Clifton Heights Directory 2025

18 2025 | Clifton Heights-Clayton-Tamm Community Directory A Bridge Over Spring Waters By Jackie Dana © copyright 2025 I randomly discovered this little bridge over the River des Peres in St. Louis on an afternoon outing. It’s nestled snug in the middle of an industrial area of factories and metal recycling that isn’t easily accessed from the main roads. The Sulphur Avenue bridge is a truss bridge built in 1925 after the city channelized the river and allowed the Laclede-Christy Fire Clay company to access the train tracks and Manchester Road. The bridge was decommissioned in 1970 when a more modern bridge was constructed beside it, but it remains in place as a reminder of days gone by. I love it because I have a thing for truss bridges. They’re one part cage, one part monkey bars, one part ladder to the sky. Even though most of them aren’t that old in the grand scheme of things, they feel like they are carrying a heavy load of history on their iron shoulders. The bridge is at the end of Sulphur Avenue, just off Manchester Avenue. The street got its name due to a sulfur spring that bubbled up from the River des Peres. And that spring helped put the location on the map, so to speak. Combined with the overall beauty of the area, the existence of the spring appealed to the earliest white settlers of the area due to the health benefits of sulfur baths. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted, the Spanish Governor-General of New Orleans granted the land to fur trader Charles Gratiot in 1798. Gratiot was one of the founding fathers of St. Louis, who married Victoire Chouteau (herself the daughter of explorer Pierre Augustin Laclède), and hosted both Lewis and Clark before their excursion west. At a time when St. Louis was just a small trading post near the river, Gratiot moved out to the countryside along the River des Peres. He built a home and camp near the location of the modern bridge to take advantage of the health benefits of the springs. Fur trader William Sublette purchased the land in 1831 and built four log cabins. A narrow guage train from a brick-making factory crosses the River Des Peres circa 1890. Courtesy National Building Arts Center.