Liberty Bridge

The old Liberty Bend Bridge was built circa 1927 and was dismantled in 1973. The road over that bridge was called U.S. 71 Bypass until sometime in the 1960s when it was redisignated as state highway M-291.

Liberty Bend Cutoff, on the Missouri River, was completed in 1949. The cutoff necessitated a new bridge, which was about two miles south of the older bridge. Since it was easier and cheaper to build the new bridge before the cutoff was made, the new bridge was built over dry land. The river channel was cut through underneath it.

The old, original Liberty Bend Bridge continued to carry highway traffic from the bottoms up to the bluff called Arsenal Hill, which is about five miles south of Liberty. It was a narrow bridge by later standards, and I vividly recall the dread I felt as a new driver whenever a truck came from the other direction.

With the river channel now flowing under the new bridge, the old bridge spanned the abandoned channel, which was reduced to a muddy slough. The old bridge also crossed the Wabash Railroad tracks (later Norfolk and Western), and a large auto scrap yard.

Highway M-291 was enlarged to four lanes south of Liberty in the early seventies and a new four viaduct was built alongside the old bridge. It was then that the old bridge was torn down.

M-291 was reduced to two lanes as it approached the new bridge from the north. It wasn't until the 1990s that a second new bridge was built alongside the first new bridge--both structures running side by side over the 1949 river cutoff. When the second new bridge was completed, the first new bridge was completely rehabed. It finally reopened to northbound traffic in 2004, with southbound traffic routed onto the newer span.

Kudos to Mark Frazier for finding and posting a picture of the original Liberty Bridge over the Missouri River prior to the creation of the current Missouri River channel in that area. I had been able to find scant reference to that old bridge on the Internet previously, let alone a picture. It is truly one of the more (if not most) forgotten Missouri River bridges that once existed (due in large part to the fact that the channel was changed such that the location of this old bridge doesn't cross the current river).

Here is a photo of the first bridge from a canoe heading downstream in Aug 2003. We were happy to reach the bridge, it was a long hot pull from Parkville.

From the Corps of Engineers Kansas City District History of the Missouri River Navigation Project "Soundings" published in 1986 -- The cutoff began in 1947. A 10 feet wide by 15 feet channel was cut, with the river expected to erode it to 1,000 feet wide. When completed in 1949, it cutoff 4.7 miles of river channel. The bridge was built before the cuttof began.

I have attached a scan of a postcard I believe is the original bridge to Liberty before the cutoff.

Randy -- I would bet the bridge over nothing, as you described it (sounds like you are describing a mid-to-late-1960's time frame) was the old Missouri River bridge, which by then only crossed the old (likely mostly dried up) river channel. I'd love to see a picture of that old bridge and/or get information on when it was built/torn down. From the location and direction of Old 291 (still around today) to the north of the old channel, it's clear that the old bridge was located immediately to the west of the current 291 twin bridges over the old channel.

I remember as a kid going to my uncles house in Independance crossing the first bridge over nothing and then the one over the Missouri River...I think Im right,I was just a kid then and Im 50 now, but the one was took out sometime ago before the wider twin was built.

From old maps, it looks like the older of these two bridges was built at the time that the "Liberty Bend cutoff" was created (circa 1949). Prior to that time, the Missouri River made a horseshoe bend to the north of these bridges. It also appears that in the 1930's and 1940's there was a bridge that crossed that old "Liberty Bend" channel of the Missouri river (north of the location of the current bridges). Is anything known about that old bridge over the old "Liberty Bend" channel of the Missouri River? I haven't been able to find any information about it except to see it on 1932, 1933, 1934 and 1941 Jackson County maps. It's clearly not around today, as the Highway 291 bridges at that location (i.e. the location of the old channel) are modern-style bridges, probably built no earlier than the 1970's or 1980's.

Hello, If my memory serves me right, the wider and newer Southbound bridge was built and sat for several or many years before being opened to traffic. Are there any facts or information about that? Thanks. John.