USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 22
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At daylight a salute of thirteen guns was fired by the battery near the bridge for the old original States.
At nine o'clock A.M. one hundred guns were fired for the bridge, fifty on each side of the river, by the same battery, the firing being alternate, commencing with Missouri. At twelve o'clock (noon) a salute of thirty-seven guns for the States and Territories of the Union was fired on the Levee by the ordnance depart- ment of Jefferson Barracks, under command of Capt. Babbitt. At daylight a Federal salute, and at nine A.M. a national salute was fired by Gen. Grierson at the old arsenal grounds. .
The procession moved at a few minutes past nine o'clock from the junction of Washington and Jeffer- son Avenues, headed by a squad of Metropolitan po- lice under command of Capt. Huebler, and followed immediately by the grand marshal and his aids, twenty- two of whom were boys mounted on ponies and wear- ing uniforms of black jacket, white pantaloons, and red sash.
Next in order came the following organizations : Company of United States cavalry, Companies A and B National Guards, company of Uhlans, Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order of Hibernians, Knights of Father Mathew, Druids, Sons of Hermann, members of the French National Aid Society, Turners, Bohe- mian Gymnastic Club, Western Star Commandery (Knights Templar), Same (Encampment), United
1081
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.
Brethren of Friendship, Mutual Aid Society, Labor- ers' Aid Society, United League, No. 1, Real Estate and Beneficial Society, Old Temperance Society, pre- ceded by the Bavarian Band, Irish American Benev- olent Society, No. 1.
In addition to these societies the procession com- prised the following organizations:
Merchants' Exchange, represented by a large ban- ner bearing a picture of the Exchange, and the offi- cers and members in carriages.
Fire Department, with engines and apparatus deco- rated with flags, wreaths of flowers, etc. H. Clay Sexton, chief, on horseback; Richard Beggs, J. W. Bame, and Jacob Trice, assistants, in buggies, and J. W. Tennelle, secretary, on horseback.
German Singing Societies, Professor E. Froelich, leader. The societies, headed by the New Orleans Orchestra, numbered six hundred men, and made a fine display with banners and decorations.
Mechanics' and Manufacturers' Exchange, with an Exchange building in miniature. The building had a large number of windows, each supposed to light the office of one of the many trades represented in the Exchange membership, and over each of these windows was painted the trade represented, such as " bricklayer," " carpenter," etc. Following this, in the order in which they were employed, were repre- sentatives on wagons in long procession of all the dif- ferent processes necessary to the construction of a complete house,-architects, excavators, stone-masons, stone-cutters, brick-makers, bricklayers, architectural iron-workers, carpenters, stair-builders, roofers, tin- ners, lightning-rod men, plumbers, plasterers, gas- fitters, painters and glaziers, paper-hangers, grate and mantel manufacturers.
The marshal of this department was Henry Mil- burn, and the following were his aids : T. J. Flanagan, adjutant; Henry Perks, Lewis Luthy, James Gilfoyle, C. K. Ramsey, C. Franz, and C. Kammerer.
The directors of the Exchange preceded this portion of the procession in carriages. They were as follows : James Luthy, president ; David Cavanaugh, C. H. Frank, J. H. Maurice, John Norris, William McCully, C. Lynch, T. P. McKelleget, James Garvin, Martin Ittner, John Stoddart, A. S. McBride, W. S. Stamps, secretary.
St. Louis Life Insurance Company, of which Capt. Eads was president, with a fac-simile of the company's building at Sixth and Locust Streets.
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, numbering from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred men.
Grand officers of Grand Lodge : L. T. Minturn, M. W. G. M .; Alfred Bennett, R. W. D. G. M .; J. S.
Maitland, R. W. G. W .; E. M. Sloan, R. W. G. Sec .; W. H. Thompson, R. W. G. Treas. ; A. M. Alexander, M. C. Libby, R. W. G. Representatives ; Rev. E. D. Isbell, W. G. Chap .; J. M. Gilkeson, W. G. Marshal.
Past Grand Masters : Gerard B. Allen, Elihu H. Shepard, Isaac M. Veitch, Henry Holmes, C. C. Archer, Isaiah Forbes, J. F. Sheifer, J. R. Lackland, Ira Stansberry, J. C. Nulsen, John Doniphan, E. M. Sloan, H. H. Bodeman, M. C. Libby, E. Wilkerson, W. H. Thompson.
Grand officers of Grand Encampment : J. J. Meier, M. W. G. P .; J. S. Maitland, M. E. G. H. P .; E. S. Pike, R. W. G. S. W .; R. E. McNuly, R. W. G. Scribe; William Berry, R. W. G. Treas .; Daniel Kerwin, E. R. Shipley, R. W. G. Representatives.
