Here. They came on a river boat that caught fire before it reached the war of. The stack fell and sent embers all over the boat and it caught fire and proceeded to sink. They had to come through the mississippi to the last few yards to get here. They lost everything and james eads grew up on and in this river. At a very young age, he had to help provide for his family. James decided at age 16 he would try to work the river. So he got some jobs on river boats where he was a clerk, what they called a mud clerk. He kept the books. He went up and down the river on these boats that were transporting led to other communities all the way up to near wisconsin. He had a lot of experience as a teenager really, knowing what the river was about. At least from the topside and eventually he makes a decision in his life that he can do is advantagesalvage work. There were common occurrences that it would be hit by snags. The river boat pilot cannot see the trees or limbs in the water. The boat will strike those and sink. This happened very often. There was a lot of boiler explosions and he saw these things happening. Sometimes the cargo is very, valuable especially these led boats were possessing a lot of valuable materials that were destined for a marketplace. Those who owned the material wanted it back. He experimented and found his own way to develop what is called a snag boat that would help raise the wrecks from underneath and bring them up from the bed of the river. He also invented what is called a diving bell, which some may know of as a metal object that you can get up inside of, go down in the water and get air supply. He did this with a wooden barrel. He created a space inside of this barrel at with the bottom knocked out. He would sit inside of this thing and reach through holes that had fittings for his arms and he could rake up salvage from the bottom. Looking at this river, you can imagine there is nothing lost by not being able to see out the diving bell because you cant see anything in the muddy water. Youre groping around in the bottom of the river and that is when he learns what the river is in a way that river boat pilots dont know, engineers dont know, people dont know until they feel the shifting sand constantly moving much like the water does. That was an experience he kept with him his entire life and informed his understanding of how this bridge needed to be built. He could not sit on the sand because the river is constantly scouring its new pathway. It is relocating shores and as a child he must have seen efforts to relocate the port of st. Louis because it was constantly sinking in. Nowadays, we have a efforts to keep it in the specific channel. Rivers like the mississippi keep it in their channels. We would have seen relocations of the river unlike what weve seen and we would have seen it from the bottom of the river. It is important to note how essential st. Louis was in the 19th century to the development of the west. Even in the late 1700s, in the late 18th century, st. Louis was the site of the transit of all goods coming out of the wilderness and going down to louisiana and out to europe or other locations in the united states. So this place was really essential buzz of its location on the waterways. The people who are operating the river boat trade, they like the security of keeping the river boat avenue. They did not want a rail bridge to be brought across the mississippi, really at any location but special at st. Louis. St. Louis had been very industrial as before and after the civil war it really picked up. Bucci becamebut chicago maim a much more likely of transit of goods because of the opening of the canal. There is no hills and mountains to climb. People were sending goods through chicago. The big business interests were in investing in the chicago trade. There was something about a cartel against having anything built here. Rail could be put almost anywhere and they were being put across the river in other locations so to put it here would keep the river boat trade viable keep the industry that were developing in st. Louis viable but it took some time for the river boat industry to appreciate that. They did not trust the railway companies. They did not trust the idea that they could get a part of that action. So what is so San Francisco about this bridge is it is the first one in st. Louis, it is now the oldest one on the mississippi. It is built in a way that no one had built a bridge before. It was build from the tubular steel arches. At this time in world history, there is nobody building anything out of reliably form lated steel. He indicated this needs to be carbon steel and be durable and hold up to the pressures and be strong you have to endure the traffic that was flowing over as well as hold itself up. It has to hold itself own weight and the weight of traffic. So he did this with the tubular steel bridges and everyone else is building suspense bridges at the time. He built it on the stone pilings pilings, which is quite deep. It is over 100 feet deep. Nobody had ever built a piling or a footing below grade that far, below the bottom of the river. The bridge was built and opened on july 4, 1874 with general William Sherman who was an important military officer and a resident of st. Louis driving the final spike. One of the things they did on opening day was to walk an elephant across because it was believed that an elephant would not do anything stupid that would walk on a bridge that would fall apart. That was one of the publicity stunltds, i guess, to show that the bridge was safe. Trains drive across the lower deck. It was always intended to be two levels one for the train on the lower level and on the top deck for carriage trade or nowadays automobiles and trucks and bicycles. I think he is a great example of committing yourself to something. He committed not to just the bridge but understanding his world. He knew it he knew the river and the forces of the river, the scouring action at the bottom that can sweep a person off their feet because he was at the bottom of the river. He knew how powerful the river was in flood how mysterious the river was. He had this 19th century scientific mind that is applying reason to things, to his world and trying to understand his world by looking at its parts and seeing how they function together. He was a very modern person in that sense. This bridge is 140 years later the bridge is Still Standing and he said it would serve people as long as they saw fertility. With the train going across, people still see it and he was convinced it would stand as long as we valued it that way. All weekend long American History tv is featuring the history of st. Louis missouri. Hosted by our cable charter parter ins. Cspan visited the many sites exploring the citys history. Learn more about st. Louis this weekend on American History tv. In 2014, st. Louis is celebrating 250 years of the city. They put together an exhibit called 250 in 250. It is 50 people, 50 places, 50 images, 50 moments, and 50 objects. The museums Public Storage shares with us selections from one of the exhibits five selections. We are standing in front of the 50 people selection. This section of the exhibit is