Cape Girardeau Downtown and Riverfront Archives

July 23, 2010November 3, 2011

Cape Mississippi River Bridge RIP (Rest in Pieces)

The old Cape Mississippi River Traffic Bridge was an adolescent adrenaline rush, a white-knuckled journey of fear and angst; it was an inconvenience, it was the site of personal and family tragedy. It also opened up Cape Girardeau to Illinois and points east when it became the first bridge across the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Memphis.

It was a part of our lives, indicated by the number and variety of the comments left on yesterday’s post about a crash on the bridge. The span, which was 4,744 feet, 4 inches long, opened to traffic August 22, 1928. A contractor used explosives to drop the bridge into the Mississippi August 3, 2004.

The approach to nowhere

The steelwork has all been removed, but they were still working on removing the bridge piers when I shot this photo from the Illinois side of the river in October of 2004.

Piers the last to go

The massive piers that held the bridge up were the last parts to be demolished. This photo shows the flood gates that are closed, blocking north and south rail traffic when the river gets high. I prowled around under the bridge here and picked up a few souvenir pieces of steel. The Missourian said 160,000 rivets were used in building the bridge.

Missouri approach turned into scenic viewing area

The decorative archway over the Cape approach to the bridge has been preserved and a portion of the span has been turned into an attractive viewing area. I wish that the whole bridge could have been preserved for bicycles and pedestrians like the Chain of Rocks Bridge north of St. Louis, but the Coast Guard considered having two bridges that close together to be a navigation hazard.

Mississippi River Traffic Bridge Photo Gallery

Here is a collection of photos taken of the bridge’s last days in the fall of 2004. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

July 12, 2010

Mapping Main Street (Cape)

My friends at Old Town Cape posted a note on their Facebook Fanpage: Hey fans do you have any cool pics on Main Street? Add them to this national documentary site, and help us represent Cape Girardeau!

The site is Mapping Main Street. “When politicians and the media mention Main Street, they evoke one people and only one place. But there are over 10,466 streets named Main in the United States.” The project’s goal is to get photos or video of all of those streets to create a composite of the Main Street that WE live on.

Cape Girardeau’s Main Street

When I was in Cape in October, I walked Main St. shooting photos of whatever caught my eye. I’ve published some of them, and I was holding onto others until I do some research. I’m tossing up these random images for your consideration. Which, if any, of these shots make YOU remember Main Street? If I get enough response, I may send your choices in to Mapping Main Street.

Click on any photo to make it bigger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.

Earlier photos of Main Street

I’ve done quite a few pages featuring Main Street buildings and activities. Here are a few links:

June 16, 2010September 26, 2021

St. Charles Hotel: General Grant Slept Here

I shot this photo of birds flying around inside the St. Charles Hotel on March 11, 1967, and it ran on the front page of The Missourian on March 13. It had been sold Dec. 16, 1965, and was in the process of being razed when I took the picture. The roof had been removed and the interior was being gutted.

Gen. Grant slept here

Gen. U.S. Grant was registered in Room 5 for 50 days during the Civil War. Carrie Nation, of axe-wielding, saloon-busting fame, was a guest in 1907.

The building was completed in January of 1861. It was THE place to stay at the time. It was four stories tall, had verandas, an observatory, views of the river and large ventilated rooms.

The rooms had electric fans, according to this sign taken between Cape and Jackson April 13, 1967. Of course, by this time, the roof was off and ventilation was plentiful. I wonder what the $1.50 room looked like.

I stayed in an old hotel with spacious rooms in Piedmont for $2 a night during that era, so it’s possible that you COULD get a room that cheaply. The bathroom was down the hall, but it WAS inside.

The Missourian carried a notice of sale July 23, 1965. In it, it mentioned that the hotel building was four stories tall, had 70 feet of frontage, 50 rooms to rent and three tenants on the first floor (with written leases expiring at different times).

St. Charles Drug Store

The St. Charles Drug Store must have been one of the tenants, because a story on Jan. 18, 1967, said that the store was moving to the southwest corner of Broadway and Main St., to the building formerly occupied by the Singer Company. The move was going to require extensive renovations to the ground and second floors of the property.

Here’s a 2009 photo of the corner of the property where the Singer Company / St. Charles Drugstore was located.

Sterling’s replaced St. Charles Hotel

I shot this photo of the Sterling Store in January 1968. It must have been a cold day, because there is snow on the car parked in front of the store.

When I was home the last couple of times, I walked all of Main St., Broadway and Water St. shooting landmark buildings. The Sterling store must have been non-memorable enough that I didn’t waste any electrons on it.

Links to other photos

The Singer Company building and the St. Charles show up in the backgrounds of earlier stories I’ve posted.

[Editor’s note: things will be a bit slow here for a couple of days. I’m loading up the van to head back to Cape for the reunion, so I may not be posting until I get set up at my Mother’s house again. Hope to see a bunch of you there.]

May 10, 2010

Serendipity in Old Town Cape

I was walking down Main St. in October shooting mug shots of store fronts. Some of the buildings had neat patterns of light and shadow. Others had some nice reflections. Others were just there.

I shot 10 frames of this building or parts of it. None of them were particularly inspiring. Just record shots in case it burned down next week.

What’s that in the window?

It wasn’t until I looked at the photos on a large screen that I saw the cat in the window. Here’s a slightly tighter crop of the same photo. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

He / She was in the frame taken at 15:50:18 and was gone in the next frame at 15:50:25. I would love to lie and say I saw the feline and managed to capture the decisive moment, but shooting it was pure, dumb luck.

Serendipity made the photo, not the photographer.