St. 不良研究所导航网址ans may take the Eads Bridge for granted. But 150 years ago, it was considered one of the wonders of the modern world, an engineering marvel with Gilded Age backers and a creator compared to Leonardo da Vinci.
The man who gave St. 不良研究所导航网址 its first bridge over the Mississippi 鈥 whose graceful steel arches symbolized the city before another rose over the riverfront 鈥 is almost forgotten around the world, says a new book.
Yet, 鈥渄espite his lack of formal education, James Eads made lasting contributions in many aspects of bridge design and construction,鈥 writes John K. Brown in 鈥淪panning the Gilded Age: James Eads and the Great Steel Bridge.鈥 鈥淗e had a talent for grasping and solving huge engineering challenges, a compulsion to see and think anew.鈥
Brown delves deeply into how the landmark bridge was connected to the growth of St. 不良研究所导航网址, financial wheeling and dealing of the time, and technological history. Although there have been previous books about Eads, Brown says his helps explain how the bridge鈥檚 bankruptcy did not mean it was a failure (it actually made monopoly profits for 50 years) and how the untested bridge designer persuaded Junius and J.P. Morgan to help finance his risky endeavor.
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鈥淚t鈥檚 an amazing story,鈥 says the author, who will be in St. 不良研究所导航网址 on May 23 to discuss his book.
Along with the book, the Missouri History Museum and the St. 不良研究所导航网址 Mercantile Library are offering current exhibitions that not only remind St. 不良研究所导航网址ans of an important part of city history, but also dazzle with details about Eads鈥 extraordinary work.
River survivor
Some of the highlights of Eads鈥 life are often told. Born in 1820 in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, Eads was about 13 when he, his siblings and mother survived a steamboat fire on the Mississippi River, losing all of their belongings. In a few years, most of the family would move to Le Claire, Iowa, where they farmed and built and ran a hotel.
But Eads stayed in St. 不良研究所导航网址. His formal schooling was over and he worked at a dry goods store and then as a clerk on a steamer. That vessel, the Knickerbocker, was lost when a snag opened a hole in it at the mouth of the Ohio River. Cargo was lost, again, with 鈥渞iver pirates鈥 making off with some goods. The accident was a 鈥渇ormative experience,鈥 Brown writes, and after three more years working on boats, Eads persuaded two men to go in with him to form a marine salvage company.
It was a risky business, but Eads would descend into the river in a diving bell of his own design searching muddy water for salvage. In the meantime, he had fallen in love with St. 不良研究所导航网址an Martha Dillon, whose well-off father, Patrick Dillon, wasn鈥檛 eager to have Eads as a son-in-law.
Still, the two would marry in 1845. Before then, Eads took six weeks to travel to big, eastern cities, Brown writes. He marveled at the speed of rail travel and inventions showcased at Washington鈥檚 Patent Office and stayed with a cousin, James Buchanan. 鈥淭he young man showed an earnest desire to improve himself,鈥 Brown writes, but Martha Dillon鈥檚 father was still disapproving of the marriage.
Eads quit marine salvage to open the first glassworks west of the Mississippi. He was unable to make a profit and went back to salvage, whose spoils created wealth. In 1849, a tragic riverfront fire devoured 23 steamers and more than 400 buildings but provided work for Eads and his partner, William Nelson. They contracted with the city to remove the levee wrecks.
By the mid-1850s, Eads was certainly prosperous, but he had lost Martha to cholera in 1852. Her father, who died the year before, also didn鈥檛 live to see Eads鈥 success. At age 37 he retired from actively managing the wrecking company. Because of his work on the river, friends and colleagues called him 鈥淐aptain Eads鈥 for the rest of his life.
Still, Eads was just getting started.
Brown calls the salvage years Eads鈥 first chapter. Following it, the self-taught engineer
- Acquires a contract to build the first ironclad wars of the Civil War. No matter that he didn鈥檛 own a yard or machine shop 鈥 he manages to lease and hire what he needs to produce seven ironclads in 65 days. (He paid penalties for being late on a few.) The s give the Union its first big victories of the war.
- Designs the Eads Bridge for buggies, pedestrians and trains using innovative technology that would carry over to major projects, including the Brooklyn Bridge, for 70 years. Profits would come from tolls. He also planned railroad tunnels from the bridge that traveled under the city streets.
- Comes up with a way to clear silt in the Mississippi Delta, increasing the depth of the river so traffic wasn鈥檛 stymied and New Orleans could be a full time port reached by oceangoing s.
- Becomes an international consultant regarding river projects, including a possible 3,500-foot bridge in Turkey over the Bosporus Strait. (No such bridge would be built until 1973.)
- Challenges plans for the Panama Canal, proposing that a railway across Mexico could carry s.
That last idea never was implemented, but Brown considers it an 鈥渋mpressive example of his creativity.鈥
The Great Bridge
Through enlarged images, the Missouri History Museum illustrates and explains the bridge project in its exhibit 鈥淓ads Bridge at 150.鈥 (Celebrations are being planned around the July 4 anniversary.)
The exhibit鈥檚 introduction says: 鈥淒uring his dedication speech on July 4, 1874, James Eads observed that the bridge would 鈥榚ndure as long as it is useful.鈥 By all measures, he was right. The bridge has endured, standing strong against the forces of nature and adapting to the needs of modern city. The lower deck, built for large steam locomotives, now accommodates light-rail transportation. The upper deck evolved from a wood plank road for horses and pedestrians into a highway for thousands of cars every day. The iconic bridge has also inspired countless artists and has been the backdrop of millions of memories.鈥
The bridge鈥檚 longevity is due in part to Eads鈥 use of steel, at the time a material lighter than iron that had never been tested when building a bridge 鈥 or any other structure in the world. Eads also called for granite and limestone to create sturdy piers and took into account challenges of wind and river ice. Even though the bridge has been hit by barge-pushing towboats and a historic tornado, it has suffered relatively little damage. In the 20th century, it underwent restoration work that suggests the bridge will last many more years.
