Missouri/Illinois Roads - US 66 - MacArthur Bridge

MacArthur Bridge, former US 66



Looking east from 7th St. in St. Louis, the road used to S-curve onto the bridge way up there, but now most of the deck has been removed, leaving just the approach. This is the second bridge used by US 66, after the still-open McKinley Bridge, but this one closed because St. Louis didn't want to keep maintaining the road deck over the railroad once more bridges opened across the Mississippi.


US 66 and the railroad got separate but similar crossings over Broadway. This is the onramp from 7th Ave. NB to US 66 EB; US 66 crossed 7th Ave., but then curved left to a T at Chouteau Ave. (MO 100) with loop ramps to serve 7th Ave. SB.


I returned in 2014 and snuck up that onramp as far as I could. The old US 66 deck was in the process of being removed then, so all of this is gone leaving just the railroad bridge.


Panning from east to west, the best I can do from here.


The next best thing to driving on the bridge is driving next to it, and there's a little alleyway to 6th St. that conveniently parallels the EB onramp. The 6th St. overpass looks really funky with those beams sticking out, but those were just to support the now-removed sidewalk that continued from the onramp across the bridge.


Crossing under on 6th St., there's another convenient driveway to take me back past the US 66 WB offramp. The sidewalk's intact on this side until 7th St., so nothing's jutting out obnoxiously.


The WB ramp, in terrible disrepair. I'm surprised St. Louis or Missouri hasn't decided it's worth it to demolish this eyesore, but I'm not complaining.


I accidentally caught part of the railroad bridge approach over 7th Ave. just to the north. Hey, it's related.


One last look at the abutment on the east side of 7th St. as I head back to the first photo and start over again.


Over to East St. Louis, where I recommend that if you want a photo of this, the eastern stub of the bridge approach, you keep your car moving forward at all times. I ran stop signs, pulled a slow Uey while grabbing these photos, and continued right back from where I came. All the time, people were sitting about the vacant lots and boarded-up houses, just watching me, at 11 AM on a weekday morning, with nothing better to do than watch me. I'd rather not guess what else they had planned if I dared to get out and walk up this stub across the truss in the background. Strongly, strongly not recommended to pursue that, as interesting as it would be.


Looking east from S. 8th St. as it prepares to cross under the old US 66 approach to the bridge. The truss used to span several railroad tracks, but there is just one left (and it's active).


8th St. continues under US 66, and US 66 just ends. The rest of the approach was ripped out, possibly to stop East St. Louis residents or transients from wandering into St. Louis and adding to the crime rate, or possibly to protect the tracks below from falling debris. (Though Illinois didn't see the latter as a reason to remove its half, so the former is my best guess.)


One look back northwest from 8th St. This might have actually been a safe place to stop my car, but climbing the structure would be somewhat less safe.

Other US 66 Mississippi River crossings: Martin Luther King Bridge, McKinley Bridge, Chain of Rocks Bridge
Continue west on old US 66 to MO 100 or MO 366
Continue east on old US 66 into Illinois


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