Eliot Bridge

Bridffe, Hudson Eliot, manufacturer, was born April 4, 1858, in St. Louis, son of Hudson E. and Helen A. Bridge. His father, of whom extended mention is made in the preceding sketch, was long one of the leading men of affairs in St. Louis, and the son was born to the inheritance of a good name, physical and mental vigor, and the responsibilities which devolve upon those favored by fortune. He passed his boyhood at his father's homestead in (dendale, Missouri, enjoyed the best educational advantages, and while still young completed his academic studies at Washington University, of St. Louis. In 1876 he entered the office of the Bridge-Beach Manufacturing Company, the great manufacturing institution founded by his father, and at once became a factor in directing this enterprise, the elder Bridge having died a year earlier. He has proven himself a worthy successor of a worthy father, and is now president of the corporation which came into existence as the result of the genius and enterprise of Hudson E. Bridge. Sr. As head of one of the great iron industries of the country, he is widely known to those identified with this interest, and his executive ability, sound judgment and correct business methods have won for him their unqualified esteem and admiration. To accunuilate a fortune requires one kind of genius; to retain a fortune already acquired, to add to it its legitimate increment, and to make such use of it that its possessors may derive therefrom the greatest enjoyment, and the public the greatest benefit, requires quite another kind of genius. Mr. Bridge belongs to that younger generation of the business men of St. Louis, called upon to shoulder responsibilities differing materially from those which rested upon their predecessors. In a broader field of enterprise they find themselves obliged to deal with affairs of greater magnittide, and to solve more difficult and complicated financial and economic problems. Mr. Bridge is one of the men who have proven themselves masters of the situation, and worthy successors of the men who laid the fotmdations of our present prosperity, wealth and civilization. He is a director of the Bellefontaine Cemetery Association, of which his father was first president, but with

3tj6 this exception is not officially identified with anv corporation other than the Bridge-Beach Manufacturing Company, preferring to devote such time as he can spare from this interest to various recreative outdoor sports. He has all of the native New Englander's love for an ancestral home, and has a beautiful country residence at Walpole, New Hampshire, which was the birthplace of both his father and mother. The old homestead in which his father lived having been removed, he purchased some years since the ground on which it stood, and has erected thereon a public library building, which has been fitly named "the Bridge Memorial Library." He has a large farm in connection with his New Hampshire country home, and he and his family spend several months of each year there. Although in no sense a politician, Mr. Bridge has long been an influential member of the Republican party. His religious affiliations have been with the Unitarian Church, of which his father was a prominent and useful member. His club coiuiections in St. Louis are with the St. Louis Club, the Noonday Club and the Country Club. February 4, 1885, he married Miss Helen Durkee, daughter of Dwight Durkee, of St. Louis, who was one of the earliest residents and first bankers of that city. A lady of rare social and domestic graces, Mrs. I3ridge is well known also as an artist of very superior attainments, and one of the unique features of the palatial family residence in St. Louis is a perfectly equipped studio, in which she devotes much of her time to painting in water and oil. and to the most artistic china painting. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Bridge have been Helen Bridge, Hudson E. Bridge, Lawrence Durkee Bridge, George Leighton Bridge, John Dwight Bridge, Katherine Bridge ami.Marion Briflgo.

Bridg'cr, Janios, the resident partner of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, friend and associate of General Ashley, Robert Campbell and Captain William Sublette, of St. Louis, and a famous pioneer and explorer, was l)orn in Richmond, Wirginia, in 1804, and died in Jackson Cciunty, Missouri, Julv 17, 1881. When and under what circumstances he came west is not known, but we find him in the lock Mountains as early as 1820, when he was only a lad of sixteen years, being associated with iMlzpatrick. one of the most conspicuous fur traders and mountain characters of that day. In 1832 he became a partner in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and managed its affairs in the mountains. This company had little or no dealings with Indians, securing its supplies of skins and furs from white trappers and hunters only. It maintained a considerable retinue of these, and Bridger, who seems to have cared little for civilized life, and preferred comnninion with mountain, stream and forest, remained in the centre of the trapping region as resident manager of the business. He was held in high respect not only by the trappers, hunters and traders, for his sagacity, courage and hospitality, but by the Indians also for his uprightness. His wife was a member of the Shoshone tribe, and he possessed the confidence of this and other tribes throughout the long period he lived in the mountains. He was an intrepid explorer: he was the first white man to tell of Great Salt Lake; he discovered Bridger Pass; he went over Yellowstone Park a quarter of a century before its name was made known to the world, and he could describe its wonders at a time when his stories appeared so absurd and incredible that they were set down as tables. He built Fort Bridger, in the beautiful valley of Black Fork of Green River, and made it h.is home and the rendezvous for mountainmen and plainsmen.

