Rivers Collide

Two of North America's largest rivers dance and merge just north of St. Louis, Missouri.  The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers are responsible for draining around 2/3 of the water that falls on the continental United States.  This very specific point, which can easily be identified on any map is just north of St. Louis and the subject of today's family field trip.

My oldest daughter when down to the very tip of the land to put her right hand in the Missouri River and her left hand in the Mississippi River.  I told her she can one day stump her children by asking them where on the map can she put both hands in both rivers at the same time?  I remember a similar question my father asked me when he told me he jumped across the Mississippi River.  Of course, looking at the river in St. Louis at the time, I thought he was pulling my leg.  Later, he told me he was fishing in Minnesota at the headwaters.  My daughter will likely have similar fun someday.

One last shot of the river markers and medallion marking the joining of the two mighty rivers.

Chain of Rocks

An old car sits on the deck of the old Chain of Rocks Bridge along Route 66 just north of downtown St. Louis, MO, at sunset.

Built to carry traffic across the Mississippi River and around the downtown bustle of St. Louis, MO, this bridge was the primary crossing along Route 66. A 22 degree bend in the center of the 5,353 foot span posed a continual navigational challenge for automobiles. The bend was originally designed to allow southbound riverboats to align themselves with the current, slide between the bridge’s piers, and avoid the midstream water intake towers that supply St. Louis with fresh water….quite the engineering feat for 1929.

Chain of Rocks earned it’s name from the rocky rapids that made this stretch of the Mississippi River extremely dangerous to travel. A low water dam has since been built to provide adequate depth for river traffic with the rocky shoal only partially visible, today, in low water periods.

The bend in the bridge, however, proved too be too much of an imposition for road traffic, and the bridge was permanently closed in 1967. The bridge feel into disrepair, and also became the location for several murders. Today, though, the Chain of Rocks Bridge is only open to foot and bicycle traffic thanks to the renovation of the area by a national trailway company’s efforts to preserve the site. It now serves as a monument to both modern engineering and The Mother Road, Route 66, and sits on the National Register of Historic Places.
(above text copied from my Flickr posting of the same picture)