St. Louis Bridge Company (Eads Bridge)
- In stock
- Backordered, shipping soon
- Guaranteed authentic document
- Orders over $35 ship FREE to U. S. addresses
- Earn rewards points with every order
Product Details
Beautifully engraved antique stock certificate from the St. Louis Bridge Company dating back to the 1870's. This document, which is signed by the company President and Secretary, was a printed by the American Bank Note Company, and measures approximately 11 1/4" (w) by 7 3/4" (h).
This certificate's beautiful vignette features the company's Eads Bridge and the St. Louis waterfront.
Images
You will receive the exact certificate pictured.
Historical Context
Economic interchange grew as the railroads came to and prospered in St. Louis. At first, the river was a hindrance. Trains carrying goods west or materials east had to stop at the rail yards in St. Louis or East St. Louis. Wiggins Ferry Company, who owned a virtual monopoly in St. Louis, carried the rail cars across the river where they were again connected to locomotives for the rest of their journey. It consumed both time and money. James Eads headed the solution: a bridge over the river. With the help of engineers Henry Flad and Charles Pfeifer, Eads supervised the construction of the bridge by Andrew Carnegie's Keystone Bridge Company. The 1,627-foot Eads Bridge was completed in 1874. A 4,880-foot tunnel underneath downtown opened the following year, connecting the bridge to the Mill Creek Valley without disrupting traffic. Smoke from the locomotives made the platform under the new Post Office and Customs House (now the Old Post Office) unusable until Metrolink reopened the tunnel in 1993.
Rail companies didn't use the bridge at first. Railroad operators found they had no licenses to operate in Missouri, and didn't rush to get them. Wiggins Ferry continued to carry train cars across the river, leaving the bridge and tunnel standing idle with a huge debt and little revenue. By April of 1875, Eads Bridge was bankrupt. The St. Louis Bridge Company purchased it at public auction three years later for $2 million, about a third of its original cost, then transferred it in 1880 to interests under the watchful eye of Jay Gould.
Additional Information
Certificates carry no value on any of today's financial indexes and no transfer of ownership is implied. All items offered are collectible in nature only. So, you can frame them, but you can't cash them in!
All of our pieces are original - we do not sell reproductions. If you ever find out that one of our pieces is not authentic, you may return it for a full refund of the purchase price and any associated shipping charges.
