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102-673: Eads' great Mississippi River Bridge at St. Louis was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior in 1964 and on October 21, 1974 was listed as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers . It was also awarded a Special Award of Recognition by the American Institute of Steel Construction in 1974 on the 100th anniversary of its entry into service. Eads also designed

204-505: A diving bell , using a 40  US gal (33  imp gal ; 150  L ) wine barrel to retrieve goods sunk in riverboat disasters. He also devised special boats for raising the remains of sunken ships from the river bed. Eads did much of the diving himself because the work was so dangerous. His work gave Eads an intimate knowledge of the river, as he explored its depths from the Gulf of Mexico to Iowa. Because of his detailed knowledge of

306-428: A "test elephant " on a stroll across the new Eads Bridge to prove that it was safe. A big crowd cheered as the elephant from a traveling circus lumbered toward Illinois. Popular belief held that elephants had instincts that would make them avoid setting foot on unsafe structures. Two weeks later, Eads sent 14 locomotives back and forth across the bridge at one time. The opening day celebration on July 4, 1874, featured

408-456: A cantilevered rigging system to close the arches. Masonry piers were built to heights of almost 120 feet (37 m), about the height of a ten-story building. About 78 feet (24 m) of that span was driven through the sandy riverbed until it hit bedrock. Eads implemented a building method that he had observed in Europe, whereby masonry was set atop a metal chamber filled with compressed air. Stone

510-461: A distinguished individual for outstanding achievement in science and technology. Eads is recognized with a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame . In 1927, the deans of America's engineering colleges vote Eads one of the top five engineers of all time, an accolade he shared with Leonardo da Vinci , James Watt , Ferdinand de Lesseps , and Thomas A. Edison . Eads' great Mississippi River Bridge at St. Louis

612-629: A famous image of the city of St. Louis, superseded only by the Gateway Arch , completed in 1965. The highway deck was closed to automobiles from 1991 to 2003, but has been restored and now carries both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. It connects Washington Avenue in St. Louis with Riverpark Drive and East Broadway in East St. Louis. The former railroad deck now carries the St. Louis MetroLink light rail system, connecting Missouri and Illinois stations. The bridge

714-648: A fifteen-car train filled with 500 dignitaries pulled by three locomotives that departed from the St. Louis, Vandalia, and Terre Haute Railroad station in East St. Louis . Locomotives were provided by the Illinois Central Railroad and the Vandalia line (a Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary). The route crossed the Eads Bridge and traveled through the tunnel to Mill Creek Valley and then returned. Locomotive smoke

816-422: A lower deck for rail traffic. Construction involved varied and confusing design elements and pressures. State and federal charters precluded suspension or draw bridges , or wood construction. There were constraints on span size and the height above the water line. The location required reconciling differences in heights - from the low Illinois floodplain of the east bank of the river to the high Missouri cliff on

918-472: A number of engineering feats. It pioneered the large-scale use of steel as a structural material, leading the shift from wrought-iron as the default material for large structures. Its foundations, more than 100 feet below water level, were the deepest underwater constructions at the time. They were installed using pneumatic caissons , a pioneering application of caisson technology in the United States and, at

1020-456: A parade that stretched for 15 miles (24 km) through the streets of St. Louis. The cost of building the bridge was nearly $ 10 million ($ 270 million with inflation ). The Eads Bridge was undercapitalized during construction and burdened with debt. Because of its historic focus on the Mississippi and river trade, St. Louis lacked adequate rail terminal facilities, and the bridge

1122-494: A shot that penetrated the casemate of USS Mound City and exploded her steam drum. The escaping steam killed or scalded almost the entire crew. This chance shot soon led to the abandonment of the expedition. The Western Gunboat Flotilla met the West Gulf Blockading Squadron at Vicksburg , Mississippi on July 1, 1862, where the two fleets attempted unsuccessfully to capture the city with only token support from

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1224-402: A steamboat fire as they landed in St. Louis in 1833. Thomas Eads' business ventures in St. Louis failed, and he abandoned his family and moved upriver. James Eads was largely self-educated ; at the age of 13, he left school to take up work to help support the family. He sold apples on the streets of St. Louis to help support his sisters and mother, who ran a boardinghouse. One of his first jobs

1326-471: A transfer station in East St. Louis to switch trains entering St. Louis from Illinois between steam locomotives and the coke-burning engine used in this tunnel, as the Eads Bridge's railroad deck connects directly to the tunnel. This would have been analogous to the later (1910–1937), well-known Manhattan Transfer station in New Jersey , except there rail passengers switched between the electric trains used in

