th Century. In 1819 the steamboat "Independence" traveled up the river 200 miles proving that navigation on the Missouri was feasible. By the late 1830's many steamboats were being used to transport merchandise, furs and people up and down the river. St. Charles, Washington, Hermann and other Missouri River towns became popular stopping places.





St. Louis - St. Charles Electric Car Station

The first highway bridge connecting St. Charles and St. Louis County opened in 1904. Wagons, cars and streetcars could cross from St. Louis without transferring to the ferry on the eastern shore of the Missouri River. Streetcar service from St. Louis to St. Charles became a reality on May 10 of that year, eleven days after the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair opened. Streetcars terminated at the west end of the bridge at Second and Adams until 1913 when the streetcar terminal pictured above was constructed on the northwest corner of the intersection. It served both passenger and freight cars. Passenger cars arrived at the front and freight cars at the rear. The last streetcar left St. Charles on January 18, 1932. Louis Hesseruch, superintendent of the line, and St. Charles Postmaster E. L. Renno, who had been passengers on the first electric streetcar into St. Charles, rode the last car out as well. The terminal building later served as the Greyhound bus depot.





Entrance to St. Louis, St. Charles & Western Electric Car, and Highway Bridge

This is a photo of the Highway 115 Bridge looking east toward St. Louis. It opened for use in 1904 and was the first highway bridge connecting St. Louis and St. Charles Counties. Also pictured in the photograph is a streetcar, which traveled between St. Charles and Wellston in St. Louis. Streetcar service over the bridge into St. Charles began in 1904 continued until 1932 when the last car left St. Charles on Jan. 18th. The Highway 115 bridge was used for automobile and bus traffic until 1992. It was demolished in 1997.





Wabash Railroad Bridge, St. Charles, MO.

The first Wabash Bridge was opened to traffic on May 29, 1871. At the time it was completed, the 6335-foot long cast iron bridge was one of the longest in the country. The stone piers in the river extended from 54 to 75 feet below the water line. To reach a firm foundation, the workers went through quicksand, large boulders, and tangled masses of driftwood and logs. The St. Charles Bridge Company, a subsidiary of the North Missouri Railroad, was organized in order to construct the bridge. Construction took place from 1868 -1871. In 1881, a span of the 1871 bridge collapsed. This is a photograph of the reconstructed bridge. It continued in use until 1936 when a new Wabash Railroad Bridge was built at the cost of over three million dollars. The new bridge was erected one-half mile north of the old bridge. A new bridge was required in order to handle the heavier locomotives and higher speeds.





Wabash Railroad Bridge, St. Charles, MO - One of the Longest and Highest Bridges in the World.

Two major disasters befell the 1871 bridge. On November 8, 1879 several cars derailed and fell from the approach near 4th Street on the St. Charles side. The cars were carrying grain, coal, ore and live hogs. According to a report at the time, some of the hogs survived the fall and were later found grazing nearby. Two years later, at 5:30 p.m., December 8, 1881, a second disaster struck the Wabash Bridge. A heavy stock train of 31 cars plus an engine went through the last span over the river on the St. Louis County side. Engineer John Kirby died in the crash. It took several days to recover the engineer's body and almost a year to remove the engine from the river. The higher span visible in the photograph was one of four that were rebuilt after the 1881 disaster. The original sections were hanging spans called Fink Truss Bridge Units. They were replaced by overhead spans during the reconstruction.






Panaromic View of St. Charles, MO., from the Wabash River Bridge. The leading industry of St. Charles was car building. This picture shows two long trains of new cars awaiting shipment.





Automobile Bridge over the Missouri River at St. Charles, MO.

This is a view of the Highway 115 Bridge from the west bank of the Missouri River. At the east end of the bridge was the St. Charles Rock Road in St. Louis County. The west end of the bridge terminated at Second and Adams Streets.
The bridge opened in 1904. It was the only automobile bridge connecting St. Louis County and St. Charles until 1959 when the Interstate 70 Blanchette Memorial Bridge opened.
During its lifetime two disasters struck the Highway Bridge. On the afternoon of September 26, 1916 the wooden floor of the bridge caught fire. Sparks from a passing train had ignited pigeon nests under the bridge floor. By the following morning the fire had caused over $200,000 of damage.
The second accident occurred in 1935. Several freight cars became detached from a train stopped at the Wabash Station north of St. Charles. The cars rolled down the spur that ended under the Highway Bridge striking the bridge supports at the end of the track. The pier buckled and a 40-foot span fell onto Main Street. There were no deaths caused by either accident.
Because of structural problems the bridge was closed to traffic in 1992 and demolished in 1997.





M. K. & T. Railroad Depot.

The initials M. K. & T stand for Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway. The company was organized in 1865 and renamed Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway one year later to better represent the goals of the railroad's management. M. K. & T was eventually changed to MKT Railway and nicknamed the Katy Railroad. The St. Louis division of the Katy was opened for local traffic as far east as St. Charles in July 1893.
The St. Charles depot was built in 1892 and by the turn of the century it is said that it handled over 2 million dollars worth of business supplying lumber and fuel for St. Charles and Weldon Springs and serving two grain elevators.
A telegraph office was also housed in the Katy depot. It continued to use Morse code to send and receive thousands of news and personal messages until 1958. The last passenger train stopped at the depot in May of 1958.
The building was originally located at the foot of Tompkins Street, west of the railroad tracks. The 55-ton structure was moved in November 1976 to its present location in Frontier Park.

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View looking through the spans of the Highway Bridge, St. Charles, MO.

This photograph was taken looking east across the Highway (115) Bridge. Streetcar tracks can be seen on the left side of the bridge floor.




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