A Route to the Past, a Bridge to the Future

A Route to the Past, a Bridge to the Future. Route 66 State Park. Bridges exist to connect people, places and communities. In rare cases, such as with the historic Route 66 Bridge over the Meramec River, they connect past and present and provide a path to the future. , Route 66 State Park is a part of the historic Route 66 corridor, which spans more than 2,400 miles and crosses eight states. Named a federal highway in 1926, Route 66, also known as the "Mother Road," represents America's mobility, independence and spirit of adventure. During their use, Route 66 and the Meramec River Bridge transported millions of Missouri residents and visitors. , The Rise and Fall of Times Beach, Times Beach got its name from the St. Louis Times newspaper and from the beach along the Meramec River where the town was established. In 1926, the same year Route 66 became a federal highway, the St. Louis Times newspaper sold land lots in the resort area of Times Beach to the public for $67.50 with the purchase of a six-month subscription to its paper. The town never quite blossomed into the summer retreat the newspaper advertised that it would become. Instead, it turned into a small, middle-class town of roughly 2,000 people. , After hiring a private company to spray oil to keep down the dust on the town's dirt roads in the early 1970s, Times Beach experienced an environmental crisis. Before the environmental issues were discovered, many of the residents of Times Beach had fled the town in early December of 1982 to escape a massive flood. Most could not return to their homes after the high water had receded, due to the discovery of dioxin in the oil that was sprayed in town. At the end of that December, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) testing revealed extremely high levels of dioxin contamination in Times Beach. In 1983, the EPA agreed to buy out and level the town so it could clean up the soil and debris leftover from demolished buildings. Soil sampling completed by the EPA in 2012 confirmed that the area no longer poses health risks to visitors or workers. , Route 66 initially bypassed the Meramec River and Times Beach. But in 1931, as traffic increased on the burgeoning motorway, a new plan extended Route 66 westward across the river. Construction soon began on the Times Beach Bridge, more commonly known as the Route 66 Meramec River Bridge, which opened in 1932., The historic Meramec River Bridge runs through Route 66 State Park and connects the visitor center to the park's recreational activities. In 2009, the Missouri Department of Transportation closed the bridge, and in 2012, removed the decking. As a result, it is no longer open to vehicle or pedestrian traffic. , Significance of the Route 66 Bridge, The Frazier-Davis Construction Company built the historic Route 66 Bridge from 1931 to 1932. This is the first bridge constructed over the Meramec River for vehicle traffic. The bridge is a Warren deck truss style, made of concrete footings and pilings with a steel structure. The Warren truss is a rare bridge design in Missouri, and only four of these bridges remain standing. It is the state's only three-span rigid deck truss structure. The Warren truss design uses a triangular placement of beams to stiffen and straighten the roadbed. The bridge's diagonal pieces of framework create a series of alternating "V" and "A" shapes. The bridge is 1,009 feet long and consists of three 130-foot truss spans. , Of the four remaining Warren truss bridges in Missouri, only the bridge here at Route 66 State Park is still in need of renovation. This bridge serves as a key feature of the history of Route 66. In 2009, the National Park Service added the bridge to the National Register of Historic Places.