1428-479: A woman related to him by marriage. Martha's father was Patrick Dillon, a prominent St. Louis businessman. Patrick did not approve of the couple, as he wanted Martha to marry someone with money and influence. In October 1845, James and Martha wed without her father's consent. Martha moved in with Eads' parents in LeClaire, Iowa while Eads stayed behind in St. Louis to set up a glass works. Although their living arrangement

1530-512: Is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River connecting the cities of St. Louis , Missouri , and East St. Louis, Illinois . It is located on the St. Louis riverfront between Laclede's Landing to the north, and the grounds of the Gateway Arch to the south. The bridge is named for its designer and builder, James Buchanan Eads . Work on the bridge began in 1867, and it

1632-671: Is a concern in tunnels, especially passenger tunnels. Specially designed coke-burning “smoke-consuming engines” from the Baldwin Locomotive Works had yet to be ordered. News reports tell of passengers coughing and gasping for breath. Construction of the tunnel was not yet complete. Only one of the two tracks was available and ventilation was not yet arranged. A photograph of the St. Louis Bridge Company's coke-burning engine appears on page 38 of Brown's Baldwin Locomotive Works. The St. Louis Bridge Company almost certainly had

1734-677: Is called Eads Parkway in his honor. Eads Street is a street running parallel to U.S. Route 1/Richmond Highway in Crystal City, Arlington Virginia. In 1920, Eads was added to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans colonnade, located on the grounds of the Bronx Community College in New York. Eads is memorialized at Washington University in St. Louis by James B. Eads Hall, a 19th-century building long associated with science and technology. Eads Hall

1836-713: Is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark . As of April 2014, it carries about 8,100 vehicles daily, down 3,000 since the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge opened in February 2014. The Eads Bridge was built by the Illinois and St. Louis Bridge Company. A subcontractor was the Keystone Bridge Company , founded in 1865 by Andrew Carnegie , which erected

1938-574: The Battle of Fort Henry , February 6, 1862. The boats involved sustained some minor battle damage, but they achieved a complete victory unassisted by the Army. Their success at Fort Henry engendered exaggerated opinions of their effectiveness that were dashed only a week later. At the Battle of Fort Donelson , February 14, 1862, four of the gunboats bombarded the fort and received return fire. All four gunboats were forced out of action by damage they sustained, although

2040-720: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec , which would carry ocean-going ships across the isthmus from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean; this attracted some interest but was never constructed. In 1884 he became the first U.S. citizen awarded the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of the Arts . Although he came from a humble background, Eads' accomplishments throughout his life earned him wealth and renown. He

2142-513: The MacArthur Bridge , previously owned by the City of St Louis. In 1949, the bridge's strength was tested with electromagnetic strain gauges. It was determined that Eads' original estimation of an allowable load of 3,000 pounds per foot (4,500 kg/m) could be raised to 5,000 pounds per foot (7,400 kg/m). According to Carol Ferring Shepley, a professional writer who has written a biography of

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2244-633: The Mississippi River during the American Civil War . They were also sometimes referred to as "Eads gunboats." The labels are applied to seven vessels of uniform design built from the keel up in Carondelet, Missouri shipyards owned by James Buchanan Eads . Eads was a wealthy St. Louis industrialist who risked his fortune in support of the Union. The City-class gunboats were the United States' first ironclad warships . The gunboats produced by Eads formed

2346-526: The Missouri Republican on August 31, 1872. The contract was awarded to William Skrainka and Company. Construction began in October. A series of problems arose including quicksand and springs on the planned route. Also several workers were injured; at least one was killed. On November 29, the city council passed an ordinance changing the tunnel route to Eight Street and transferring the right to build to

2448-585: The New York Tunnel Extension tunnels under the Hudson River ( North River Tunnels ) and thru New York City ( historic Penn Station and East River Tunnels ) and the steam trains then used on the Pennsylvania Railroad main line (now part of Amtrak ’s electrified Northeast Corridor along with the tunnels and present-day Penn Station ), instead of switching engines on the train itself as

2550-572: The Army by bombarding Confederate positions during the abortive assault at Chickasaw Bayou. Also as a part of the Vicksburg campaign, a joint Army-Navy force moved up the Arkansas River and attacked Fort Hindman on January 11, 1863. The Federal victory there was largely due to the destruction of the fort by the gunboats. As efforts to bypass some of the Confederate defenses at Vicksburg, elements of

2652-582: The Army in the better-supported campaign to capture Vicksburg late in 1862. On a scouting mission up the Yazoo River on December 12, 1862, USS Cairo struck two "torpedoes" (now called mines ) and sank, without loss of life. She was the first ship to be sunk by mines in the war. On December 27, 1862, some gunboats feigned an attack on Haynes Bluff, but failed in their purpose of drawing off the Rebel defenses of Vicksburg. On December 28–30, 1862, other gunboats supported

