BRIDGE CONTINUES TO SERVE IMPORTANT ROLE

Bridges are indispensable in our modern world. The bridge at Cape Girardeau is so much a part of our life we can not imagine how it would be without it. Regardless of the time of day or the season of the year, it is beautiful to view against a background of sky, clouds, and changing light of day or night. It is a splendid structure, even though it has become too small for the heavy traffic that travels across it continuously between Cape Girardeau County in Missouri and Alexander County in Illinois.

At the time the bridge was completed and dedicated, Sept. 3, 1928, the size was adequate, but neither automobile nor truck traffic was as heavy as it is today.

The Cape Girardeau bridge is a splendid structure of eight steel spans that was authorized by the Cape Bridge Act which was passed by Congress and signed by President Calvin Coolidge, May 4, 1926. That event occurred 10 months after the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce took the initial step to build a bridge and made plans for constructing it on July 17, 1925. Construction work began Feb. 5, 1927.

Until the bridge was completed, ferry boats at Cape Girardeau and Thebes transported people and motor vehicles across the river, and for a while even trains.

Before the bridge was built, residents throughout the area expressed interest in having a bridge across the big river. The Chamber of Commerce, complying with public interest, appointed a bridge committee composed of Charles L. Harrison, chairman; Fred A. Groves, W.J. Kies, James A. Barks, H.H. Haas, C.A. Vandivort, W.F. Bergmann and C.D. Harris. All of the men were influential civic and business leaders.

James A. Barks was mayor of Cape Girardeau; Kies was president of the Chamber of Commerce, succeeded by Fred A. Groves; H.H. Haas was postmaster and W.F. Bergmann was chairman of the Special Road District.

Before a bridge can be considered, the bill for it has to be presented to Congress. After the bill is passed, it is sent to the president to be signed. Congressman Ralph Bailey introduced the Cape Bridge Bill to Congress and it was supported by Congressman Harry Hawes and United States Sen. George H. Williams.

The project received the wholehearted support of Dwight W. Davis, then Secretary of War. The War Department had authority over all major bridge construction.

The firm of Harrington, Howard, & Ash of Kansas City was awarded the construction contract and the firm's consulting engineers designed the plans for the structure. P.V. Pennybacker was the consulting engineer; B.H. Piepmeter was chief engineer, and Frank B. Newman the division engineer with the highway department during the construction period. C.D. Matthews, who was vice-president of the Missouri Highway Commission, was influential in getting the bridge built at Cape Girardeau.

The bridge was supposed to be finished by the spring of 1928 and to be owned by a company created by the Chamber of Commerce for the purpose and called, "The Cape Girardeau Bridge Company."

Everyone throughout the Southeast Missouri area was excited about the prospects of having a bridge across the river at Cape because until it was finished one had to use a ferry or go to St. Louis or south to Memphis to get across the Mississippi.

There are a number of bridges spanning the Mississippi at this time from St. Louis to Memphis. Each bridge has a unique story and no two are alike. Some individuals have made hobbies of collecting the stories, pictures and unusual facts about bridges, and the stories pertain to bridges not only in the United States but to bridges in other countries, where some of the structures are very beautiful and the bridge stories so unusual they seem almost unreal.

The details of the final phase of the Cape Girardeau bridge history will be finished in another chapter.

The traffic bridges from St. Louis south to Memphis include: Chain of Rocks, McKinley, Merchants, Eads, Martin Luther King, (Poplar), I-270, Jefferson Barracks, Chester, Caruthersville, and two at Memphis.

Silhouetted against the sky, each is beautiful with a distinct individuality not to be confused with any other bridge spanning the mighty Mississippi.