Bridges at St. Louis. — Two bridges span the Mississippi River at St. Louis, the St. Louis Bridge, commonly known as the Eads Bridge, from its chief engineer, the late Captain James B. Eads, and the St. Louis Alercli;ints' Bridge, with which E. L. Cortliel! and George S. Morrison were connected, the latter as consulting engineer. The Eads Bridge, which was the first bridge erected, is the more interesting, both on account of the Iteauty of the structure and of the boldness of the design, which, at the time when the plans were made, more than a quarter of a century ago, had no precedent. At that time an arch of five hundred feet span was considered impracticable, and when to this was added the necessity of sinking the foundations one hundred feet anil more through water and sand to rock, the ditliculties seemed well-nigh insurmountable.

The St. Louis Bridge is a structure 1,627 ffict long between abutments, and consists of three arches of steel, the center arch being 520 feet in clear span and 55 feet above high water, and the two side arches 502 feet each, and 50 feet above high water. Each of the arches is cured to a radius of 742 feet; the rise of the center arch is 47 feet, and that of either side span is 43 feet 8 inches. The structure carries two roadways, one above the other. The lower roadway carries a double track railway, and on the upper is. a wagonway, 34 feet wide, and two sidewalks, 10 feet wide each, making the total with of the highway 54 feet. The wagonway is laid with two lines of track for electric railway service, and is paved with wooden block pavement. The electric cars were put in operation December 5, 1889, and were the first cars in St. Louis to be operated by electricity in regular service.

From the abutments on either bank of the river the roadways arc carried across the levee, a distance of 240 feet, on an arcaded structure of stone masonry of two tiers of arches, the lower roadway or railway floor being supported on the lower tier consisting of a series of five masonry arches of 27 feet span each; the upper or highway floor is supported on the upper tier which contains 21 arches. The length of the bridge, inchiding the two arcades, is 2,107 ft, and from Third Street, where the tunnel conmiences, to the east end of the east arcade is 3,000 feet.

Each arched span is formed of four ribs, placed parallel with each other, the two inner ribs being 12 feet apart, and each of the two exterior ribs being 16 1-2 feet from the adjacent inner rib. Each rib is formed of two members placed in a vertical plane, the upper member being 12 feet from the lower member. These two members are braced together so as to form a complete rib. The component parts of each member consist of steel tubes, 12 feet long each, and 18 inches in diameter, joined together, end to end, by wrought iron couplings in such manner as to make a continuous arch of steel tubes. The tubes are formed of steel bars placed to fit the interior of a circular envelope of steel plate, like the states of a barrel, but with the envelope forming a continuous hoop. The ends of the tubes are cut on a bevel conforming to the radius of the cure of the arch, and grooves are cut around the tube near each end, which engage in corresponding projections in the interior of the couplings.

The couplings are made in two halves, and are bolted securely to the ends of two contiguous tubes. Through each coupling passes a steel pin to which are attached the main and sway braces, and the post, or suspender, which supports the railway or highway floor. The lower end of each member of each rib abuts against large forgings, called skew backs, set in the masonry of the piers and abutments, and secured to each other and to the masonry by heavy bolts which pass through both.

The history of the St. Louis Bridge would not be complete without a brief statement of the projects which had been suggested previous to the inception of the enterprise.

For many years the necessity of some better means of crossing the river had been apparent to the citizens of St. Louis. Even as early as 1839, when the population of the city was l)ut about 15,000, Mr. Charles Ellet, Jr., of Cincinnati, who built the first suspension bridge in America, over the Niagara River, proposed to span the river with a suspension bridge having a centre span of 1,200 feet and two shore spans of 900 feet each. The estimated cost of this structure was $737,566. The structure was designed for wagon traffic only, as there were no railroads in the West at that time. It was considered, however, that the time was "inauspicious for the commencement of an enterprise involving such an enormous expenditure of money."