2754-644: The Army. On July 17, 1862, the armored CSS Arkansas encountered USS Carondelet and two other vessels on the Yazoo River . Carondelet was disabled, her steering being shot away, so she grounded. Arkansas then continued onto the Mississippi, where she passed through the rest of the Gunboat Flotilla and the West Gulf Squadron. The gunboats, now part of the Navy's Mississippi River Squadron , cooperated with

2856-533: The Carondelet Marine Ways (today part of St. Louis). This was a logical choice as St. Louis had the dry dock facilities, was a machinery center, and had a ready supply of skilled tradesmen to do the required work. Most importantly, since the gunboats were to be used on the Mississippi River, building them at St. Louis meant that at completion, the boat could be quickly put into service. This was 1861 and

2958-456: The City-class gunboats must be given very good grades, as they combined firepower, protection, and mobility in a manner achieved by few of their contemporaries. Nevertheless, they had certain design flaws that would have had to be corrected in later ships of their general type. Their weakest point was the hull. Not only was the hull easily penetrated, but once breached, there was no way to isolate

3060-548: The Department of the Ohio, with responsibilities that included defense of the Ohio River and the parts of the Mississippi that were not in Confederate control. At about the same time that McClellan received the letter, he also had a naval officer, Commander John Rodgers , added to his staff. Rodgers came with orders to provide the department with gunboats, either by acquiring civilian craft and converting them, or by having them built from

3162-479: The Eads Bridge Rehabilitation project to extend the life of the bridge to at least the year 2091. The restorations included replacing 1.2 million pounds of struts, bracing, and other support steel dating to the 1880s; removing all paint and corrosion from the superstructure; re-painting the superstructure with a rust-inhibiting coating; repairing damaged structure; rebuilding concrete supports; restoring

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3264-561: The Eads' Union Marine Works in Carondelet, Missouri . The next three were built under Eads' contract at the Mound City (Illinois) Marine Railway and Shipyard. Eads' vessels were the first United States ironclads to enter combat. On January 11, 1862 the Eads-built ironclads St. Louis and Essex fought the Confederate gunboats CSS General Polk , CSS Ivy , and CSS Jackson at Lucas Bend, on

3366-514: The MacArthur Bridge during the early years of Amtrak ; the dimensions of modern passenger diesels were incompatible with both the bridge and the adjoining tunnel linking the Union Station trackage with Eads. MetroLink service over the bridge began in 1993. The bridge was closed to automobile traffic between 1991 and 2003, when the city of St. Louis, Missouri, completed a project to restore

3468-418: The Mississippi (the equal of any professional river pilot), his exceptional ability at navigating the most treacherous parts of the river system, and his personal fleet of snag-boats and salvage craft, he was afforded the much prized courtesy title of "Captain" by the rivermen of the Mississippi and was addressed as Captain Eads throughout his life. In 1861, after the outbreak of the American Civil War , Eads

3570-569: The Mississippi River. Subsequently, on February 6, 1862, Eads' ironclads captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River . This was over a month before the combat actions of the ironclads CSS Virginia and USS Monitor during the March 8–9, 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads . During the war, Eads wrote a check to the War Department for $ 1,000 to help homeless Confederates and Union sympathizers. After

3672-641: The Mississippi Squadron completed the encirclement by controlling the rivers. No notable naval actions resulted, but Grant regarded the Navy's contribution as a vital link in the campaign that finally ended on July 4, 1863, with the surrender of the city and its garrison. During the siege of Vicksburg, part of the Mississippi Squadron, including one City-class gunboat, was diverted into the Red River to capture Alexandria, Louisiana, and attack nearby Fort De Russy, May 4–17, 1863. The city fell with no struggle, but

3774-541: The Mississippi Squadron engaged in two operations on minor tributaries of the Yazoo River. First was the Yazoo Pass Expedition , February 6– April 12, 1863, which included one City gunboat. The second, the Steele's Bayou Expedition , March 14–27, 1863, included five. Both expeditions proved futile. The primary reason for the failure was that the vessels were not well adapted to the environment in which they were used. On

3876-430: The Mississippi Squadron, including the five remaining City-class gunboats, took part in the ill-fated Red River campaign , in which they were almost lost because of falling water levels. This was their final significant action. All five surviving gunboats were sold for scrap shortly after the end of the war. The only meaningful evaluation of a warship is by comparison with its contemporaries in function. By this scale,

3978-474: The St. Louis light rail system. At the 1893 Columbian Exposition, Missouri exhibited a model of the bridge made of sugar cane. In 1898 the bridge was featured on the $ 2 Trans-Mississippi Issue of postage stamps . One hundred years later the design was reprinted in a commemorative souvenir sheet . The bridge was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1964, in recognition of its innovations in design, materials, construction methods, and importance in

