This is my second installment of the bridges and structures of the
Mississippi River, covering the Upper Mississippi from Cairo to Red Wing.
Cairo is the dividing line of the upper and lower river, the point where
the Ohio merges in carrying water from the Wabash, Tennessee, and
Cumberland rivers in its flow. Red Wing is the last bridge heading north
before the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area.
This page is divided into to three sections with Dubuque and St.
Louis being the dividing points. In this section of the river,
we find the river often changing from being very wide and shallow
to being very narrow and deep. This results in some bridges having
very long causeways, up to 5 miles in length, with a relatively modest
structure crossing the main channel. Other bridges have very
impressive superstructures, or are of the ultra-modern cable-stay
variety. It is amazing how many different solutions have been
designed and built over the years to allow cars to drive from one
side of the river to the other. For much of its length, the upper
Mississippi River is not so much a river anymore as it is a series of
lakes backed up behind navigation structures. This makes the river into
a giant stairway of water steps for boats and barges to climb or descend.
For a bridge or structure to be included, it has to cross some portion of
the mighty river. Bridges parallel to the river are not included. I only
use my own photography. In fact, that is the trick—getting to visit
all these structures and finding locations to shoot photos while maintaining
a decent sun angle to light the bridges.
