The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-06-21

rivers vast valley. Already large
part of all the exchange between the
north and south, the east and west
went through her gates and the day
seemed near when she practically
would handle it all. Every day she
grew richer and there seemed nothing
to prevent her remaining empress of
the west.
THE RIVALS IN 1880.
Great rivers like the Missouri, the
Ohio, the Illinois met the Mississippi
| almost at her walls Post roads, rail
| roads, steamers, everything which ran
westward took her in en- route or made
her an objective point. That this could
ever be otherwise st. Louis had never
surmised. Was she not the favorite
of the father of waters and did she
not hold the commerce of the west in
her hands? So confident was she that
she even applauded the brilliant debut
| of young Chicago-a city twenty-four
| years her junior (St. Louis was incor-
porated as town in 1909; Chicago in
1889 and she felt no fear when she saw
that the population of the newcomer
was growing at a phenomenal rate
| est. Louis in 1850 had a population of
1850; Chicago, 1863.
1t seemed to st. Louis that a large
city at the south of Lake Michigan
was bound to grow up as kind of
| halfway house on the route between
! her and the east. Already there were
lines of steamers between Buffalo and
Chicago. When the Illinois and Michi-
gan canal was finished so that the
Illinois river could be utilized this lake
town would be a species of lake port
for st. Louis, as the Piraeus once was
for Athens and Ostia for Rome; as
for, 1-iS
THE RIGHT TO BRIDGE A WATER
WAY.
That the new city was to be more
than her brilliant waiting maid she
did not discover until suddenly in 1854
Chicago in diregard for all presidents,
struck westward with a line of rail
road which did not centre in St. Louis.
This road, the Rock Island, ran di-
rectly to the Mississippi and when it
got there instead of stopping and TAX
ing a boat over as had been the Gus
tom, it actually built a railroad bridge
over. Chicago not only built this
bridge over the Mississippi, she made
it pay. Over $4,000 freight cars and
nearly $4,000 passengers passed over the
bridge the first year The excitement
caused on the river by this bridge
was intense. 1t was an insult to the
ldLHer OI waters himself, the river
men declared, to go vaulting over his
dignified old back as if commerce were
nothing but a game of leap frog and
the one over first was the best fellow.
The river was made to float on, not
to jump over. st. Louis, conscious
that her own commercial supremacy
would be shaken if the bridge sue
ceeded began to question the right of
bridging the river. 1t could not be
j
ton
A TEST CASE.
Fortunately for her argument there
happened just then an accident which
seemed to prove her theory. In May,
1856, a steamboat, the Eff1e Alton,
struck one of the piers of the bridge,
was wrecked and burned. The flames
spread to the bridge, one pier of which
was destroyed. Immediately the own
erS of the steamer brought suit against
the railroad company. The trial did
not come off for over a year but in the
interval the affair was discussed con-
stantly in the newspapers and by the
people. The anti-Nebraska bill itself
hardly equalled in interest the burning
Of the Effie Alton. 1t was not a mere
matter of damages and repairs. Upon
the decision of the case hung the flu
! ture Of two cities. If the bridge re-
manned st. Louis must resign her
throne to Chicago. If it went down
Chicago certainly would not mount the
throne without hard struggling. The
, contest grew more and more bitter as
the months went on, until in st. Louis
the idea of putting a bridge over the
Mississippi came to be regarded as a
monstrous violation of self evident
rights, a crime against nature, a thing
to be forbidden by the constitution In
Chicago in the meantime public senti-
. ment was beng educated to believe
that the chamber of commerce of ST
Louis and river people in general were
unprincipled bandits who burned
bridges if they nterfered with theil
, plans and who might be guilty of any
kind of destruction or violence if they
,, could make money by it.
: WAS IT AN ACCIDENT?
! The sentiment of the friends of the
bridge is well shown by the following
extract from the letter of a correspon
dent at Rock Island, written to a Chi
: cago paper two days after the bridge
disaster Some do not conceal theil
suspicious" said he, that this was
but the denouement of a well laid plan
they would not wonder if parties in st
Louis stood ready to foot the bill for al