4080-405: The ability of water moving through a jetty system to cut out the rock and clay on the river bottom. The development of navigable channels at the mouth of the Mississippi River made Eads famous. In 1982, the American Society of Civil Engineers designated the south pass jetties as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark . Eads designed a gigantic railway system intended for construction at

4182-437: The amount of chromium was too low to influence the strength, and the steel in general wouldn't be considered suitable for any structural application in modern times. The completed bridge also relied on significant—and unknown—amounts of wrought iron. Eads argued that the great compressive strength of steel was ideal for use in the upright arch design. His decision resulted from a curious combination of chance and necessity, due to

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4284-424: The armor minimized casualties. Two gunboats were vital in assisting the Army in blocking the escape of the Confederate garrison at the Battle of Island Number Ten , April 7, 1862. By running past the Confederate guns under cover of darkness, they gave the first example of the new tactic of bypassing fixed fortifications. The garrison at Island No. 10 made a point of surrendering to the Gunboat Flotilla. Following

4386-417: The armor was 75 tons (68 tonnes). Pook's initial design called for armor only on the sides abreast the engines; Commander Rodgers, however, extended the plating to cover the forward casemate. The after casemate, hull, and deck not covered by the casemate were left unprotected. An additional 47 tons (43 tonnes) of armor was put on following the battle of Fort Pillow . At the same time, protection against ramming

4488-455: The attack on the fort fell on empty air, as its defenders had fled. Despite the lack of opposition, too much time would have been needed to destroy the fort completely. Once the Mississippi was opened following the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson , naval activity on the river virtually ceased. In this period of relative calm, USS Baron De Kalb (ex- St. Louis ) was sunk in the Yazoo River by two Confederate torpedoes on July 13, 1863. Much of

4590-525: The best features of St. Louis. Economics required that it be a railroad bridge, but there was no space for railroads in the heart of downtown. Hence, a tunnel was authorized to connect the bridge to the Missouri Pacific Railroad to the south (and later to the new Union Station ). Eads worked out the specifications for the tunnel. It was to be a “cut and cover” tunnel 4000 ft long, 30 ft below street level. They advertised for bids in

4692-467: The boats could not return upstream while being subjected to bombardment from enemy shore batteries. Initially, Grant planned to cross his army from the west side of the river to the east at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, just below Vicksburg, where the Rebels had set up a pair of batteries that they styled "forts." City-class gunboats were among the vessels used to bombard the batteries on April 29, 1863. Although

4794-428: The boilers proved to be unsatisfactory. In order to protect them from enemy shot, they had been crowded into shallow holds, causing the engines to work both water and steam. To remedy the problem, the steam drums had to be moved to the top of the boilers. This meant that they were no longer fully protected. After the gunboats were completed but before their crews were filled out, several of them were pushed forward into

4896-523: The brick archways; and upgrading the MetroLink's rails. The total cost was $ 48 million, with $ 27 million coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 . While expected to start in 2009, work did not begin until 2012 due to labor disputes and higher-than-expected cost estimates. Workers completed the project in 2016. City fathers wanted a wagon bridge to the heart of town to highlight

4998-480: The bridge were indicted, but Eads was not. Granite for the bridge came from the Iron County, Missouri , quarry of B. Gratz Brown , Missouri Governor and U.S. Senator, who had helped secure federal financing for the bridge. In April 1875, after the failure of the Illinois and St Louis Bridge Company, the bridge was sold at public auction, for $ 2 million, to a newly incorporated St. Louis Bridge Company controlled by

5100-532: The bridge's designer, Eads Bridge is still considered one of the greatest bridges ever built. The Eads Bridge had long hosted only passenger trains on its rail deck. In the late 20th century, however, passenger traffic had declined because of individual automobile use, and the railroad industry was restructuring. By the 1970s, the Terminal Railroad Association had abandoned its Eads trackage. The bridge had lost all remaining passenger rail traffic to

5202-419: The casemate armor that was carried back along the longer outboard keels provided the paddles a measure of protection from enemy gunfire from forward and abeam but not from astern. Each vessel as completed had a length overall of 175 feet (53 m) and a beam of 51 feet 2 inches (15.60 m). The length to beam ratio thus was a very small 3.4. The casemates had sloping sides, somewhat suggestive of

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5304-418: The characteristics of boats that could operate on the Mississippi, and also how to assemble the industry to build them. Together, they decided that the gunboats should have adequate armor to withstand direct shot from the artillery of the day; speed sufficient to be able to move against the current; shallow draft; and enough guns to present a serious and credible threat to the enemy. Not stated but well understood

