had arrived at the town, it had about 10,000
inhabitants. Though already seventy years old, it had not advanced very
far beyond its original state of a French trading-post. With the
introduction of steam and the waking up of the country, the growth of
Saint Louis was rapid. In 1867 it had about 100,000 people. Despite a
commanding situation, it could be seen that a struggle would have to be
made for it to maintain the leadership among the river towns. As early
as 1839 there had been a project for a highway bridge; and we are told
that "the city fathers stood aghast" at an estimated cost of $736,600.
In the following years there were several more abortive schemes for
bridging, one of which, it is even said, would have been carried out,
had not its projector died. Perhaps it is as well that he never lived
to try it, for until Eads no one seems to have realized how enormous
the undertaking was. Probably few others, realizing it, would have
dared to go on.

In the winter of 1865-66 a bill was brought up in Congress to authorize
the bridging of the Mississippi at Saint Louis. Dependence on ferries
had become intolerable to the people, and often when the river was
frozen even the ferries were blocked. A bridge was felt to be
absolutely indispensable. However, the antagonism of rival commercial
routes was so powerful that the bill was allowed to pass only after it
had been so amended that it was supposed to require an impracticability.
It declared that the central span of the contemplated bridge must be no
less than 500 feet long, nor its elevation above the city directrix
less than fifty feet. It was said at the time "that the genius did not
exist in the country capable of erecting such a structure."

Still, a span of over 500 feet had been built in Holland; and the fact
that there was not a total doubt as to the practicability of doing as
well in the Mississippi Valley is shown by the inauguration of two
rival bridge companies about a year after the passage of the bill. One
of these, which was located in Illinois, after calling a convention of
engineers, who considered the question for ten days, without an
examination of Eads's plans, adopted a plan for a truss bridge. The
other, the Saint Louis company, from the first had Eads as its chief
engineer. For another year there was a sharp contest carried on between
these two companies, confined, however, principally to the courts and
the newspapers, until finally the Illinois