page_title: History of St. Louis (1866–1904)
section_title: Railroads, the Eads Bridge and Union Station
hierarchical_section_title: History of St. Louis (1866–1904) / Railroads, the Eads Bridge and Union Station
caption_attribution_description: English: Union Station, St. Louis, Missouri.
context_page_description: The history of St. Louis, Missouri from 1866 to 1904 was marked by rapid growth, and the population of St. Louis increased so that it became the fourth largest city in the United States after New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. It also experienced rapid infrastructure and transportation development and the growth of heavy industry. The period culminated with the 1904 World's Fair and 1904 Summer Olympics, which were concurrently held in St. Louis.
context_section_description: In addition to connecting St. Louis with the west, the railroads began to demand connections with the east across the Mississippi. From 1820 to 1865 a single ferry company in Illinois controlled the majority of traffic across the river, leading to high costs and delays during winter. Plans for a bridge over the river had begun as early as 1839, but were abandoned due to cost. After the Civil War bridges across the Mississippi were completed at Quincy, Illinois and Dubuque, Iowa, linking Chicago to western markets at the expense of St. Louis. State legislators from northern Illinois conspired during the late 1860s to prevent or delay bridge construction originating in East St. Louis, Illinois, in order to cement the position of Chicago as a transit hub. However, in 1867 leading St. Louis bankers and merchants formed a company to bridge the river from the Missouri side.
  The chief engineer for the bridge project was James B. Eads, a self-taught engineer and accomplished diver and salvage ship operator.  During the Civil War Eads aided the Union by designing ironclads. The foot of the St. Louis bridge on the west bank was at the relatively wide Washington Avenue, giving it the advantage of allowing heavy road and rail traffic. Congress had prohibited Eads from building a suspension bridge across the Mississippi due to multiple recent failures, and a truss bridge favored by many bridge builders at the time would require at least five separate spans. Thus, Eads and his German assistants, Henry Flad and Charles Pfeifer, settled on an arch bridge design with three spans.
  Excavations for the bridge piers began in September 1867 and continued through 1871, using the relatively new pneumatic caisson technique. However, the effects of pneumatic caissons were poorly understood, leading to the deaths of 14 workers due to caisson disease, also known as the bends. In March 1870 a doctor was engaged to assist; he recommended a decompression schedule that reduced the problems. In 1871 work began on the superstructure of the bridge, and the upper roadway was completed in April 1874.
  On May 24, 1874, a large crowd of St. Louisans were permitted on the roadway deck, and in June the bridge's weight limits were tested using a coal wagon, a train, and an elephant. On July 2, 1874, fourteen locomotives loaded with coal pulled onto each span, putting to rest concerns about the bridge's safety. Two days later, as part of the city's Independence Day celebrations, the bridge opened with a parade and a crowd in excess of 200,000. Costs for the bridge exceeded estimates, reaching $6.5 million for labor, land, and supplies, which increased to $9 million when including bond interest. A 5,000-foot tunnel connecting the bridge with the St. Louis railroad yards and costs to modify streets were approximately $2 million.
  To accommodate increased rail traffic, a new railroad terminal, Union Depot, was constructed in 1875, but it was not large enough to consolidate all train service in one location. Due to the Panic of 1873, the terminal, the company owning the Eads Bridge, and the company owning the St. Louis tunnel were purchased by Jay Gould in 1886 for $3.5 million. In 1889, Gould formed the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA), which took over operations of the bridge and the train station, and in 1893, the TRRA purchased the Merchants Bridge, a railroad-only bridge built in 1889. The TRRA then began to plan for a new railroad station in St. Louis, which would replace the 1875 structure and consolidate all St. Louis railroad activity.
  The TRRA invited ten architects to submit designs for the station with general requirements as to the size of the building. The design by Theodore Link was approved in July 1891. Construction costs were $6.5 million, and Union Station formally opened on September 1, 1894. Although Chicago, Illinois had a greater volume of traffic at its Union Station, more railroads met at St. Louis than any other city in the United States. Union Station's rail platform expanded in 1930 and operated as the passenger rail termina
caption: Union Station was built in 1894 to consolidate railroad service in St. Louis
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