Meramec River Crossing - Bridge 25.6 - Eureka, MO, MP 27.2 - Rolla Subdivision Here are a few photographs of the bridge where the Frisco crossed the Meramec River at East Eureka, MO. In the photo taken upstream, one can see the parallel Missouri Pacific, now Union Pacific, river crossing in the distance. The concrete piers that support the bridge are built next to cut stone piers, leading me to believe that this part of the line was once double tracked. Photographs by Rich Lawler taken on October 14 and 22, 2006. Edit 2/2/2024: The steel portion of the bridge consists of three 153'-1 1/2" deck riveted trusses and two 73'-0" plate deck trusses. Total length of the steel bridges is 605'-4 1/2". The Frisco crossed the Meramec River seven times in total. On the Rolla Subdivision it cross the river 4 times, on the Salem Branch 2 times and on the St. Louis Subdivision 1 time. Each crossing involves a substantial structure owing the the potential flood stage power of the Meramec. This is 2 of 4 bridges across the river on the Rolla Subdivision. Added bridge detail information, number, mile post and subdivision. MKD
Rich, This line was indeed double tracked all the way to Pacific until the late 1940s I believe. I'm surprised you were not eaten up by Dioxin after taking the photographs from the old Times Beach area. The government said it was dangerous.
Don, Ah--the dangers that I face in order to bring these photographs to this board! Actually, I believe that Times Beach was one of the earliest "Superfund" sites of the early 1980s. After tens of millions of your tax dollars spent to clean up the dioxin, I believe that the federal government has deemed this area to be "safe". It is now called "Route 66 State Park" and you can walk around or ride horses in it. I notice that they don't allow camping though! Thanks for the information about the double tracking. I suspected that it was but didn't know how far it went or when it was pulled up. Rich
I'm so grateful that our government spent those hundreds of millions to clean up what was there and burn all the dirt. I'll have to go into the archives and see when the double track came out. I'm thinking late 1940s. I've been looking at Google Earth and it looks like they ran to the west end of Pacific where the industrial area is now. There used to be several gravel pits out this way and for some reason, I remember a wye at the west end. I ran my first steam engine (4146) when Dad was engineer on the "Pacific Switcher" back in the late 1940s or so. I was in the sixth grade and didn't sleep for a week afterwards. Mom drove me out to Pacific and I got on the engine and rode around all afternoon. Had a ball. Train left Lindenwood late morning/early afternoon with empty hoppers and went to Pacific and switched out all the loads and left empties. Dad hated it, but that's the way the mop flopped.
