Cape Girardeau Bridge

The Cape Girardeau Bridge was a continuous through truss bridge connecting Missouri's Route 34 with Illinois Route 146 across the Mississippi River between Cape Girardeau, Missouri and East Cape Girardeau, Illinois. It was replaced in 2003 with the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge.HistoryOn May 4, 1926, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill approving construction of a Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau. A drive to sell $300,000 in bridge stock began on September 6, 1926, and the drive was completed only four days later after 1,124 people purchased $403,600 worth of the stock. On December 4, 1926 the construction contract was awarded to the American Bridge Company of New York for the superstructure and the U.G.I. Company of Philadelphia for the substructure. The bids totaled about $1.2 million. Construction began in February 1927 and it was completed in September 1928. On September 3, 1928 the bridge was dedicated in a ceremony that was attended by nearly 15,000 people. It was originally a toll bridge.In June 1987, the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department approved design location of a new four-lane Mississippi River bridge to replace the deteriorating Cape Girardeau Bridge. In the final years of the bridge's existence, the safety of the structure was often questioned. Motorists both saw and felt the road deck shifting as they drove across the bridge. Portions of its road deck were worn down to the steel grid below the road deck to the point that the water below could be seen through small holes in the asphalt. Large chunks of rust were falling onto the heads of maintenance workers, and photos circulated in the media showing the deteriorating roadway and a broken steel beam held up by a chain. In addition, inspections in 2002 resulted in the installation of clip angles for extra reinforcement. As the rapid deterioration of the bridge gained greater public attention in 2002 and 2003, traffic over it significantly decreased, resulting in a sharp drop in customers for businesses across the river in East Cape Girardeau.