ST. LOUIS • A century ago, an association of railroad barons owned both bridges over the Mississippi River and charged high rates for anything that crossed by train or wagon.
The toll was known as the "bridge arbitrary," and it raised the cost of food, merchandise and the sooty Illinois coal that St. Louisans burned for heat.
Ordinary citizens deeply resented the arbitrary. In saloons, ward clubs and church halls, the call arose for the city to build a "free bridge" to get around the monopoly.
In June 1906, voters approved a $3.5 million bond issue for a new bridge despite resistance from their patrician mayor, Rolla Wells, a major holder of railroad stocks. On Nov. 23, 1907, Wells vetoed a bill to build the bridge near Chouteau Avenue. Within hours, both chambers of the city's former Municipal Assembly overrode him.
People are also reading…
"I take pleasure in voting to pass this bill over the little rat's head," shouted Assemblyman Francis X. Hussey.
Building the people's bridge, called the Municipal Bridge, never got easier. Work on the stone piers began in December 1909, but the project ran out of money without finishing the land approaches. More debate and public votes finally led to a $6.2 million bridge that was opened in grand ceremony on Jan. 20, 1917. As Mayor Henry W. Kiel opened an oversize padlock, 14-year-old Victor Koch jumped over the chain and scampered toward East St. Louis.
But the big railroads, through their Terminal Rail Road Association, kept to their Eads and Merchants bridges. Voters approved another $4 million to add more rail approaches to the Municipal Bridge. Beginning in 1929, a few switching locomotives shuttled loads across. But the standoff with the TRRA continued until Jan. 15, 1940, when the Pennsylvania Railroad's "Spirit of St. Louis" passenger train chuffed over the bridge to begin regular use. Victor Koch was a guest passenger.
By then, the bridge was no longer free. The city imposed a 10-cent toll for cars in 1932 to raise money for unemployment relief. In March 1942, three months after America entered World War II, aldermen renamed the bridge in honor of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
After the Poplar Street Bridge opened on Nov. 7, 1967, few drivers bothered with the MacArthur. The city eliminated the toll in 1973 because it didn't cover the salaries of toll-gate workers. In August 1981, with roadway and sidewalks crumbling, the city closed it to vehicles for good.
In a fine irony, the TRRA and the city swapped the Eads and MacArthur in 1989 so that MetroLink could use the Eads. Nowadays, the big railroads rumble at all hours across the sturdy monument to populism. It remains one of the busiest railroad bridges in the United States.
The day the 'people's bridge' finally opened across the Mississippi
The crowd on the East St. Louis side on Jan. 20, 1917, awaiting the first traffic from St. Louis to cross the MacArthur Bridge, then called the Municipal Bridge or free bridge.
Winter fog and coal smoke shroud the Municipal Bridge in 1938. Post-Dispatch file photo
Leo Rassieur as a young Union soldier during the Civil War. Born in Germany in 1844, he was 17 when he joined the army. He finished the war as a major. Afterward, he taught school in St. Louis, practiced law and became city probate judge in 1885. In 1900-01, he was national chairman of the Grand Army of the Republic, the main organization of Civil War veterans. Rassieur was a leading proponent of the Municipal Bridge bond issue in 1906. Image courtesy Missouri History Museum
The St. Louis Municipal Bridge as it stood across the Mississippi River in 1912 after money ran out from the original $3.5 million bond issue, which was adopted by St. Louis voters in 1906. Additional bond issues were needed to complete the land approaches for the street deck in 1917. It took much longer to fully link the rail deck to the main lines in East St. Louis. The Municipal was the people's bridge — the product of a populist movement to get around the railroad monopoly controlling the Eads and Merchants bridges. In 1906, they were the only two spanning the Mississippi River at St. Louis. The railroads didn't regularly use the Municipal until 1940. The city renamed it after Gen. Douglas MacArthur in March 1942, three months after America entered World War II. Post-Dispatch file photo
St. Louis Mayor Rolla Wells in 1907. Wells, the son of a banker and streetcar magnate, was elected in 1901. A patrician in his views about government, Wells fervently opposed the populist movement that created the Municipal Bridge. He left office in 1909 after serving two full terms. In 1914, became the first governor of the St. Louis Federal Reserve. Post-Dispatch file photo
Traffic onto the Illinois approach to the Municipal Bridge from 10th Street in East St. Louis in 1935, with work underway to widen the intersection. The two-lane street deck on the bridge was opened in 1917. Post-Dispatch file photo
St. Louis Mayor Bernard Dickmann (center, holding ribbon) leads the dedication of the Municipal Bridge railroad deck on Jan. 15, 1940, the first day of regular railroad service on the 23-year-old bridge. Behind him is the locomotive of the Pennsylvania Railroad's "Spirit of St. Louis" passenger train, which ran to New York City. Moments after the train headed east, its westbound sister train crossed the bridge to Union Station. In 1989, the Terminal Railroad Association took control of the Municipal, by then renamed MacArthur, in a swap that gave St. Louis the Eads Bridge for use by Metrolink. Railroads still give the MacArthur heavy use. Post-Dispatch file photo
Work finally begins in 1931 on the railroad approach from the Municipal Bridge to the main lines in East St. Louis. City voters had approved building the bridge in 1906 as a way around the railroads' control of the Eads and Merchants bridges, the only other local spans across the Mississippi at the time. But the railroads stuck to their own bridges. It took years of supplemental bond issues and legal tussling before the railroads commenced regular use in 1940 — 23 years after cars and trucks began crossing it. Post-Dispatch file photo
St. Louis Mayor Henry Kiel prepares to open an oversized ceremonial padlock on Jan. 20, 1917, to open the street deck of the Municipal Bridge, nicknamed the Free Bridge. Thousands of people paraded across it. The first public vote to build it had been approved overwhelmingly in St. Louis in 1906. Post-Dispatch file photo
The Pennsylvania Railroad's "Spirit of St. Louis" steams through the ribbon to commence regular rail service over the Municipal Bridge on Jan. 20, 1940. Post-Dispatch file photo
The quiet St. Louis riverfront in 1928, long after railroads had greatly reduced river commerce. In the background is the MacArthur Bridge, known then as the Municipal "Free" Bridge. The railroad trestle and commercial buildings later would make way for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Post-Dispatch file photo
The Admiral turns into the current of the Mississippi River after casting off from the levee a few days after its first cruise on June 12, 1940. In the background is the St. Louis Municipal Bridge, renamed the MacArthur Bridge shortly after the United States entered World War II. There is no Poplar Street Bridge, of course. Post-Dispatch file photo
Read more stories from Tim O'Neil's Look Back series.
