This is a view of the newly completed bridge at St. Louis, with steamboats in the Mississippi River surrounded by eight stages of bridge construction. The photographs of the different stages were taken in 1874 by R. Benecke and Capt. James B. Eads, the chief engineer is included.

James Buchanan Eads used cantilever supports and a new alloy, steel, to create the longest span arches of any bridge yet built, linking east and west over the turbulent river at St. Louis. In 1879, five years after its completion, Walt Whitman wrote, "I have haunted the river every night lately, where I could get a look at the bridge by moonlight. It is indeed a structure of perfection and beauty unsurpassable, and I never tire of it."

Medium : A chromolithograph print is the mastering source

Created/Published : Comptom & Co. St. Louis, 1874

Housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

Availability: Usually ships in 1 week

Product #: ppmsca08973