When Eads offered his design in 1867, he also took beauty into consideration. He and assistant engineer Henry Flad worked on a plan with just three spans, arches that were longer than any others in the U.S. (one at 515 feet and two at 497). They were tall enough at the center to allow for riverboats, and with only two piers to block traffic.
鈥淭he span lengths alone far exceeded any truss or arch bridge to that time in North America,鈥 Brown writes.
Other bridge proposals tended to offer quicker and cheaper structures. Not until the 1880s and '90s, Brown says, did engineers started to agree that 鈥済reat bridges in great cities ought to be beautiful.鈥
But Eads was set on steel, and for two years tried to find a steelmaker willing to bid on his requirements, Brown says. Eads wanted very high-quality steel in larger pieces that had never been made before. Eventually he got a bid from a small Philadelphia steel company and Eads and his engineers devised demanding protocols to test and ensure the strength of the steel components.
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Another of Eads鈥 innovations was using pneumatic caissons, pressurized chambers deep in the river where workers could excavate materials and build foundations on solid bedrock. The caissons had never before been used in the United States. As work on excavating river sand took the workers deeper and deeper into the Mississippi, they started suffering from the 鈥渂ends,鈥 or decompression sickness. Eads鈥 own physician would be called in to monitor the situation after several workers died.
Dr. Alphonse Jaminet shortened the amount of time workers could spend in the caissons and required the pressure to be released more slowly from the air lock. Jaminet鈥檚 efforts may have helped, but still 14 men died from the bends and at least 30 were severely injured, Brown writes.
The history museum鈥檚 exhibit concludes that Jaminet鈥檚 work 鈥渓aid some of the foundations for modern diving practices.鈥
Eads originally told investors that his visionary bridge would cost about $5 million. But with delays, interest, overruns, etc. the total cost was $12.5 million ($340.6 million in 2023 dollars), Brown says.
He also details the complex transactions that raised construction funds from stockholders in St. 不良研究所导航网址, the Morgan banks in New York and London, and British bondholders. The high costs of steel, construction delays, and frauds all combined to push Eads鈥檚 bridge company into foreclosure just 10 months after the bridge opened for business. Many of the insiders had some role in those frauds, including Eads, Thomas Scott (a railroad president), and Andrew Carnegie, Scott鈥檚 prot茅g茅.鈥
It was largely up to the Morgans to reorganize and turn things around. Although all the stockholders lost the full value of their shares ($3 million), the Morgans made money and took care of their own allies and investors, Brown says. In 1881, Jay Gould, who had been acquiring multiple railroads, began leasing the bridge and rail tunnel; it was profitable for decades to come, continuing to impact the city and railway routes west.
In 1884, Britain鈥檚 Edward, prince of Wales, honored Eads with the Albert Medal (named after Prince Albert) from the Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts. He was the first American to receive the award, preceding Thomas Edison in 1892. In 1927, the deans of America鈥檚 engineering colleges voted Eads one of the top five engineers of all time, along with Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, James Watt and Ferdinand de Lesseps.
Eads, who had suffered lung ailments since his years in the diving bell, died at age 66 while in the Bahamas with his second wife, Eunice. He is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.
Lasting symbol
Brown鈥檚 new look at Eads and his bridge focuses largely on finance and technology, while showing that 鈥淕ilded Age鈥 entrepreneurs and businessmen developed many public works, utilities, transportation and, yes, bridges, before government gained the will or financial ability to create such infrastructure. He also corrects some previous stories about the bridge, including that President Ulysses S. Grant was at the dedication. (He was not.) Brown also rejects as myth that Eads' Buchanan cousin was the same man who became the 15th president.
Brown, a retired professor from the University of Virginia鈥檚 Department of Science, Technology, and Society, accepted research notes of John Atlee Kouwenhoven, a scholar who died before he could write a planned big book on Eads. Brown鈥檚 finished product is now likely the most complete text about the building of the bridge.
Now owned by Metro, which runs the light-rail over the bridge, and the city of St. 不良研究所导航网址, Eads is just one bridge option for travelers from Illinois. It still leads drivers directly to Washington Avenue, as Eads designed.
For some of the hundreds of drawings, artwork and more featuring the bridge, see images on display at the Mercantile Library, which offers little text but shows more than 30 ways the bridge has been portrayed through the years. A Currier & Ives print and contemporary watercolors are some of the things on display. A dramatic drawing after the tornado of 1896 shows lightning almost piercing the bridge.
The library also includes a stock certificate, an 1870 company report by 鈥渢he chief engineer,鈥 and a photograph from 1873-74.
For the centennial anniversary of the bridge, Famous-Barr placed an ad in the St. 不良研究所导航网址 Globe-Democrat showing a needlepoint pattern to commemorate the bridge.
Counting illustrations on letterheads and advertisements, the library has hundreds of Eads images that are not included in the exhibit, whose antique paper prints have seldom been seen in public.
Whether labeled the Illinois & St. 不良研究所导航网址 Bridge, the St. 不良研究所导航网址 Bridge, just The Bridge or, as the city acquired more spans, the Eads Bridge, the images proudly show off the landmark.
Julie Dunn-Morton, the library鈥檚 curator of art, says: 鈥淎ll capture the bridge with their own vision.鈥