A look back at the construction of the Eads Bridge

It happens every time there’s a notable anniversary in St. Louis—and it’s no different with the 150th anniversary of the world-famous Eads Bridge: The myths come out. The story of how James Eads, who never spent a day in engineering school, designed one of the most groundbreaking bridges in history is repeated ad nauseam. In reality, however, he had many engineers helping him. One in particular, Henry Flad—who also designed critical components of St. Louis’ water system and founded the Engineers’ Club—proved to be a critical collaborator. Until that point, the construction of such broad bridge spans required massive temporary supports known as falseworks to hold up the incomplete structures, which would have kept the river channel closed for years. But instead, thanks to Flad’s ingenuity, the builders erected temporary towers on each bridge pier, allowing for the cantilevering of the incomplete bridge spans until they reached each other in the middle—and St. Louis received its iconic bridge.