- City:
- Hannibal, IL, MO
- Site Type:
- Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels, Infrastructure and Utilities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Administration (PWA), Public Works Funding
- Started:
- 1934
- Completed:
- 1936
- Designer:
- Sverdrup & Parcel
- Contractors:
- Mt. Vernon Bridge Co., Union Bridge & Construction Co.
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Marked:
- Yes
- Site Survival:
- No Longer Extant
Description
The former Mark Twain Memorial Bridge, spanning the Mississippi River between Hannibal, Missouri and Illinois, was constructed as a Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project. The P.W.A. supplied a $357,000 loan and $169,507 grant for the project, whose total cost was $721,505. Construction occurred between Oct. 1934 and Jul. 1936.
A preserved portion of the old Mark Twain Memorial Bridge remains on the west bank of the Mississippi River in the Cardiff Hill Overlook Park, A plaque exists in some concrete railing preserved in place and notes its Federal Emergency funding and was Project No. 3624. The bridge was formally dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It served traffic from 1936 to 2000 when it was demolished and replaced by a truss bridge to the north to accommodate I-72 traffic.
Bridgehunter.com give additional details:
Opened Sept. 4, 1936; tolls removed Oct. 30, 1940; rehabilitated 1982; replaced and demolished 2000.
Builders:
Mt. Vernon Bridge Co. of Mt. Vernon, Ohio (Superstructure)
Sverdrup & Parcel of St. Louis, Missouri (Designer)
Union Bridge Co. of Buffalo, New York & Athens, Pennsylvania
(Substructure)
Design:
Subdivided Warren continuous through truss
Dimensions:
Length of largest span: 626.8 ft.
Total length: 3,507.0 ft. (0.7 mi.)
Deck width: 23.9 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 14.2 ft.
Source notes
https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMQ6EK
Bridgehunter.com
Record Group 135: Public Works Administration; Projects Control Division; Entry 52: Indices to Non-Federal Projects; Report No. 5: Status of All Completed Non-Federal Allotted Projects, page 138.
Site originally submitted by Douglass Halvorsen on February 15, 2018.
Contribute to this Site
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal site.
Submit More Information or Photographs for this New Deal SiteOne comment on “Mark Twain Memorial Bridge (demolished) – Hannibal MO to IL”
Join the Conversation
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Elizabeth. Davis
I was born in September 1936, and grew up in New Canton, on the Illinois side of the Mark Twain bridge, about 20 miles away. I vividly remember my parents taking about the opening of the bridge. There were fireworks and a huge celebration. It was a great asset to the nearby communities. I remember the WPA and those who worked. It was a great program for the time, and the communities benefited, and the country as well.