STLToday.com

Home > Buy historic photos & newspaper pages
Look Back: Mark Twain Expressway
Date: 9/4/2010 Album ID: 1069068
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Slideshow icon View Slideshow
Pages: 1 2
By Tim O'Neil --- Workers opened the four lanes of their new Missouri River bridge in phases during the first week of September 1958. The bridge replaced a 1904-vintage span downriver that was overwhelmed by 16,000 vehicles daily. It opened the way for migration into St. Charles County and a clear drive across the state. At $8.5 million, the bridge was a key part of the Mark Twain Expressway, later called Interstate 70. The 24-mile, $97 million Mark Twain from downtown into St. Charles was the first spoke in the pinwheel of today’s regional system of superhighways.
Homeward-bound afternoon traffic clogs the westbound lanes of the Interstate 70 bridge over the Missouri River at St. Charles in March 1973. The four-lane bridge, part of the Mark Twain Expressway project from downtown to St. Charles County, was opened in September 1958. Motorists hailed it because they had been stuck with using a 1904-vintage two-lane bridge from St. Charles Rock Road to downtown St. Charles. Back then, the old bridge jammed up with 16,000 vehicles each day. But within a few years, even the new I-70 bridge was being called inadequate for a daily commuter load that had swelled to 60,000 vehicles. By 1973, the state was planning to build a parallel bridge to the one pictured. (Lynn T. Spence/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
The Third Street Highway, officially known as the Interregional Highway, looking north toward the Old Cathedral and the St. Louis Riverfront, shortly before it was opened in October 1955. The $13 million highway ran from a widened Third Street along the future Arch grounds south through the Soulard neighborhood to Gravois Avenue and 12th Street. It was the first expressway designed to take traffic quickly in and out of downtown, but it relied upon feeds to and from downtown streets and only ran two miles. The Missouri Highway Department's grand design called for three new expressways -- Mark Twain to the north toward St. Charles, Daniel Boone to the west using the Oakland Express Highway, and Ozark heading south. Mark Twain was the first to be completed and now is known as Interstate 70. The Daniel Boone is U.S. Highway 40/Interstate 64 and the Ozark is Interstate 55. In 1963, the state dug Third Street below ground along the Arch property to become known as the I-70 depressed lanes, connecting Poplar Street Bridge traffic with I-55 and, eventually, Interstate 44. (Lou Phillips/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
A demolition crane lines up for action along Commission Row, the city's old produce row, at Fourth Street and Delmar Boulevard on Dec. 27, 1955. Demolition of the old wholesale market marked the beginning of work to smash a route for the Mark Twain Expressway through the crowded neighborhoods and business districts of north St. Louis. The existing Produce Row at North Market Street was built to replace this one. (Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Cecil F. Shopen, an auctioneer from Kansas City, sells a a home at 6349 Woodland Avenue, Pine Lawn, that is in the path of the Mark Twain. The home sold for $1,000 on Feb. 15, 1956. This sale was the first of 198 homes from that part of St. Louis County. Some of the bidders wnated homes for salvage, others moved them to new locations. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Construction underway in December 1956 on the downtown connection for the new Mark Twain Expressway to the Third Street Highway, seen in the middle background running past the Old Cathedral. Work in the foreground includes the first piers for the viaduct that will carry the new highway northward, over Washington Avenue at the Eads Bridge and in between today's Edward Jones Dome and Laclede's Landing. (David Gulick/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Work underway on the new bridge over the Missouri River at St. Charles as of February 1957. The view is looking westward into St. Charles County. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
A bulldozer clears land near Wren Avenue and Bircher Boulevard in March 1957 for the Mark Twain route through north St. Louis. (Arthur Witman/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Bridge builders break for lunch in May 1957 high above the Missouri River. The buckets hold rivets, and the hoses are pneumatic lines to power the rivet hammers. (Sam Caldwell/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
The steel superstructure on the new river bridge is almost complete, except for its connection to the St. Charles riverbank (below right) as of August 1957. Workers had poured concrete for parts of the traffic lanes from St. Louis County approaching the main span. (Lester Linck/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Progress on the Mark Twain Expressway, looking eastward from the future interchange with Lucas and Hunt Road as of October 1957. (Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Homes along Queens Avenue, just north of Bircher Boulevard in north St. Louis, that will make way for the Mark Twain. The photo was taken on March 8, 1958, one week before the state highway department was to auction them. (Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
A boat searches for two painters who fell when their scaffold (foreground) collapsed on April 21, 1958. Four painters fell from the bridge, but only two managed to swim to a nearby sandbar. Searchers later found the bodies of John W. Norton, 45, of 3612 Tennessee Avenue; and Chester F. Gregory, 33, of 1906 South Broadway. The men were painting steel below the roadway near the St. Charles bank when a cable supporting their scaffold broke. They fell 60 feet into the river. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
An aerial view of the steel structure of the Mark Twain viaduct, as of August 1958, that would carry the highway north from Washington Avenue. Today, the Edward Jones Dome is just to the right of the unfinished viaduct. At top left are the parking lots on the future Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Ground-breaking for the Arch and environs would be held June 23, 1959. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
A typical traffic jam on St. Charles Rock Road in north St. Louis County, leading to the old bridge at downtown St. Charles. The two-lane bridge, opened in 1904, was overwhelmed by its daily traffic of 16,000 vehicles before the Mark Twain bridge was opened. The old bridge, which last carried Missouri Highway 115 over the Missouri River, was demolished in 1997. (Arthur Witman/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
The new Mark Twain bridge in early September 1958, just after it was opened to traffic. Construction workers opened the four lanes in phases over a week's time to allow for final painting. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Construction underway on the Mark Twain, looking south toward downtown from near Salisbury Street, in April 1959. This stretch of I-70 still runs below street level. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Residential properties that were cleared north of Bircher Boulevard as of March 1960. Grading for the highway hasn't yet begun. The cross street in the background is North Kingshighway. (Lester Linck/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Officials cut the ribbon on July 28, 1961, just east of Union Boulevard to formally open the Mark Twain Expressway from downtown to St. Charles. They are, from left, Aloys P. Kaufmann, president of the metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and a former mayor; Gov. John M. Dalton; Rex M. Whitten, a federal highways administrator; Leo Fisher, chairman of the Missouri Highway Commission; and St. Louis County Supervisor James McNary. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Workers begin digging up the eight-year-old Third Street Highway downtown in December 1963 to make way for Interstate 70's depressed lanes between downtown and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. At right is the Old Cathedral. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Traffic approaching the Interstate 70 bridge (left) snakes through detours on July 13, 1978. At right is the second bridge, then still under construction. The 1958-vintage Mark Twain Bridge made travel to St. Charles County much easier, but fast growth in the county and busy traffic across I-70 soon made even that bridge a crowded place. The second bridge, a $30 million project, was opened on Nov. 27, 1979, to carry eastbound interstate traffic. The original Mark Twain handles the westbound. (Bill Kessler/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Pages: 1 2
MyCapture, Inc. - A Second Street Media, Inc. Solution
© MyCapture, Inc. - A Second Street Media, Inc. Solution All rights reserved.

FAQ | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Order Status