April 18, 1905
A passenger train crossed a five-span cantilever truss bridge built to carry train traffic across the Mississippi River between the community of Illmo (now part of Scott City) in Missouri and the village of Thebes, Illinois. This train was the first one to cross the Thebes Bridge, thereby (in the words of the Associated Press) “informally opening the structure to traffic.” This bridge was designed by world-renowned civil engineer Ralph Modjeski (1861-1940).
At the time of its completion, the Thebes Bridge was owned equally by the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad; Illinois Central Railroad; Missouri Pacific Railway; St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway; and St. Louis Southwestern Railway. Those on board the first train to cross the bridge included Frank H. Britton (1850-1916), vice president and general manager of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway. He was accompanied by several other officials of that company.
More than a month later, the Thebes Bridge was officially inaugurated. The Illinois-based Daily Review reported, “The only bridge crossing the Mississippi river between St. Louis and Memphis, attended by ceremonies in which state officials of Illinois and Missouri, and prominent railroad officials, representing the proprietary roads, participated, was formally opened to traffic and dedicated to the uses of five great railroad systems and the business of two great sections of the nation.”
The Thebes Bridge has a total length of 3,959 feet (1,207 meters). It is now owned by the Southern Illinois and Missouri Bridge Company. The attached photo of the bridge was taken in 2012.
Photo Credit: Paul Sableman (https://www.flickr.com/people/53301297@N00) – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
For more information on the Thebes Bridge, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thebes_Bridge
Transportation History 
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