5406-642: The core of the United States Army 's Western Gunboat Flotilla , which later was transferred to the US Navy and became the Mississippi River Squadron . Eads gunboats took part in almost every significant action on the upper Mississippi and its tributaries from their first offensive use at the Battle of Fort Henry until the end of the war. In the early days of the Civil War, before it was certain that

5508-461: The damage, such as by watertight compartments. This made them vulnerable to mines ( Cairo and Baron De Kalb ) and to ramming ( Cincinnati and Mound City ). Their armor was inadequate in two respects: both the deck and the stern were uncovered. The lack of deck armor made them vulnerable to plunging fire , which they encountered most famously at the Battle of Fort Donelson. The gaps in the armor left

5610-607: The design in the course of construction, the completion date was not met, and the cost more than doubled. By the end of January 1862, however, all had been delivered to the Army, where they were incorporated into the Western Gunboat Flotilla . The seven gunboats in the class were named for cities on the Mississippi or its tributaries. They were: USS Cairo , Carondelet , Cincinnati , Louisville , Mound City , Pittsburgh , and St. Louis (later renamed USS Baron DeKalb ). The first four Eads gunboats were built at

5712-535: The end of the war he would build more than 30 river ironclads. The last were so hardy that the Navy sent them into service in the Gulf of Mexico , where they supported the successful Federal attack on the Confederate port city of Mobile. All senior officers in the Western Theater, including Grant and Sherman, agreed that Eads and his vessels had been vital to early victory in the West. The first four gunboats were built at

5814-451: The fleet was able to silence the lower battery and reduce the rate of fire of the upper battery, they could not put the latter completely out of action. The operation was therefore considered to be a failure, and Grant had to revise his plans to cross farther downstream. After the Union army under Grant had successfully crossed the river and besieged Vicksburg from the Yazoo to the Mississippi,

5916-476: The flotilla that destroyed a force of eight Confederate rams, sinking or capturing seven of the enemy fleet. The gunboats suffered no damage in what was the most lopsided naval battle of the war. Two City gunboats were among the vessels that accompanied the Army on an expedition into Arkansas along the White River. During the Battle of St. Charles , on June 17, 1862, a Rebel battery at St. Charles, Arkansas, fired

6018-481: The general shape of the best-known Confederate ship of the war, CSS Virginia (ex- USS Merrimack ). When they were finally in the water, their awkward appearance struck the fancy of the farm boys who saw them, and they christened them "Pook's Turtles." The unofficial name stuck. Eads submitted the winning bid for the contract to build seven boats to Pook's design. His bid was $ 89,600 per vessel, and he agreed to complete them by 10 October 1861. Because of changes in

6120-444: The government agreed to pay him $ 8 million. Eads was successful. The jetty system was installed in 1876 and the channel was cleared in February 1877. Journalist Joseph Pulitzer , who had known Eads for five years, invested $ 20,000 in this project. A flood in 1890 brought calls for a similar system for the entire Mississippi Valley. A jetty system would prevent the floods by deepening the main channel. However, there were concerns about

6222-478: The gunboats were severely damaged, and avoided sinking only by grounding themselves in shallows. The gunboats were vindicated less than a month later, when they again met the Confederate rams. Whereas at Plum Point Bend they had entered battle one at a time, this time they were a unified force that was ready for battle. At the First Battle of Memphis on June 6, 1862, four of the City-class gunboats were included in

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6324-649: The highway deck. In 1998, the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center investigated the effects of the ramming of the bridge by the towboat Anne Holly on April 4 of that year. The ramming resulted in the near breakaway of the SS Admiral , a riverboat casino . Implementing several recommended changes reduced the odds of this happening in the future. In 2012, the Bi-State Development Agency/Metro (BSDA/Metro) started

6426-491: The history of large-scale engineering projects. During the bridge's construction, The New York Times called it "The World's Eighth Wonder". On its 100th anniversary, the Times' architectural critic, Ada Louise Huxtable , described it as "among the most beautiful works of man." City-class ironclad The Pook Turtles , or City-class gunboats to use their semi-official name, were war vessels intended for service on

6528-468: The insufficient strength of alternative material choices. The particular physical difficulties of the site stimulated interesting solutions to construction problems. The deep caissons used for pier and abutment construction signaled a new chapter in civil engineering . Piers were sunk almost 100 feet (30 m) below the river's surface. Unable to construct falsework to erect the arches, because they would obstruct river traffic, Eads's engineers devised

