Old Chain of Rocks Bridge

Construction of the Chain of Rocks Bridge began in 1927 and was completed in 1929 under the supervision of engineer Ralph Modjeski, one of the most respected American bridge engineers of the early 20th century. The bridge was built to carry an existing local road (Riverview Drive) across the Mississippi at the northern edge of St. Louis; the original 1929 design was not specifically built for Route 66, which would not be rerouted across the bridge until 1936.

The signature 22-degree bend at the midpoint of the bridge resulted from a combination of engineering constraints. The eastern half of the river crossing had to clear a water-intake structure operated by the St. Louis water department; the western half had to land on solid bedrock to support the bridge approach. The shortest practical path between these two requirements involved a kink in the alignment — engineers chose to handle the kink with a sharp curve in the middle of the bridge rather than building two separate bridges or a longer curved span. The bend is dramatic — 22 degrees is unusually sharp for a vehicular bridge — and quickly became the bridge's defining visual feature.

The bridge structure itself is a series of steel-truss spans on concrete piers, with the largest spans rising about 60 feet above the river surface. The total length is 5,353 feet (just over a mile). The roadway is 22 feet wide — narrow by modern standards, just enough for two lanes of 1930s-era automobile traffic with minimal shoulders. The narrow roadway and the sharp midpoint bend made the bridge increasingly unsafe for modern vehicles by the 1960s, contributing to the decision to replace it with the I-270 bridge.

Route 66 was originally certified in 1926 and crossed the Mississippi River into St. Louis via the McKinley Bridge about 4 miles south of the Chain of Rocks. The McKinley Bridge routing was problematic — it dropped Route 66 traffic into dense downtown St. Louis street grids that slowed long-distance road travel substantially. By the mid-1930s the federal government and Missouri state highway authorities had begun looking for a better Route 66 alignment that would bypass downtown St. Louis.

The Chain of Rocks Bridge was selected for the new Route 66 routing in 1936. The bridge's location at the north edge of St. Louis allowed Route 66 traffic to enter Missouri without passing through downtown, then connect southwest via St. Charles Rock Road to the broader Route 66 corridor heading toward Pacific, Rolla, and Springfield. The rerouting was operationally successful — Route 66 traffic moved more efficiently through the St. Louis area — and the bridge became the iconic entrance to Missouri's Mother Road.

From 1936 through 1968, the Chain of Rocks Bridge carried millions of Route 66 travelers across the Mississippi. The bridge appeared in road maps, postcards, travel guides, and advertising imagery as the symbolic entrance to Missouri and the Midwest portion of Route 66. Filling stations, motels, and roadside diners clustered around the bridge approaches on both sides; the small commercial strip on the Missouri side became known informally as the Chain of Rocks district. By the late 1960s, however, the bridge's narrow roadway and sharp bend had become genuinely dangerous for the heavier and faster traffic of the modern Interstate era, and Route 66 was rerouted across the new I-270 bridge in 1968.

The Chain of Rocks Bridge was closed to vehicle traffic in 1970, two years after Route 66 was rerouted across the new I-270 crossing. The bridge sat unused through the 1970s and 1980s. Maintenance was minimal; the steel-truss spans began rusting; vegetation grew through the roadway; and the structure faced increasing pressure from municipal officials who wanted to demolish it rather than continue paying for inspections and minimal upkeep. By the mid-1990s, demolition seemed likely.

Local preservation organizations began organizing a save-the-bridge campaign in the mid-1990s. The lead organization was Trailnet, a St. Louis-area greenway advocacy nonprofit that had been building a Mississippi riverfront trail network. Trailnet proposed converting the bridge into a pedestrian and bicycle crossing as the centerpiece of a Missouri-Illinois trail connection. The proposal was supported by both state governments, by St. Louis County, and by Madison County on the Illinois side, and federal Transportation Enhancement Act funding was secured for the restoration project.

Restoration work began in 1998 and the bridge reopened to pedestrian and bicycle traffic in 1999. The restored bridge retains its original 1929 steel-truss structure and the iconic 22-degree midpoint bend; what was once a vehicular roadway is now a 22-foot-wide pedestrian path with railings, interpretive signage, and pedestrian-scale lighting. The bridge connects the Riverfront Trail on the Missouri side with the MCT (Madison County Transit) trails network on the Illinois side, forming part of a 200-mile greenway system across the St. Louis metropolitan area.

The bridge is open daily from 8am until dusk; specific closing times vary seasonally but typically follow sunset by 30 minutes. The bridge is generally closed in winter weather when the deck is icy or unsafe, and during Mississippi River flood conditions when the approach roadways are inundated. Free parking is available at the Missouri-side trailhead off Riverview Drive; the Illinois-side trailhead has its own parking lot off Chouteau Island Road.

Walking the full bridge from one end to the other and back is about a 2-mile round trip and takes approximately 45-60 minutes at a relaxed pace. The full mile-long span is open to walkers; the 22-degree bend is at the midpoint and produces some of the most dramatic photo opportunities (looking back toward whichever end you started from, the bridge appears to disappear into a hard turn). Cyclists share the bridge with pedestrians; the 22-foot-wide deck has more than enough room for both uses.

Best photography times are early morning (the rising sun lights the eastern half of the bridge and the Illinois shore) and late afternoon golden hour (the setting sun lights the western half and the Missouri shore). The Chain of Rocks Bridge faces roughly east-west across the river, which means the sun illumination shifts dramatically across the day. For the iconic photograph of the 22-degree bend, position yourself about a third of the way along the bridge from either end and shoot toward the curve. Bring a wide-angle lens or your phone's wide-angle camera for the full sweep of the bridge structure.

The classic St. Louis Route 66 day combines the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge with the Gateway Arch and Ted Drewes Frozen Custard for a full pre-Route 66 anchor experience. The natural sequence: Gateway Arch tram ride and museum in the morning (3-4 hours), lunch at Pappy's Smokehouse downtown, mid-afternoon drive 15 minutes north to the Chain of Rocks Bridge for a one-hour bridge walk and photography, early evening drive south to Ted Drewes on Chippewa Street for a concrete (frozen custard) before checking into a downtown hotel or continuing west on Route 66 toward Pacific and Cuba.

For a more leisurely two-day plan, dedicate one full day to downtown St. Louis (Arch, Pappy's, City Museum) and the second day to the Route 66 alignment specifically — morning at the Chain of Rocks Bridge, lunch at Crown Candy Kitchen for the city's most authentic 1913-era soda fountain experience, afternoon at Ted Drewes, then drive west on I-44 (the modern alignment closest to historic Route 66) to Pacific (35 miles), Stanton/Meramec Caverns (60 miles), or Cuba (75 miles) for the second night of the trip.

The bridge is also a natural connection point for cyclists exploring the broader St. Louis-area greenway system. Trailnet maintains the Riverfront Trail on the Missouri side and partners with the MCT (Madison County Transit) trails network on the Illinois side; together these networks support several hundred miles of paved off-road cycling. Renting bicycles at one of the downtown St. Louis bike-share stations allows visitors to incorporate the Chain of Rocks Bridge into a 15-25 mile riverfront cycling day.