Rich Dinkela produced this video that takes an in-depth look at the long-closed MacArthur Bridge that connects East St. Louis, Ill., to St. Louis and served as an early alignment of Route 66. The bridge also has been called the St. Louis Municipal Bridge or Free Bridge.
The bridge has been fenced off and part of the roadway deck removed right in the middle for decades. However, Dinkela learned the railroad that owns the bridge is slowly removing all of the road deck. So Dinkela felt urgency to document what was left.
Dinkela interperses the clip with old images and even used a drone for aerial footage. (I predict drones will be used much more in the future to document hard-to-access areas on Route 66.) This footage is unprecedented because the bridge is so difficult to access.
Dinkela has produced a bunch of videos (his channel is here), but this is the best thing he’s done.
(Old postcard image of the MacArthur Bridge by katherine of chicago via Flickr)
Excellent! Very interesting and informative.
Rich’s videos are always fascinating. I rode over this bridge many times when I was a kid, going from southern Illinois to the zoo or Muny or the Highlands amusement park or shopping or whatever. I remember well the red-and-white squares at Ralston-Purina — we were finally there! Thanks to Rich for preserving this record of the old bridge, and thanks to Ron for passing it along.