Past Grand Patriarchs : A. G. Braun, Alexander Peterson, Thomas Gerrard, A. G. Trevor, W. H. Woodward.
Uniformed Patriarchs : E. Wilkerson, chief mar- shal ; A. G. Hequembourg, first assistant marshal (in command); F. A. Cavendish, second assistant mar- shal.
First Division, Daniel Kerwin, marshal ; Second Division, Thomas Bennet, marshal ; Third Division, Henry Diers, marshal.
United States officials. The custom-house employés exhibited a full-rigged brig, twenty-six feet long, em- blematic of commerce, mounted on wheels, and drawn by eight horses. The vessel was named the " James B. Eads," and was " commanded" by Henry P. Wyman, special deputy collector. The post-office was repre- sented by a six-horse wagon bearing the post-office seal, post-rider, railway train, and telegraph wire, with coat of arms of the United States, the whole decorated with flags, evergreens, etc., three messenger-wagons, -one each for North, South, and West St. Louis, -and one hundred letter-carriers, mounted and on foot.
Brewers' Association, with a representation of King Gambrinus on his throne, the king being personated by Jacob Schorr.
The various other trades and industries of St. Louis were also fully represented by delegations, with ban- ners, appropriate devices, etc.
The St. Louis Rowing Club had a boat suspended to a wagon, with oars, flags, and other decorations. A number of the members of the club were in the boat, imitating nautical acts.
The Western Rowing Club had two boats and two teams, likewise accompanied by members of the club, and finely decorated.
The members of the City Council in carriages, and all the engines and hose-carriages in the city in holi-
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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.
day attire, led by Chief Sexton, were the elosing fea- tures of the procession. The engines had hardly gotten into line, however, after waiting all the fore- noon, when an alarm of fire was sounded from Seven- teenth and Franklin Avenue. By a previous under- standing, those engines which were already under head of steam responded to the alarm, and as they darted through the erowded streets with the horses at a gallop there was great confusion and excitement. No accidents happened, however, and order was soon restored, the procession ending as was laid down in the programme, after having passed through the prin- cipal streets in the city to the bridge.
One of the features of the celebration was the pas- sage of a train of ears across the bridge from East St. Louis to the exit of the tunnel on the St. Louis side. The train was composed of fifteen palace sleeping- cars and three powerful locomotives, contributed by the Vandalia and Illinois Central Companies. The entire train was in charge of W. H. Finkbine, con- ductor on the Vandalia road for twenty-three years. His assistants were, on the first engine, No. 62, Wil- liam Consen; second engine, No. 70, William Vansen. The brakemen were Job Graves, William Colburn, H. Sehumaker, A. C. Thornton, H. W. Orvell, Thomas Mirton, John Brown, John Mallory, James Binkley, M. B. Mason, and Michacl Brazill.
The officials of the Vandalia Railway on board the train in crossing were John E. Simpson, general super- intendent ; N. Stevens, general agent ; and N. K. El- liott, master of transportation.
Among the passengers on the train were Senator L. V. Bogy, Hon. Silas Woodson, Governor of Missouri ; Governor Beveridge, of Illinois; Governor Hendricks, of Indiana ; Judge Napton, St. Louis ; Judge H. M. Jones, St. Louis ; Judge Hamilton, St. Louis ; Judge John M. Krum, St. Louis ; Hon. Hugh Moffat, mayor of Detroit; Hon. D. R. Wright, mayor of Oswego, Kan. ; Hon. E. O. Stanard, Hon. James S. Rollins, Columbia, Mo .; Hon. George Bain, Capt. Bart Able, Web M. Samuel, president Merchants' Exchange, and many other leading citizens of St. Louis and elsewhere.
On the grand stand on the open area at the corner of Washington Avenue and Third Street, were seated the following persons, named in the order of their arrival : Gen. W. S. Harney, Hon. T. C. Harris, mem- ber of the Legislature from Phelps County ; Hon. George B. Clark, State Auditor; J. H. Waugh, of Columbia ; Hon. H. Clay Ewing, attorney-general of Missouri; ex-Governor B. Gratz Brown, Judge Sam- uel Treat, Hon. E. O. Stanard, Dr. Samuel Read, president of Missouri State University ; Hon. John F. Cooke, British viee-consul ; Gerard B. Allen, Capt.
