Mentions of the Mississippi River crossing by railroads in other recent threads got me to wondering how many railroad bridges actually cross the Mississippi River. From what I have found, there are 133 total crossings, of which 56 are restricted to railroads.
According to Wikipedia, the Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters at Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri. The Mississippi River is known as the Middle Mississippi from the Upper Mississippi Riverās confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri to its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois. The Mississippi River is called the Lower Mississippi River from its confluence with the Ohio River a Cairo, Illinois to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico
The first railroad bridge to cross the Mississippi River was the Chicago and Rock Island Bridge, which opened in 1856. The bridge connected Illinois and Iowa, and allowed passengers to travel from eastern Iowa to New York City by rail.
The Eads Bridge is the oldest existing bridge across the Mississippi River. It was completed in 1874 and is located in St. Louis, Missouri.
The first Santa Fe railway and roadway bridge to span the Mississippi River at Fort Madison Iowa was a single-track bridge completed in 1887. It was replaced in 1927 by a double track bridge, 1,675 feet in length with a 525-foot electrified swing span to allow river traffic to pass through the bridge.
These three bridges are among the earliest railroad bridges to span the Mississippi River. A 2005 forum thread offers a lot more detail on the various railroad bridge crossings.
The Frisco Bridge in Memphis was started in 1888 and finished in 1892, and was the first major bridge across the lower Mississippi, Built largely of then innovative open-hearth steel.
Finished just in time for the railroad panic of 1892, which stopped so mych effective development following the Poughkeepsie Bridge openingā¦
Youāll want to be taking notes about the construction of the pieces of railroad from Kansas City to West Memphis (the Kansas City, Springfield, and Memphis Railway - 1883) and the Kansas City, Memphis, and Birmingham Railway (1886-7) The consolidated entity, the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis (1888) was the entity completing the āgrand bridgeā across the river.
This was leased to the St. Louis-San Francisco by 1901, but didnāt become a formal part of the Frisco until near the end of 1928.
Thebes was a key point on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad. I presume that the C&EI crossed that bridge to reach Chaffee in Missouri. Did the C&EI own that bridge?
āIt was initially owned equally by the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad, Illinois Central Railroad, Missouri Pacific Railway, St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, and St. Louis Southwestern Railway.ā
I was reading a bit more about the Frisco bridge, the oldest one crossing the Lower Mississippi and began to wonder if any other railroad bridges were built over the Lower Mississippi in the 19th century.
Turned out that the next bridge to be built over the Lower Mississippi did not occur until 1930 when the Old Vicksburg bridge was completed. The Old Vicksburg Bridge, also known as Mississippi River Bridge, is a cantilever bridge carrying one rail line across the Mississippi River between Delta, Louisiana and Vicksburg, Mississippi.
The next oldest is the Huey P. Long bridge, also a cantilever bridge, linking East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana and West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. It is known among the locals simply as āthe old bridgeā.
I canāt ID the tower. All I recall was that we were riding the old Chicago & Alton and were about 80 or 90 miles out of St. Louis. It is possible that it could be Ridgely (WR) Tower in Springfield but someone more knowledgeable would have to confirm this.
According to H. Craig Miner, the fun of the SLSF attempt to be a ātranscontinentalā railroad between St. Louis (via Springfield, MO) and the west coast around the 35th Parallel was essentially over by the time the Memphis bridge was completed.
