Piece of Mississippi bedrock from beneath the east pier of the St. Louis (Eads) Bridge, St. Louis, Missouri

This stone is a memorial of one of the great engineering achievements of the 19th century—the construction of a bridge spanning the Mississippi River at St. Louis. Also known as the Eads Bridge in tribute to its chief engineer, James B. Eads, it provided a vital link between Illinois and the eastern states and St. Louis and the west.

Eads sank his bridge piers to bedrock at a time when others thought that sand would be sufficient. From barges with cranes, masons laid stone on the framework of a caisson, pushing it into the sandy riverbed. The caisson of the east pier reached bedrock, “127 ½ ft. below high water mark and 80 ft. under sand,” in January 1871. Eads is believed to have sent this souvenir cut from bedrock to a bridge investor, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Vasa Fox.

Gift of the heirs of Mrs. Virginia L. W. Fox, 1911

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