James B. Eads, Barton Able, Maj. Grimes, United States army ; Hon. James S. Rollins, Hon. L. V. Bogy, Col. R. B. Priee, of Columbia ; Judge John M. Krum, Chauncey I. Filley, S. D. Barlow, George I. Barnett, Hon. N. M. Bell, Capt. Samuel Pepper, ex-Governor Thomas C. Fletcher, Judge Speek, Col. J. L. D. Morrison, William A. Lyneh, Governor Bev- eridge, of Illinois; Hon. John D. Perry, Rev. Dr. Brookes, Maj .- Gen. W. S. Hancock, Richard Dow- ling, J. Wilson MeDonald, the sculptor ; Hon. Web M. Samuel, president of the Merchants' Exchange ; John Baptiste Hortey, the oldest native eitizen of St. Louis ; Unit Pasin, David A. Harvey, L. Harrigan, chief of police ; William A. Cozens, Sullivan Blood, Samuel Hawken, Robert D. Sutton, H. B. Belt, David A. Harris, Arrible and Antone Cayore, J. H. Britton, James H. Heath, Hon. Charles H. Hardin and Hon. David Moore, of the State Senate ; Col. Joseph L. Stevens, of Boonville ; Capt. John Sibille, a veteran of the war of 1812 ; Gen. Nathan Ranney, Hon. Wells Blodgett, Hon. John F. Darby, Col. John L. Phillips, of Sedalia ; John F. Tolle, United States Senator Ferry, of Michigan ; Hon. Erastus Wells, W. Milnor Roberts, consulting engineer of the bridge, and C. Shaler Smith, engineer; Hon. II. C. Broekmeyer, United States collector ; E. W. Fox, Col. D. M. Reniek, Dr. Barret, S. H. Laflin, Col. R. A. Camp- bell, L. H. Murray, of Springfield, Mo .; D. Robert Barclay, Col. Ferdinand Myers, Dr. William Taussig, Carlos S. Greeley, Governor Woodson, Miles Sells, State Senator Allen, George Bain, Mayor Brown, Gen. Wilson, J. R. Lionberger, John Jackson, J. S. Welsh, N. S. Chouteau, Capt. Fitch, United States navy ; J. F. How.
Among the ladies who graced the occasion with their presence were Mrs. Governor Woodson, Mrs. Governor Brown, Mrs. H. Clay Ewing, Mrs. J. H. Britton, Miss Hutt, of Troy, Mo .; Miss Fanny Britton, Mrs. C. K. Diekson, Miss Dickson, Miss Chouteau, Mrs. J. Jackson, Mrs. J. B. Eads, Miss Addie Eads, Mrs. J. H. Britton, Miss F. Britton, Mrs. J. R. Lion- berger, Miss Lionberger, Mrs. William Taussig, Miss Taussig, Mrs. H. Flad, Miss Flad, Mrs. G. B. Allen, Miss Hodgman.
The exercises opened with prayer by Rev. Dr. Brookes, after which addresses were delivered by Capt. Barton Able, Hon. Joseph Brown, mayor of St. Louis, Governor Beveridge, of Illinois, Governor Woodson, of Missouri, Hon. B. Gratz Brown,1 Capt.
1 In the course of his address Governor Brown gave an inter- esting sketch of the legislation of Congress in relation to the bridge, as follows: "Ever since the earliest act incorporating St. Louis the necessity of establishing some permanent way
1083
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.
James B. Eads,1 Governor Hendricks, of Indiana, and Hon. Thomas W. Ferry, of Michigan. The speeches were varied with singing by the various singing societies present, led by Professor E. Froelich.
across the great river has impressed itself upon the minds of our people. On two or three occasions this has taken shape in char- ters proposed or passed by the Legislatures of the adjoining States, hut as they were necessarily inoperative in the absence of any congressional sanction, they failed to attract investment. At length, however, the demand for greater facilities of transit forced itself into national importance, and in commemoration of the enterprise it may be stated that it was on the 4th day of December, 1865, that notice was given in the Senate of tho United States of intent to bring in a bill to authorize the con- struction of a hridge across the Mississippi River at the city of St. Louis. On the 18th day of December the bill was presented and appropriately referred. It was reported hack from the committee March 22, 1866, and laid over until a subsequent day for action. The discussion which followed was animated, elicited much hostile criticism, and the hill was only passed after an elucidation which seemed to render it innocuous in the eyes of its most violent opponents. Subsequently a bill re- lating exclusively to hridges and post-routes on the upper Mis- sissippi came hack to the Senate from the House of Representa- tives, and was referred to the Committee on Post-offices. The hill, which had passed the Senate, it was found had been sup- pressed in the committee of the House. The situation was critical, the calendar was loaded down, the session was closing. It was then that the appeal was made to the committee in the Senate to engraft by way of amendment the Senate hill upon the House bill, and after much controversy this was finally as- sented to, so reported hack and passed, the House concurring therein in the expiring hours of the Congress.
