One man was killed and another injured in an accident during construction of the Champ Clark Bridge on Sept. 6, 1927.
(Photo courtesy of Betty Allen)
Backers of a Mississippi River bridge at Louisiana were positive when the calendar turned to 1927. Efforts the previous year by Stark Brothers Nurseries executive Lloyd Stark and others had led to federal approval of construction. At the annual Louisiana Chamber of Commerce meeting on Feb. 24, 1927, Stark cited all of the exciting projects that were happening locally, and encouraged diners to keep up their efforts.“Service should be the slogan of every citizen during the coming year,” Stark said.
Ground was broken for Louisiana’s hospital on May 2 and just 25 days later, the first bridge pier was put in place. Regional efforts got a boost on June 10, when the Northeast Missouri Chamber of Commerce was organized with 29 counties. Guess who was elected president? In accepting the honor, Stark pointed out that Northeast Missouri was an economic and transportation hub of America. “If Northeast Missouri will arise from her long sleep, she will reap a rich harvest,” the Louisiana Press-Journal said in its story about the effort. Nature had other ideas.
The most destructive flood in American history hit the Mississippi River, generally affecting people living along the lower part of the river from Southern Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico. But high water delayed work on the Louisiana bridge for about a month. Construction finally resumed in late June. “Barring more high water, which is not anticipated, rapid progress is expected to be made both with the substructure and the superstructure of the bridge from now on,” the Press-Journal assured.
In early July, Stark reported “everything is working smoothly.” On July 16, the Missouri-Illinois Bridge Company contest to name the structure closed. People from 80 towns in 13 states contributed. Entrants sometimes offered multiple suggestions, sent from places as diverse as Franklin, Ca., and Staten Island, N.Y. Names were not revealed, but the contest “created considerable interest among the people of several states of the union,” the Press-Journal observed. Media attention began to mount as construction progressed. The newspaper in Springfield, Ill., did a feature July 31 on the Louisiana bridge, as well as the span being built along the Illinois River at Florence. It predicted greater cooperation between the two states.
Everything was fine until Tuesday, Sept. 6, 1927. At 11:30 a.m., the second span of the bridge collapsed, plunging one worker to his death and injuring another. Thirty-seven-year-old Ed Engle died when temporary supports gave way. An examination showed that he may have drowned, but he also had a broken neck. The body was recovered about an hour later in six feet of water near the first pier. “The accident was due to the fact that the false work which had been constructed between piers one and two gave way under weight of the steel work and the span crashed downward into the river,” the Press-Journal told horrified readers in an edition published the same day. Engle had worked for Wisconsin Bridge & Iron for 12 years, and was living with his wife and their two daughters, 11-year-old Marian and seven-year-old Jane in an apartment on South Sixth Street across from the Louisiana Christian Church. “The little girls had enrolled in the public school here Monday, the family expecting to stay here during the winter,” the Press-Journal said.
A brief funeral was held on the evening of Sept. 6 at Haley’s Mortuary. The wife and daughters left the next morning by train for Wisconsin. The man who was injured, H.C. Boren, jumped from the bridge as it started to collapse and was struck in the left knee by a timber as he swam away. He recovered. Six witnesses testified at a coroner’s inquest. Workers said that just before the collapse, pilings underneath the bridge began to buckle. One worker said the pilings were stronger than necessary, but another said condemned pilings had been used before being replaced. The six-man coroner’s jury could find no conclusive cause and ruled the death an accident.
Stark and other bridge company officials were upset and saddened by the incident, but were determined to press on. Construction resumed on Sept. 8, even as barges and a crane were brought in to remove debris. A couple of weeks later, a man who had earlier worked on the Louisiana project died at a bridge construction site in Cape Girardeau. Newspapers blamed alcoholism for the death of R.J. Armstrong. Thankfully, it would be the last sad news for a long time.
Name announced
Things took a more positive turn on Sept. 27, 1927. The Missouri-Illinois Bridge Company finally issued the results of the naming contest. In 2018, the span is simply known as “The Champ Clark Bridge.” But in 1927, that just wasn’t good enough. Stark and his compatriots announced the modern marvel would be called “The Champ Clark Mississippi River Bridge at Louisiana, Mo., the Gateway to the West.” Mrs. H.L. Banks of Hannibal and C.C. Moore of Vandalia split the $100 prize. Banks had suggested Clark and Moore offered “Gateway to the West.” The bridge company liked both too much to choose just one Banks had also suggested SERVANA, the letters of which stood for Serves A Nation. As it happened, her Champ nomination came in just before that of Clark’s widow, Genevieve.
Fourteen people suggested aviator Charles Lindbergh and five voted for Joe Bowers, the main character in a popular folk song that mentions Pike County, Mo. Others included “Two Pikes” and “Twin Pikes.” There also was the “Abe Lincoln and Mark Twain Bridge.” Mrs. Clark wrote Sept. 29 from her Bowling Green home, Honey Shuck, that she and the family were “touched and pleased beyond speech.” Her daughter, Genevieve Clark Thomson, wrote from New Orleans, where just four years earlier she had run unsuccessfully for a Congressional seat.
“It seems to me that there could be no more fitting memorial to my father than to have a noble span across that sometimes rampageous but always noble stream named after him,” Thomson said. “He loved the Mississippi valley so much and his life and work are so bound up with its history that such a commemoration of his name seems peculiarly suitable. But the thing that really touches us most deeply is this beautiful gesture which gives proof of the fact that he still lives in the hearts of his neighbors…to whom in life he gave such genuine devotion.”
On Oct. 27, an announcement was made that Chicago sculptor Frederick C. Hibbard planned to place a three-foot bust of Clark on a six-foot base along the Missouri approach. That prompted talk of placing a bust of Revolutionary War hero George Rogers Clark on the Illinois side. Neither bust was erected. The general already had gotten a statue in Quincy in 1909. On Nov. 18, 1927, the Press-Journal carried news for which everyone had waited – the bridge would open Feb. 1, 1928.
That didn’t mean the structure was finished. In fact, to that point work had mostly been done from the Missouri side. That changed when the project superintendent asked in December 1927 to start building from the Illinois shore as well.
Media attention ramped up once again, with journalists traveling U.S. 54 across the state to show readers how easy travel was becoming. Some of that may have been attributed to Stark being named to the Missouri State Highway Bond Campaign, which was backing a $75 million bond issue to be put before Missouri voters on Nov. 6, 1928. “Chicago, Springfield and Kansas City motorists are interested in the completion of the Champ Clark Mississippi River Bridge at Louisiana as well as trans-continental tourists,” the Press-Journal reported on Jan. 13, 1928. “The route will be shortened 85 miles, and it will not be necessary to pass through St. Louis and its heavy traffic.” Eastern spans were completed in early March and later that month, the bridge company announced that a formal dedication would take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 9.
“There will be a great array of distinguished and prominent citizens from many parts of the United States,” including governors from “the twelve states through which the state capitol to state capitol highway passes from Sacramento, California, to Washington, D.C.,” the Press-Journal noted. Mrs. Clark and her family were invited, and a steamboat from St. Louis was reserved to bring in passengers. There were even plans to have trains headed to the Republican National Convention in Kansas City make stops. There was just one question: Who was going to coordinate a celebration that would include many activities and thousands of people?
Next article: The big day arrives