In 1855 Mr. Josiah Dent, a well known citizen of St. Louis, organized a company to build a suspension bridge for railway traffic. Major J. W. Bissell, who had been associated with Charles Ellet, Jr., in the construction of the first Niagara bridge was chief engineer. The structure was to have a single span of 1,500 feet and was estimated to cost $1,500,000.

These previous efforts were premature; and it was not until the extension of the railway systems of the country reached the Mississippi that the requirements of traffic became sufficiently great to warrant such an undertaking. Being impressed with the necessity of erecting a "bridge across the Mississippi River at St. Louis for the accommodation of the citizens of Illinois and Missouri, and the great railroad traffic now centering there," the council of the city of St. Louis instructed the city engineer, Mr. Truman J. Homer, in 1865, to prepare plans

IRIDGES AT vST. LOUIS.

and submit estimates of the cost of a suitable bridge. In accordance with these instructions, Mr. Homer submitted a report in which he proposed a tubular bridge of three spans of 500 feet each, similar to the Britannia Bridge, the cost of which was estimated to be $3,320,000.

Nothing came of this latest project, and the only result of so much discussion was a conviction that a suitable bridge would cost a great deal of money.

The first step in the project which finally culminated in the Eads Bridge was taken in 1864. In that year Honorable Norman Cutter drew up a charter, containing the names of such St. Louis men as would be likely to aid the enterprise, and the charter of the St. Louis and Illinois Bridge Company was approved February 5, 1864. The bill granting the supplementary charter in the State of Illinois was not approved until February 15, 1865. Two years were spent in obtaining legislation from the State of Illinois and from Congress, and it was not until May 1, 1867, that the first board of directors was chosen. The board was composed of Charles K. Dickson, James R. Blackman, James B. Eads, Amos Cotting, William Taussig, Barton Bates, Thomas A.Scott, Josiah Fogg and John R. Lionberger. The directors elected Charles K. Dickson, president: Charles Cabot, secretary, and Amos Cotting, treasurer. Mr. James B. Eads, whose only reputation at that time was that of having devised and operated submarine wrecking boats, and of having built six gunboats for river service in the Civil War, was appointed chief engineer. In July of the same year — 1867 — Mr. Eads had developed his plans sufficiently to lay them before the directors. The general features were adopted and Mr. Eads was instructed to commence operations as soon as, in his opinion, it would be to the interest of the company to do so. At the same time an executive and financial committee was appointed, of which Dr. William Taussig was made chairman. This post Dr. Taussig held until the completion of the bridge.

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

March i, 1867, the incorporators met and elected Mr. Boomer, president, and Mr. R. P. Tansey, secretary.

The contest between these companies was a stubborn one, and it finally ended in the Boomer Company selling out to the Eads Conipan\- for $150,000 in cash, and in consolidating the two companies under the name of the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge Company. The new board of directors, which was the first result of the consolidation, was composed of Charles K. Dickson, William Taussig, Gerard B. Allen, William M. McPherson, Barton Bates, John R. Lionberger, of the Eads company; and D. R. Garrison, James Harrison, R. M. Rusick, C. Beckwith, W. R. Morrison and R. P. Tansey, of the Boomer company. But shortly afterward an election was held for a new board to prosecute the work in cordial co-operation with Mr. Eads, and all of the Boomer representatives, except W'. R. Morrison, were dropped out. their places being filled by Amos Cotting, James B. Eads, Josiah Fogg and Daniel Gillespie.

By the consolidation of the two companies, which took place March 5, 1868. and the final change in the board of directors, by which greater harmony was secured, all opposition was swept away, and Mr. Eads, backed morally and financially by his personal friends, saw the way clear to the accomplishment of the supreme object in his life. It is remarkable that, while the rival company had in its employ six of the most prominent engineers in bridge and foundation work in the country, and the Eads Company not only had no prominent bridge engineer in its service but its chief engineer was unknown as an engineer, Mr. Eads should have been able to inspire such confidence in his plans and in himself as to win and maintain, through the most trying vicissitudes, the support of his company and of the capitalists of this country and Europe. The Eads Bridge, for by that name it is best known, is a noble monument, not only in its beauty and grace, but in its engineering features, to the genius of the man. Mr. Eads had able assistants in Colonel Henry Flad and Mr. Charles Pfeiffer, the former of whom was at the time of his appointment a member of the board of water commissioners of St. Louis; the latter was chiefly engaged in the mathematical and theoretical investigations.

As printed in Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference (1901). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.