6630-574: The jetties of the south pass of the Mississippi River, which were designated as National Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks in 1982. Eads was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana , and named for his mother's cousin, future President of the United States James Buchanan . Eads' father, Thomas C. Eads, pursued a fortune to no avail and the family moved several times. Eads grew up in St. Louis, Missouri . The family lost all of their possessions in

6732-459: The keel up. As the Eads letter meshed with the orders carried by Rodgers, McClellan passed responsibility on to him, ordering him to St. Louis to consult with Eads and see if his ideas were feasible. Rodgers did not like Submarine No. 7, but his negative assessment was overruled by Major General John C. Fremont , who succeeded McClellan when the latter was called to Washington to serve as General-in-Chief. Although Rodgers had opposed Eads's proposal,

6834-418: The newly formed St. Louis Tunnel Railroad Company . In April, Skrainka and Co. decided the project was too difficult. They agreed to complete construction south of Market St. The work north of Market was assigned to James Andrews , the stonemason overseeing construction of the bridge piers. The Eads Bridge was ready to be opened after seven years of construction on July 4, 1874. The celebration included

6936-406: The night of April 16–17, 1863, a large force of gunboats, including four City-class gunboats, ran past the Confederate batteries on the Mississippi River at Vicksburg. Most sustained only superficial damage during the passage. The ultimate aim of this movement was to assist General Ulysses S. Grant 's intended move across the river to attack the defenses from the south. This committed the gunboats, as

7038-410: The old company's creditors. This group was bought-out two years later by the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) . The TRRA owned the bridge until 1989, when the Terminal Railroad transferred the bridge to the Bi-State Regional Transportation Authority and the City of St. Louis, for incorporation into St Louis' MetroLink light rail system. In exchange for Eads Bridge, the TRRA acquired

7140-404: The pilot house. In order to carry the machinery that would drive the great weight forward at speed while maintaining the light draft, the boats had to be made quite broad in relation to their length. Pook's solution was to give the hull three keels , the outboard pair somewhat longer than the one on the centerline. Propulsion was provided by a single paddle wheel at the after end of the center keel;

7242-548: The region. Such a bridge required a radical design solution. The Mississippi River's strong current was almost 12 + 1 ⁄ 2 feet per second (3.8 m/s) and the builders had to battle ice floes in the winter. The ribbed arch had been a known construction technique for centuries. The triple span, tubular metallic arch construction was supported by two shore abutments and two mid-river piers. Four pairs of arches per span (upper and lower) were set eight feet (2.4 m) apart, supporting an upper deck for vehicular traffic and

7344-502: The river steamer New Era into the ironclad Essex . The river ironclads were a vital element in the highly successful Federal offensive into Tennessee, Kentucky and upper Mississippi (February–June, 1862). Eads corresponded frequently with Navy officers of the Western Flotilla, and used their "combat lessons learned" to improve vessels during post-combat repairs, and incorporate improvements into succeeding generations of gunboats. By

7446-403: The river unnavigable for a period of time. Eads solved the problem with a wooden jetty system that narrowed the main outlet of the river, causing the river to speed up and cut its channel deeper, allowing year-round navigation. Eads offered to build the jetties first, and charge the government later. If he was successful, and the jetties caused the river to cut a channel 30 feet deep for 20 years,

7548-469: The same degree. The peculiar three-keel construction and confined paddlewheel created steering problems that are often overlooked. The gunboats could not be backed against the current. These handling characteristics affected their use at the Battles of Island Number Ten and Memphis. The wreck of USS Cairo was located in 1956 and has been recovered. The gunboat and associated artifacts are now displayed in

7650-511: The secession movement had been thwarted in St. Louis, and before it was known that Kentucky would remain in the Union, James B. Eads offered one of his salvage vessels, Submarine No. 7 , to the Federal government for conversion to a warship for service on the western rivers. In a letter he wrote to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles , he pointed out that the catamaran -type hull of his boat

7752-428: The seizure of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri, the next target was Fort Pillow , upstream from Memphis. The mortar bombardment of the fort began on April 14, 1862, and continued until June 4, 1862. The gunboats assisted by protecting the mortars from Confederate counterattacks. One such counterattack, the Battle of Plum Point Bend , May 10, 1862, caught the flotilla unprepared for an assault by Rebel rams . Two of

7854-605: The steel superstructure. The growth of railroads since the Civil War had depressed river shipping trade, and Chicago was fast gaining as the center of commerce in the West. The bridge was envisioned to restore St. Louis' eminence as a center of commerce by connecting railroad and vehicle transportation across the river. Although he had no experience in building bridges, James Eads was chosen as chief engineer. In an attempt to secure their future, steamboat interests successfully lobbied to place restrictions on bridge construction, requiring spans and heights previously unheard of. This

