American Experience | Secrets of a Master Builder

James Eads Timeline

1820 - 1864 | 1865 - 1874 | 1875 - 2001

1865	A small bridge company secures a charter from the state of Missouri to build a bridge at St. Louis.
1866	April 18: A subcommittee set up by the St. Louis Merchants Exchange votes unanimously to adopt Eads' proposal for a bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis. Missouri Senator Benjamin Gratz Brown wins congressional authorization for the bridge. August 8: Andrew Humphreys becomes Chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
1867	March 23: At a meeting of stockholders in the bridge company, Eads is nominated Engineer-in-Chief. July: Large drawings of the Eads Bridge go on display at the St. Louis Merchants Exchange. August 21: Eads begins construction of a cofferdam for the west abutment of the St. Louis Bridge. A convention of engineers meets in St. Louis. After meeting for five days, the engineers disapprove of the proposed spans of five hundred feet, and state that it is perilous and futile to set the mid-stream piers on bedrock. December 3: Eight hundred people attend the wedding of Eads' daughter Eliza Ann to Major James F. How, the son of a former mayor.
1868	June 1: Eads publishes his first report on the bridge, much of which has already appeared in the newspapers in May. July 22: Overwhelmed with exhaustion, Eads goes to Europe via New York. He returns to St. Louis in April 1869. October 25: Eads' father, Thomas C. Eads, dies.
1869	October: The first caisson, for the east pier of the St. Louis Bridge, is launched from its own construction site, floated into position and sunk. November 17: The first caisson reaches the sandy bed of the river.
1870	Late January/early February: As a result of sickness among the men working in the caissons, Eads alters their schedule. The men are to stay down for four hours only, then rest for eight hours before going back for another four. February 5: Eads shortens his men's hours for a second time, to three two-hour shifts with rests of two hours in between them. February: The contract for supplying the parts and erecting the superstructure of the bridge is awarded to the Keystone Bridge Company. February 28: The east pier caisson reaches bedrock. March 19: James Riley collapses and dies fifteen minutes later after working for two hours in the caisson. He is the first American to die of the bends. March 31: With more deaths, Eads appoints his family doctor, Alphonse Jaminet, to supervise the treatment of the men working in the caissons. May 9: The west pier caisson is completed.
1871	The book, "Great Fortunes and How They Were Made," devotes a chapter to Eads.
1872	January: Grand Duke Alexis, son of Czar Alexander II of Russia, visits St. Louis and comes to see the St. Louis Bridge. Eads attends the banquet.
1873	Spring: Laborers begin erecting the St. Louis Bridge arches. March: Eads makes a trip to New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi as his interest in jetties is sparked. May 13: At a convention in St. Louis, Eads condemns a proposal to build a canal to bypass sandbars in Louisiana, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. He suggests jetties instead. September 2: An Army Board convenes in St. Louis to hear complaints from steamboat interests about the St. Louis Bridge. The board recommends a canal be built around the bridge. September 17: The first two arch ribs on the St. Louis Bridge are closed. Fall: Eads visits President Ulysses S. Grant and wins his support to overrule Andrew Humphreys, Chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who has ordered that a canal be built around the St. Louis Bridge.
1874	January 15: Addressing the sandbars problem, Humphreys advises Congress to proceed with the construction of a canal at the mouth of the Mississippi River. January 31: All the towers and cables have been removed from the St. Louis Bridge. February 12: Eads arrives in D.C. He promises to build jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi for less than it would cost to build the canal Humphreys has recommended. April 15: The upper road of the St. Louis Bridge is finished. May 23: The St. Louis Bridge opens to foot traffic. June 4: The St. Louis Bridge finally opens to vehicle traffic. June 9: The first railroad train travels across the bridge. The train is too wide for the tunnel on the St. Louis side. It is forced to reverse to the arcaded approach to the bridge. June 14: In a stunt to prove the bridge's soundness, an elephant is led across the wagon deck of the St. Louis Bridge, because it is widely believed that elephants have uncanny instincts and won't cross unsafe structures. July 2: To further demonstrate the bridge's strength, Eads publicly tests the bridge by driving 14 locomotives back and forth over it. At the time, railroad bridge collapses under the weight of just one train were not uncommon. July 4: The St. Louis Bridge officially opens. Three hundred thousand people attend the celebration, a municipal triumph for St. Louis and the harbinger of the town's future prominence in the transport of cargo between east and west. Railroad traffic through St. Louis would become so important to the city that the largest train station in the world at the time, Union Station, would be built in St. Louis just two decades after the dedication of the Eads bridge. July 28: Eads resigns as Chief Engineer of the St. Louis Bridge.

1820 - 1864 | 1865 - 1874 | 1875 - 2001