" It was in virtue of riparian rights conceded by Illinois and Missouri, under the sanction of an act of the National Congress, and sustained by the indorsement of our own Chamber of Com- merce, that this bridge was undertaken. Historically, thorefore, it seemed to grow out of the necessities of the age. But the point to which I wish to invite your attention is this, that, so great was the antagonism from rival commercial routes, it was only when the provisions of the congressional act had been made to declare that the central span should not be less than five hundred feet nor the elevation less than fifty feet above the city directrix that hostility could he so allayed as to permit the passage of the bill. It was upon the tacit assumption hy its opponents of its utter impracticability that antagonism gavo way. In fact, the utterance was then and there boldly made that the genius did not exist in the country capable of erecting such a structure. Others, however, had more faith, and to-day you behold the accomplishment of what was thus derided as im- possible; you see the requirement of the law fulfilled in all its strietness; you see those spans of five hundred feet leaping agile from base to hase; you sce those tapering piers hedded on the immovable rock, deep down below the homeless sands, and rising to gather the threads of railways and roadways high in the upper air; and you see, caught as if by inspiration, beauty there in all its flowing proportion, and science there in its rare analysis of the strength of materials, and an endurance there for all time in its bond of iron and steel and granite to resist force and fire and flood."
1 With regard to the permanence of the structure, Capt. Eads said, " I am justified in declaring that the bridge will exist just as long as it continues to be useful to the people who come after us, even if its years should numher those of the pyramids. That
In addition to the ceremonies at the bridge, there was a display of steamboats in the harbor, which werc arranged near the bridge according to " the rainbow plan," the boats taking position in three tiers, the smallest vessels being in front.
At night there was a grand display of fireworks from the bridge, among the pieces being a representa- tion of the bridge itself, a colossal statue of Washing- ton, a grand "Temple of Honor," with a statue of Capt. Eads in the centre, and a representation of the new Chamber of Commerce building.
The bridge as it now stands is one of the marvels of modern engineering. It is a two-story structure, the great arches which we have described carrying double-track railways, and above, a broad highway seventy-five feet in width. On this are promenades on either side and four tracks or iron tramways for street-cars and ordinary road-wagons. Thus four ve- hicles may be hauled abreast along this spacious ele- vated roadway and then not blockade it so as to prevent persons passing on foot and on horseback.
This roadway is formed by transverse iron beams twelve inches in depth, supported by iron struts of cruciform sections resting on the arches at the points where the vertical bracings of the latter are secured. The railways beneath are carried on transverse arch- like beams of steel secured to the struts, which, based upon the arches, support the right of the carriageway as well. Between the iron beams forming the road- ways four parallel systems of longitudinal wooden members are introduced, extending from pier to pier, which serve the purpose of maintaining the iron in position. The ends of these wooden beams rest upon the flanges of the beams, and are thus secured from moving. On these the sills of the roadway and the cross-ties of the railways are laid. From the oppo- site ends of the iron beams, a double system of diag-
its piers will thus endure hut few will doubt, while the peculiar construction of its superstructure is such that any piece in it can be easily taken out and examined, and replaced or renewed, without interrupting the traffic on the bridgo. The effect of temperature upon the arches is such that in cold weather the lower central tubes and the upper abutment tuhes composing the spans are so rolieved of strain that any one of them may be un- coupled from the others and easily removed. In hot weather the upper ones of the centre and the lower ones near the piers may be similarly removed. In completing the western span, . two of the lower tubes of the inside ribs near the middle of the span were injured during ercction, and were actually uncoupled and taken out without any difficulty whatever after the span was completed, and two new oncs put in their place within a few hours.
"This is a feature in its construction possessed by no other similar work in the world, and it justifies me in saying that this hridge will endure as long as it is useful to man."
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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.
onal horizontal iron bracing serves to bind the whole firmly together, and gives additional support against wind-pressure.