7956-485: The steering cables uncovered, so at Fort Donelson and other encounters, their steering was knocked out rather easily. In common with all other ships of their era, no provision was made for confining escaping steam if the boilers were to suffer battle damage. The most prominent example of the evil consequences of this lack of foresight was the Mound City disaster of 17 June 1862, but other ships suffered similarly, if not to

8058-521: The thinking still was that the war would be short. The three other gunboats were built at the Mound City Marine Railway & Shipyard facilities. Positions were provided for 13 guns. Three gunports faced forward, four were on each side, and two aft. When they were first commissioned, the armament of most vessels of the class consisted of six 32-pounder and three 8-inch Dahlgren smooth bore guns and four 42-pounder army rifles. The exception

8160-479: The time, by far the largest caissons ever built. Its 520-foot center arch was the longest rigid span ever built at the time. The arches were built suspended from temporary wooden towers, sometimes cited as the first use of the " cantilever principle " for a large bridge. These engineering principles were used for later bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge , which began construction in 1870. The Eads Bridge became

8262-421: The two men were able to work together. This was the beginning of their short-lived but productive collaboration. In furtherance of Rodgers' orders, he and Eads drew up a set of requirements for a fleet of armored gunboats that would operate on the Mississippi. Rodgers knew, as his colleague did not, what characteristics would be required for a successful war vessel. Eads' contribution was equally vital, as he knew

8364-400: The war, he held a fair to raise money for the thousands of homeless refugees in St. Louis. Eads designed and built the first road and rail bridge to cross the Mississippi River at St. Louis . The Eads Bridge , constructed from 1867 through 1874, was the first bridge of a significant size with steel as its primary material, and it was the longest arch bridge in the world when completed. Eads

8466-531: The west bank. The bedrock could only be reached by deep drilling, as it was 125 feet (38 m) below water level on the Illinois side and 85 feet (26 m) below on the Missouri side. These pressures resulted in a bridge noted as innovative for precision and accuracy of construction and quality control. This was the first use of structural alloy steel in a major building construction, through use of cast chromium steel components – even though as 1988 tests showed,

8568-477: Was St. Louis (later Baron De Kalb ), which had seven 32-pounders and two 8-inch Dahlgrens. In addition, some carried a single 12-pounder boat howitzer that is not counted as part of the armament. The mix of guns was changed later in the war; as this was done irregularly, refer to the individual ship articles. The casemate armor was 2.5 inches (64 mm) thick, rolled in plates 13 inches (33 cm) wide and 8 to 13 feet (2.4 to 4.0 m) long. Total weight of

8670-472: Was able to provide a substitute. The Navy Department already had under contract a man who had experience in designing river craft, one Samuel M. Pook , working at the time in Cairo, Illinois . Pook designed a vessel, or rather a set of vessels, that drew only six feet (1.8 meters) while carrying 13 guns. Capable of 8 knots (15 km/h), each bore 2.5 inches (64 mm) of armor on the casemates and half that on

8772-499: Was added to the chamber, which caused the caisson to sink. Workers dove into the caisson to shovel sand into a pump that shot it out into the air so the masonry could be sunk into the riverbed. Numerous workers who operated in the Eads Bridge caissons, still among the deepest ever sunk, suffered from " caisson disease " (also known as "the bends" or decompression sickness ). Fifteen workers died, two other workers were permanently disabled, and 77 were severely afflicted. The Eads Bridge

8874-404: Was already divided into several watertight compartments, and therefore could sustain numerous hits by enemy artillery without danger of sinking. As the interior of the country was the responsibility of the Army and not the Navy, Welles passed the letter on to Secretary of War Simon Cameron , who in turn referred it to Major General George B. McClellan for consideration. McClellan was commander of

8976-558: Was apparently the case in St. Louis. In 1875, the bridge and tunnel companies declared bankruptcy. In 1881, Jay Gould got control of the bridge and tunnel companies by threatening to build a competing bridge four miles north of St. Louis. In 1889, Gould was instrumental in the creation of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis . He died in 1892, but this led to the construction of Union Station in 1894. The Eads Bridge and its tunnel are now used by Metrolink ,

9078-545: Was at the Williams & Duhring dry-goods store run by Barrett Williams. Williams allowed the young Eads to spend time in his library, located above the store. In Eads's spare time, he read books on physical science , mechanics , machinery , and civil engineering. When Eads became successful later in life and Williams suffered hardship, Eads reciprocated Williams' generosity by providing money for Williams' comfort in his old age. Around 1842, Eads fell in love with Martha Dillon,

9180-535: Was called to Washington at the prompting of his friend, Attorney General Edward Bates , to consult on the defense of the Mississippi River. Soon afterward, he was contracted to construct the City-class ironclads for the United States Navy , and produced seven such ships within five months: St. Louis , Cairo , Carondelet , Cincinnati , Louisville , Mound City , and Pittsburgh . He also converted

