McKinley Bridge

Here's one, Kevin

http://www.leclairerail.com/IMAGES2itc/089-11mckinleybridge.jpg

I remember seeing photos of the McKinley Bridge during its last days of rail service-in the late 70s showing a single track and a shared lane with cars and trains. Lost the site, anyone have more photos or info?

Yes,taking the eastbound Salisbury exit will put you on the bridge to Illinois.

Will taking Salisbury eastbound get me on the bridge (from Mo)? All the current mapping sites still have it closed and I can't tell which road you take to get on the bridge.

McKinley Bridge fully reopens, today, December 17 to all vehicles at 3 PM.

I plan on using the bike lane and so do the thousands of others who are riding on the trails around the area.

Why do they feel the need for a pedestrian/bicycle lane? I really doubt that many people cross that bridge without a car. I crossed McKinley Bridge daily until it closed in Oct. 2001. It was a four-lane bridge and was HEAVILY traveled. Now that it is only a 2-lane bridge, will it be sufficient for rush-hour traffic?

It's great that the bridge is being rebuilt, especially in the light of the projected -up -to one Billion dollar price tag of a new bridge.

It's just too bad that the McKinley doesn't go anywhere worthwhile, especially heading East.

BY JAYNE MATTHEWS

News-Democrat

VENICE --

As politicians continue to debate the need for a new bridge across the Mississippi River -- and how to pay for it -- a new-old bridge is quietly set to reopen.

The McKinley Bridge, which links North St. Louis to Venice, has been undergoing a $46 million restructuring project and is scheduled to open again Nov. 10.

Full story: http://www.bnd.com/news/local/story/129568.html

McKinley Bridge Structure Reconstruction Project

The project is 72% complete and the estimated completion date is Fall 2007.

I don't have much to say about the bridge, but you have to think this bridge has beed through alot and has seen may years of use and disrepair,and I think this bridge is so cool, because it was a railroad and converted too car bridge, I think it would be cool to have this bridge opened again, even though they are talking about building a brand new span over the mississippi, and they need to save the McKinley Bridge.

I also remember ocasionally crossing over the bridge in the mid and late 90's when I had to go from Alton to the Missouri-Illinois Blood Region building at 4050 Lindell and wanted a "short-cut." A couple of times, the automatic coin collectors were jammed and the hoppers were overflowing with change. Then, you would go up on the bridge itself, encountering many of the conditions the previous person commenting has described. Once you got up on the main spans, it wasn't so bad. However, the approaches on the Missouri side were the worst. Apparently the foundations had settled, and the joints (which were like serrated knife blades) were pointed up at a 45 degree angle in some spots. They acted like those like those barriers that they have on parking lots to keep people from leaving without paying. I remember coming to almost a complete stop to avoid damaging my tires while at the same time looking in my rearview mirror to see someone coming at me from the rear at a high rate of speed. Glad to see that the bridge is going to be put back into commission as I believe it is really going to be needed since we don't when (or if) the new interstate bridge is going to be built.

The old McK...was always troubled by the poor motoring access. Many days cars actually drove right off this bridge, failing to make the eastern turn and going off the RR tracks to a 100' fall. On the western side, the bedway narrowed such that, at best, it was merely 1.5 car path later in the 60s to be revised to almost a serious 2 car route. Many accidents due to those two problems. The failure of the State of Illinois to actually complete the Il Rt 3 access onto the brige (not done to this day) eventually killed the old bridge off. However, it was a thrill to ride it, watch through the holes in the concrete to the river below and wonder about making it all the way to the other side! If you went down the more secure middle, you might actually run into a train coming the other way and as a consequence, people learned that if you went down the middle, following the RR tracks, you floored the gas peddle. Until the mid-60s, you could ride the streetcars over the bridge as any kid did back then. The motormen would also floor the streetcars around the tracks and sort of squeal the rails to the point you also wondered if the streetcars were going to stay on the bridge! Lastly, the McK was the last sighting of the Little Green Man, a ghoslty figure said to fly off the bridge into the night during the '50s and '60s when cars or RR personnel approached. Lovers would park in their cars beneath the old bridge on the Venice side for decades.