New Chain of Rocks Bridge

The New Chain of Rocks Bridge is a pair of bridges across the Mississippi River on the north edge of St. Louis, Missouri. It was constructed in 1966 to bypass the Chain of Rocks Bridge immediately to the south. It originally carried traffic for Bypass US 66 and currently carries traffic for Interstate 270. The bridge opened to traffic on September 2, 1966. The original Chain of Rocks Bridge was a narrow bridge with a 22 degree bend midway over the river. Reportedly, two tractor-trailers could not pass each other on that bridge. The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) marks Historic Route 66 over the New Chain of Rocks Bridge (with a "Spur historic route" to the original), but it is only considered a way to make the route continuous. History In 1959, proposals first surfaced of a new bridge just to the north of the existing bridge at Chain of Rocks. One of the major opponents to the proposal was Madison mayor Stephen Maeras, as his city owned the existing Chain of Rocks Bridge that was a toll bridge. The proposed 21 feet above the 1844 high-water mark also brought opponents asking the Corps of Engineers to reject the application. The construction was riddled by various labor and political problems. A death threat to kill a construction supervisor surfaced in July 1965, and by November 1965 the contractor stopped work on the bridge due to the "many troubles". Meanwhile, as the rest of I-270 was open by then, the City of Madison continued to collect toll revenue from the old bridge, averaging $50,000 to $60,000 per month.