9282-468: Was completed in 1874. The Eads Bridge was the first bridge across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River. Earlier bridges were located north of the Missouri, where the Mississippi is smaller . None of the earlier bridges survived, which means that the Eads Bridge is also the oldest bridge on the river. To accommodate the massive size and strength of the Mississippi River, the Eads Bridge required

9384-478: Was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior in 1964 and on October 21, 1974 was listed as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It was also awarded a Special Award of Recognition by the American Institute of Steel Construction in 1974 on the 100th anniversary of its entry into service. Eads Bridge The Eads Bridge

9486-450: Was given to the hulls by railroad iron at the stems and sterns. The engines were designed by engineer Thomas Merritt. The 22-foot (6.7 m) paddlewheel was driven by two steam engines, mounted at opposite ends of the axle, 90 degrees apart. Five boilers, 36 inches (0.91 m) in diameter and 24 feet (7.3 m) long, gave steam to a cylinder 22 inches (0.56 m) in diameter with a six-foot (1.8 m) stroke. The initial placement of

9588-426: Was ostensibly to maintain sufficient operating room for steamboats beneath the bridge's base for the then foreseeable future. The unproclaimed purpose was to require a bridge so grand and lofty that it was impossible to erect according to conventional building techniques. The steamboat parties planned to prevent any structure from being built, in order to ensure continued dependence on river traffic to sustain commerce in

9690-603: Was poorly planned to coordinate rail access. Although an engineering and aesthetic success, the bridge operations became bankrupt within a year of opening. The railroads boycotted the bridge, resulting in a loss of tolls. The bridge was later sold at auction for 20 cents on the dollar. This sale caused the National Bank of the State of Missouri to fold, which was the largest bank failure in the United States at that time. Eads did not suffer financial consequences. Many involved with financing

9792-459: Was recognized as an innovative and exciting achievement. Eads secured 47 patents during his lifetime, many of which were taken out for parts of the bridge's structure and devices for its construction. President Ulysses S. Grant dedicated the bridge on July 4, 1874, and General William T. Sherman drove the gold spike completing construction. After completion, 14 locomotives crossed the bridge to prove its stability. On June 14, 1874, John Robinson led

9894-643: Was so revered that Scientific American proposed that he run for president of the United States. Eads died while on vacation in Nassau, Bahamas , aged 66. Eads and his second wife, Eunice, had moved to New York four years before his death. However, his funeral took place in St. Louis and he was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri in the family vault. The towns of Eads, Tennessee ; Eads, Colorado ; and Port Eads, Louisiana are named for him. U.S. Route 50 through Lawrenceburg, his hometown,

9996-449: Was supposed to be temporary, the failure of his glass business made it permanent. Eads had many debts to pay off from the failed business and he went back to working in salvage. Martha died in October 1852 of cholera. She did not live to see Eads become successful. Five years after her death, when Eads retired from working on the river, he had amassed a fortune of $ 500,000. Nine years after Martha's death, in 1861, Eads remarried. When he

10098-453: Was the first bridge builder to employ the cantilever method, which allowed steam boat traffic to continue using the river during construction. The bridge is still in use today, carrying both automobile and light rail traffic over the river. The Mississippi in the 100-mile-plus stretch between the port of New Orleans , Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico frequently suffered from silting up of its outlets, stranding ships or making parts of

10200-583: Was the necessity of providing adequate accommodations for the crew, who would likely be forced to fight inside the protective shell of armor in the heat of a Southern summer. To assist in the design of a vessel that would satisfy all of these requirements, Rodgers called for help from John Lenthall , the head of the Navy Department's Bureau of Construction, Equipment, and Repair. Lenthall provided some preliminary plans, but he had to devote most of his attention to ocean-going ships, so he withdrew. Fortunately, he

10302-518: Was the site of Professor Arthur Holly Compton's Nobel Prize–winning experiments in electromagnetic radiation. Today Eads Hall continues to serve Washington University as the site of a number of facilities including the Arts and Sciences Computing Center. Eads Hall was the gift of Captain Eads's daughter Mrs. James Finney How. Each year the Academy of Science of St. Louis awards the James B. Eads Award recognizing

10404-479: Was twenty-two, Eads designed a salvage boat and showed the drawings to two shipbuilders, Calvin Case and William Nelson. Although Eads had no previous experience and no capital for the project, Case and Nelson were impressed with him and the three became partners. At that time, salvaging wrecks from the Mississippi River was nearly impossible because of strong currents. Eads made his initial fortune in salvage by creating

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