Rock Island Railroad Bridge
Rock Island Railroad Bridge
First bridge over a navigable river
The Moment
Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War and future Confederate President, sought to prevent a northern transcontinental. He refused to give the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad permission to use federal property at Rock Island Illinois to build a bridge over the Mississippi River.
The railroad sued Davis and for unknown reasons Davis never appeared in court.
The bridge was built giving the North the best chance for a northern transcontinental route.
St. Louis steamboat interests rammed the new bridge, sued the railroad, and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rock Island Bridge Damage
The Story
It was a calm day on the Mississippi River near the Rock Island across from Davenport Iowa as two old timers were discussing the new bridge and spanning the river between Rock Island and Iowa.
"You know a young Robert E Lee surveyed the island and later Jefferson Davis filed a lawsuit against the railroad.
Davis, Secretary of War in 1854, obviously didn’t want a northern transcontinental railroad and did everything in his power to stop it."
What happened to the lawsuit? asked the other old man. "For some mysterious reason, Davis didn’t show up in court. Don’t know why but I figure he didn’t have a chance of winning. Rock island was federal government property ....who knows."
The new bridge looked pretty impressive. Actually, it was the first bridge built over a navigable river.
There is no railroad bridge over the Ohio river or the Missouri .
Speaking of the Missouri River, I wonder where the railroads will build their bridge into St Louis?
My guess will be from the East as it will be more direct for trains coming from Illinois and the East,
Those steam ship companies aren’t too happy with this Rock Island bridge. They don’t believe railroads have a right to build a bridge that will impede if not block their steamships.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the steamship companies did something stupid like try to destroy the bridge. There is a lot of money at stake.
Some say these little railroads are going to get bigger and more powerful. If so, it will be an interesting fight between the railroads and steamship operators.
These old guys guessed correctly .... a few days later a barge deliberately rammed the Rock Island bridge causing the bridge to be out of service for 4 months.
The Mississippi & Missouri railroad had just finished connecting Council Bluffs with Davenport. Now railroad passengers would have to be ferried across the Mississippi until the bridge was repaired.
The old guys learned, much to their astonishment, that the Steamship Company sued the Rock Island Railroad for impeding river boat traffic.
Abraham Lincoln, one of the leading railroad lawyers in Illinois, was hired by the Rock Island. The jury could not make a decision, thus, it resulted in a hung jury that allowed the railroad to keep using the bridge.
The case would be appealed several times. Finally, in 1861, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of the railroad.
Abraham Lincoln was president at the time.
However, did he pack the court to get a favorable decision?