Bourbeuse Bridge

Just can't pass this one up, it brings back some memories. My family moved to the Moselle area in 1969. The old bridge was in use then. We used to walk down to the bluff visible in the photo at the far end of the bridge and sometimes we would climb to the top. We also dropped a lot of huge rocks off the bridge for the big splash! In 1979 my wife and I moved to Moselle on the west end of town. In December of 1982 there was a massive flood on the Bourbeuse and Meramec rivers. The Meramec river washed all the railroad tracks off the fill from Moselle to the train bridge. The Bourbeuse river took out the old bridge. Based on the high water mark on the bluff I would estimate there was 5 to 10 feet of water over the bridge deck at the height of the flood. The bridge was washed about 200 feet downstream from which point it was cut up and removed by a salvage company. As best I can recall, this was around December 8-15 1982.

Sherry, looking for Moselle history, may be interested in this website:

http://www.hearthstonelegacy.com/franklin.htm

I stand corrected. According to this website

http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/frisco/depots/franklin.cfm

Moselle was on the Frisco RR, not the Mo. Pac.

I've crossed this bridge many times in the '50s when I was a kid. Our family had a cabin on the Bourbeuse R. on the farm of Josie Otten and her daughter and son-in-law, Geo & Julie Hagedorn. One of the highlights of a summer stay at the cabin was the drive into Moselle across the old one-lane wooden deck bridge to get water and supplies. There was an old general store and a public hand-pump well in Moselle. The general store was about the only business left in town in the '50s and I think they closed shortly afterward. Moselle was a train stop on the Mo Pacific RR.

I think the bridge was damaged by a flood in the 60s or 70s and never reopened. It sat there for many years afterward but with no access to it. It was vey close to the mouth of the Bourbeuse where it empties into the Meramec.

Hi,

I was reading your post about the Bourbeuse Bridge and wondered if you know where I can find some history on Moselle, Mo. We may be moving to the area and I was curious about whatever I could find.

Thanks,

Sherry

I do beleave I know where that bridge use to be. I live around this area.

If you drive to the river access just outside Moselle the last right hand turn just before you get to the parking lot you'll see a pile of dirt on the left of the curve blocking an old rd that leads to where the bridge use to cross.

If you take a boat up the Bourbeuse riverfrom the boat ramp. You'll see the old stone piers along each side of the river.

That's the only bridge I know of that crossed the Bourbeuse river in that area.

here's the lat and long 38.398275 -90.894563