Jefferson Barracks Bridge

The Jefferson Barracks Bridge, officially the Jefferson Barracks Memorial Arch Bridge, is a pair of bridges across the Mississippi River on the south side of St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area. Each bridge is 3,998 feet (1,219 m) long with a 909-foot (277 m) long arch bridge spanning the shipping channel.[2] The northern bridge was built in 1983, and the southern opened in 1992. A delay occurred during the construction of the southern bridge when a crane dropped a section of it into the river and it had to be rebuilt.[3]

Jefferson Barracks Bridge
Jefferson Barracks Bridge during the Great Flood of 1993.
Coordinates	38°29′14″N 90°16′38″W
Carries	6 lanes of I-255 / US 50
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	St. Louis, Missouri and Columbia, Illinois
Official name	Jefferson Barracks Memorial Arch Bridge
Other name(s)	J.B. Bridge
Maintained by	Missouri Department of Transportation
Characteristics
Design	Twin tied arch bridges
Total length	3,998 feet (1,219 m)
Longest span	910 feet (277 m)
Clearance below	88 feet (27 m)
History
Opened	Westbound lanes: September 30, 1983 (September 30, 1983) Eastbound lanes: 1992 (1992)
Statistics
Daily traffic	63,199 (2008)[1]

The original Jefferson Barracks Bridge was a steel truss toll bridge[4] that carried U.S. Route 50. Construction on that bridge began on August 5, 1942, and it opened two years later. A toll was charged until 1959, when the construction bonds were paid off. Prior to the construction of the original bridge, river crossings in this area were made via the Davis Street Ferry in the Carondelet neighborhood of St. Louis.[3]

The current bridge carries traffic for both Interstate 255 (part of the St. Louis beltway) and U.S. Route 50. However, I-255 itself was not built until a few years after the northern bridge opened in 1983.[3]

The names comes from the nearby Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, itself originally part of the large Jefferson Barracks military complex, established in 1826 and decommissioned in 1946.[5]

See also

• List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River

References

1. "2008 District 6 Traffic Volume and Commercial Vehicle Count Map" (PDF). MoDOT. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 April 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
2. "Jefferson Barracks Bridge (Saint Louis/Columbia, 1983)". Structurae. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
3. "Like a Bridge Over Muddy Water". www.stlmag.com. 2013-09-20. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
4. Map of the Missouri State Highway System Archived 2012-09-13 at the Wayback Machine as of January 1, 1953
5. Hamilton, Esley (1990). "Lemay - Inventory of Historic Buildings - Phase 1" (PDF). Missouri Department of Natural Resources. p. 4. Retrieved May 15, 2019.