The calculation made for the strength of the bridge was that it should carry the weight of the greatest number of people who could stand on the roadway above, and at the same time have each railway track below covered from end to end with locomotives, and this enormous load to tax the strength of the bridge to the extent of less than one-sixth of the ultimate strength of the steel of which the arches have been constructed. It is computed that the ultimate strength of the material of which this structure is composed will sustain on the three arches twenty-eight thousand nine hundred and seventy-two tons before it would. give way under it. The maximum load, however, which can be allowed on the bridge at any one time is much less than the enormous burden which we have mentioned. The weight of the bridge and the load which it should sustain at the maximum of the al- lowance for perfect safety is 7 7% tons per lineal foot, or about 10,865 tons. The thrust of each end of the arch is received on a surface of granite equal to 24 square feet, and as each span has four arches, it follows, therefore, that the thrust of the arches is re- ceived on a surface of 576 square feet of granite. At 10,000 pounds to the square inch-a low rate of strength for granite-to crush it 414,770 tons would be required. A weight so enormous could never be placed on the piers or arches. No danger then exists of the piers being crushed by the tremendous thrust of the immense five hundred feet arches.
There is no other bridge of the arch or truss pat- tern which can be compared to this. The Kuilinburg bridge across the Leck, an arm of the Rhine, or rather the Zuyder Zee, in Holland, which is one of the most famous structures of the kind in Europe, is a truss bridge of 515 feet span. The Menai bridge is an arch of 500 feet.
The eastern approach is a great work apart from the bridge to which it leads. This portion of the work was executed by the Baltimore Bridge Company, under the supervision of Col. C. Shaler Smith. The grand highway, leaving the stone arch supports on the East St. Louis side, is carried across a space of some sixty feet on immense steel columns, which support great iron girders. About eighty feet from the stone arch the road divides, and begins to descend at the rate of about three feet to the hundred. This divis- ion was rendered essential in order to conduct the railway tracks along at a rate of descent of about one foot to the hundred. About four hundred feet to the eastward of the bridge proper the highways and rail-
road tracks are on a level. But the railways from that point eastward, because of its easier grade, are elevated above the roadways on either side. At Third Street, East St. Louis, the highways are terminated on the level of the street. Where the grade of the railways rises about ten feet above the grade of the carriageways there is a broad level platform, and a double roadway turns westward under the railway and reaches the grade of the street on Second Street. The roadways from this turning platform are continued on to the level of Dike Avenue beyond, about two hun- dred feet. The railways are conducted over Dike Avenue, East St. Louis, on an iron viaduct, at a grade of one foot to the hundred, about three thousand feet, to the east bank of Cahokia Creek, where it at- tains the level of the concentring railways. The railways and the roadways as well turn an easy curve to the northeast when about two hundred and fifty fect east of the stone piers. This approach of itself is a great work splendidly accomplished.
The situation of the bridge and the peculiar topog- raphy of the city made it impossible that the work could be accomplished without rendering the construc- tion of a subterranean approach necessary. . If the bridge had been built on a more elevated plan it would have necessitated the passage of steam-pro- pelled trains across and through the thronged thor- oughfares of a populous city. Had the bridge been located at Biddle or Bates Street it would have been necessary to carry the railways over the streets and on out Cass Avenue, a much-traveled thoroughfare. The height of the bridge above the water is the mini- mum which a due regard for the great navigation in- terests of the river would have permitted. The western landing of the bridge is on one of the highest points of Third Street. The grade brings the highway from the bridge arches down to the level of this street, leaving at that place a depth of fourteen feet in which to commence the underground passageway from the bridge to the Mill Creek valley. It seems as though nature intended that in St. Louis a mighty railway interest should concentrate and be provided with facili- ties for the transaction of business without interfering with intercommunication in the city. In the future, even more than now, will the selection of a location for the bridge, which necessitated a tunnel, bė es- teemed the wisest that could have been made. The great traffic of the railways can go on and the throng- ing myriads of the city's population will rush along undisturbed by the trains that carry the products of a vast continent underneath the ground.
It was early seen that an approach tunnel would have to be built to get trains to the western terminus.
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THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.
of the bridge. Indeed, that followed inevitably the Eads location of the bridge itself. For the construc- tion of the tunnel a company was organized with Dr. William Taussig as president.
After mature consideration a plan was drawn up which involved the building of a double tunnel, and was adopted. A route along Washington Avenue to Seventh Street, with a curve from that point to Eighth and Locust Strects, thence down Eighth Street to Pop- lar, was selected, and arrangements perfected to put the work under contract.
The necessary financial arrangements, surveys, and estimates having been made, the tunnel company, in the autumn of 1872, awarded a contract to Messrs. Skrainka & Co., who, after working several months, threw up the contract, which was then awarded to James Andrews, of Allegheny, Pa. The new con- tractor set about the execution of the task April 16, 1873, with great energy. A large number of laborers were employed, and the work of excavating the great tunnel and building the huge stone walls to support the heavy arches was pushed forward with grcat ra- pidity.
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