This is a surprisingly new steel truss bridge. This river crossing was originally US-36. When the bridge was completed and US-36 was upgraded on the Missouri side, the I-72 designation was extended west about 2 miles into Missouri. It is hoped that I-72 will eventually be constructed across Missouri to Saint Joseph.

This bridge replaced the previous Mark Twain Memorial Bridge, which was located just downstream. It was also a big metal monster from the depression era. Prior to that bridge, traffic used the Wabash Railroad bridge.

The next seven photos show a typical crossing of the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge heading east from Missouri into Illinois. The final five photos are shots taken from various different locations around Hannibal.

The seven photos above are of a typical bridge crossing heading east from Missouri towards Illinois. These were taken on two different days. Notice the sky is different in the first and third photos. Also notice the orange signs in the final crossing photo. Those are left over from the massive flooding in June of 2008.

The next five photos are taken from various different vantage points around the city of Hannibal.