Keokuk

Keokuk developed as a major center of commerce and transportation before its incorporation in 1847 because the Des Moines Rapids in the Mississippi River forced steamboats to unload passengers and freight for portage around the rapids. Packets, excursion boats, tows, and rats traveled the river and stopped there, while businesses flourished near the levee at the foot of Main and Johnson Streets and in an area known as Rat Row. Goods and travelers continued upriver or transferred to prairie schooners bound for interior areas, while crossings of the Mississippi were hazardous and depended on ferries such as the Salina or, in winter, travel over the ice by sledge and sleigh. To improve east-west movement, the Keokuk & Hamilton Mississippi Bridge Co. was formed in 1866, construction began in 1869, and after two years the first combination roadway and railway bridge across the Mississippi River was completed in April 1871. Built by the Keystone Bridge Company of Pittsburgh, one of Andrew Carnegie's first business ventures, at a cost of $850,000, the Iron Bridge stretched 3800 feet and carried railroad cars, horse and wagon teams, and foot passengers. Keokuk served as the terminus of five railroads, and the locomotive Iowa became the first to cross the Keokuk-Hamilton Bridge on April 19, 1871, before the bridge opened to the public on June 14, 1871. A 1916 remodeling added an elevated roadway for wagons, automobiles, and pedestrians, and today the old iron bridge carries trail traffic on the lower level while the upper level road serves as an observation deck overlooking Lock and Dam #19, the Keokuk hydro-electric plant, the Geo. M. Verity Riverboat museum, and the Keokuk Union Depot.

Keokuk, Iowa · United States