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Alton, Illinois is located approximately 6-miles upstream from St. Louis and 200-miles south of the Burlington Bridge. It sits on a bluff overlooking the river with lowlands on the west side (Missouri) of the river. The shipping channel was close to the Alton side of the river but had been known to shift depending on the river flow. “The channel of the river flows at their foot at the upper and business part of the city. The river leaves the bluff about ½ mile above the bridge and at the bridge there is low ground about 1/4 of a mile in width between the low water bank and the foot of the bluffs.” A bridge across the river at this site had been proposed for many years and in fact Col. Stephen Hariman Long had submitted a design in 1839. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, (CB&Q) already had bridges across the River at Burlington and Quincy and was using the Eads Bridge to cross the Mississippi at St. Louis. CB&Q did not like to be dependent on other lines and bridges with tolls and began planning a bridge of their own at Alton in 1879 with the idea of a line that ran north of the city to the west and then down to St. Louis. This would also require a bridge across the Missouri River to be called the Bellefontaine Bridge. The company used George S. Morison as its Chief Engineer. Morison was one of the leading bridge engineers in the country at the time and built many bridges over the Missouri, Mississippi, and other rivers.
The company used George S. Morison as their Chief Engineer. Morison was on the leading bridge engineers in the country at the time and built many bridges over the Missouri, Mississippi and other rivers and several for the CB & Q. He began the design without the knowledge of the citizens of Alton.
The CB &Q along with some citizens of Alton formed the Saint Clair, Madison and Saint Louis Belt Railroad Company. Their line would run from Bellville, Illinois through St. Clair and Madison Counties to the bridge. Upon crossing the bridge, it would connect with St. Louis, Keokuk and North Western Railroad, another line linked to the CB & Q, into St. Louis. The first official announcement of their plans was not made public until the spring of 1889.
The bridge company received the approval of Congress with Chapter 816, “An act to authorize the construction of a bridge across the Mississippi River at some accessible point between the mouth of the Illinois and the mouth of the Missouri Rivers” on August 29, 1890. The act stated in part,
That said bridge shall be constructed to provide for the passage of railroad trains, and, at the option of the corporation by which it may be built, for the transit of foot passengers, animals, wagons, and vehicles of all kinds, for such reasonable rates of toll as may be approved from time to time by the Secretary of War…
That if any bridge built under this act shall be constructed as a drawbridge the same shall be constructed as a pivot drawbridge, with a draw at a point accessible and convenient for navigation, and with spans of not less than two hundred feet in length in the clear Spans at pivot pier. on each side of the central or pivot pier of the draw, and the next adjoining span or spans shall not be less than three hundred and fifty feet in length, and the headroom under such spans shall not be less than ten feet above high water.
That all railroad companies desiring the use of such bridge shall have and be entitled to equal rights and privileges relative to the passage of railroad trains over the same and over the approaches thereto upon payment of a reasonable compensation for such use.
Morison submitted his location and plans to the War Department for their approval on April 8, 1891 and they were approved with the proviso “that the opening on each side of pier VII [the swing pier] should not be closed until a good channel should be established through the draw and rendered permanent by the action of the Government dike now under construction, the company agreeing to maintain the channel from the lower end of the dike through the draw.” The citizens of Alton, however, did not find out about the plans until February 10,1892, at a meeting in Alton where they saw some—but not all—of their plans.
His plan was to cross the river with a swing span 454’ long providing 200’ clearance, on both sides of the swing pier, close to the Alton side of the river followed by a fixed Pennsylvania Truss 350 feet long followed by six 210 feet long single intersection Pratt Trusses. The bridge was built entirely of steel. He provided the required 10 feet clearance of high water. Long wooden trestles on both sides completed the crossing. The westerly abutment was on Ellis Island with the wooden trestle crossing a small lake then down to grade. The swing span was one of the longest and heaviest in the United States at the time as it was designed to carry two tracks.
The masonry piers were set on 4-foot thick timber mats, 60 feet by 20 feet, resting on wood piles spaced three feet apart. The contractor for the foundation work was Louis Loss who started work in early March 1892 and was complete in summer of 1893. The Union Bridge Company, under Charles Macdonald, started work shortly after and by March 1894 completed work on the swing span which was first swung later in the month. The first train to cross the bridge was on April 5, 1893.
While the work on the bridge was going on Morison took steps to ensure the main shipping channel, at all water levels, was through the swing span openings. Steamboat captains made a last ditch stand against the bridge at a meeting with a Board of Army engineers on February 14,1894 in which they claimed, “the bridge company had placed the draw span on the wrong position; that the current was not there, and that not a thing should be done until the bridge company remedied the evil.” After hearing all the arguments, and Morison’s rebuttals, the Board approved the bridge, “with the understanding that the bridge company extend the dike and continue large-scale dredging through the draw.”
The bridge had a grand opening on May 1, 1894, with Morison delivering a speech he entitled, "Great Engineering Achievements of the Age." The Governor of Illinois and the Lt. Governor of Missouri attended and gave speeches.
The Old Clark Vehicular Bridge was built adjacent to the railroad bridge and opened on July 15, 1928. It was replaced by the current bridge in January 1994 and demolished in August 1994.
Unfortunately, business was slow on the railroad bridge, and the company went into receivership on January 16, 1897. In August 1904 the Missouri & Illinois Bridge & Belt Railroad took over the operating of the bridge. Traffic across the bridge stopped in 1988 when the line was abandoned. It was demolished in 1990. ■
