The Eads Bridge

Your photographs of the intricate structureof the Eads Bridge are like dissections of the muscles of a behemouth, but they are also a kind of American poetry--of the kind that Route 66 promises to be when it is completed.--George McCue, Architectural Critic, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Quinta Scott's modern photographs highlight the the Eads Bridge's majestic form, intricate details, and relationship to its environment. Through her lens, the reader can see that a structure can indeed be more than the sum of its parts, and that the basic functionality of the design can still be readily discerned despite decades of neglect and decay. --Lance E. Metz, The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology

The Eads Bridge photographs are as comprehensive but artistic a graphic treatment of a major structure as I've ever seen. They could fairly be regarded as definitive, as on par with the best architectural-structural photography I know of."--Robert M. Vogel, Curator, Smithonian Institution

James B. Eads completed his great bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis in 1874. It is a double deck railroad/vehicle bridge. Three steel arches, supported between stone piers, carry traffic across the Mississippi. The trains, now MetroLink, cross on the lower deck where the structure can be seen.

Eads Bridge with Coal Barge

West Approach

East Abutment

Train Deck

Wind Brace

Upper and Lower Rib and Scewback at East Pier

Main Brace and Train Deck Support

Coupling