On September 28, the historic Chester Bridge was demolished in front of a crowd of Illinois and Missouri residents of all ages, some of which were around for the opening of the bridge in 1942.
Days later, crews were still working diligently to remove debris from the Mississippi River under the shadow of the new Don Welge Memorial Bridge, which opened this summer.
While it won’t be long until all remnants of the original bridge are no longer visible while crossing the river, the legacy of the Chester Bridge will endure for generations.
The first idea for a bridge connecting Perryville and Chester came in September of 1938, when ferries were still the only way to cross the river in the area. The Chester Business Men’s Association established the plan to build a bridge with the slogan “It shall be built” at a meeting in November that same year.
In January 1939, a bill to allow the building of a bridge was put to congress by U.S. Congressman Kent Keller.
Financing for the project was secured in March 1939, the same month that Illinois engineers gave the final approval for the construction based on their survey, and the bill passed in the Senate in May.
On July 14, 1939, president Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill that would make construction of the bridge official.
The first contracts were awarded in July 1939, and construction began in 1941.
Construction was completed in May 1942 at a cost of approximately $1.385 million (around $28 million in 2026 dollars), and over the following two months, the highway approaches on both sides were completed.
The bridge officially opened to travelers on August 23, 1942, following a ceremony where thousands from both sides of the bridge gathered to celebrate the accomplishment.
The invocation at the opening ceremony was given by Reverend O.M Meyer of Peace Lutheran Church. Speeches were given by Illinois Attorney General George Barrett and Stanley Ginn of the Missouri Highway patrol.
Some who were in attendance at the opening of the Chester Bridge in 1942 were also present at the opening of the Don Welge Memorial Bridge in July of this year.
Two years into the life of the bridge in July 1944, a tornado severely damaged most of it; there were no fatalities or injuries reported, but two main spans were destroyed, leaving only the approach spans. Repairs were completed and the bridge reopened in August 1946.
From its opening in 1942 and reopening in 1946 through 1988, the bridge operated as a toll bridge. The last toll was collected on December 31, 1988, with the bridge becoming free to cross on New Years Day in 1989.
The Bridge hit the big screen in the 1967 Oscar winning film “In the Heat of the Night”. In the film, which was mostly filmed in Sparta, Illinois, the fictionalized version of the bridge connects Mississippi and Arkansas.
After decades of service where around 6,000 vehicles crossed the bridge daily, the bridge began showing signs of its age, and by the 2010s it was clear that its days were numbered.
By the late 2010s, a push to replace the bridge with something more modern, was in full force. One of the leaders of the push was Don Welge, the local businessman who owned Gilster Mary Lee, a company that relied on the bridge for decades, and for whom the new bridge is named after.
It became more clear that a new bridge was needed in September of 2020, when the bridge’s load capacity had to be lowered significantly during lengthy repairs to its then over 80-year old span due to it being labeled “functionally obsolete” by the Missouri Department of Transportation.
Research for a new bridge began in 2022, and construction of the Don Welge Memorial Bridge began in 2023.
In March 2023, the Ames Team—comprised of Ames Construction Inc. and Parsons Transportation Group—was selected to design and build the Don Welge Memorial Bridge. The new bridge features a three-tower, cable-stayed bridge, a more modern design compared to the truss design of the old bridge, and represents a combined investment of approximately $307.1 million by MoDOT and IDOT.
The new Don Welge Memorial Bridge was opened in July 2026, and just like the old Chester Bridge, thousands came from both Illinois and Missouri to celebrate the grand opening.
“The Chester Bridge served people in Missouri and Illinois through a world war, the uncertainties of the 1960s, the end of the Cold War, and all the many years that followed,” said Tom Welge, son of Don Welge, the new bridge’s namesake. “People have always been figuring out how to connect one side to the other because it was a necessity. And in a lot of ways, that’s what this spot has always been about. Connection, movement, and opportunity.”
“This bridge isn’t just concrete, steel, and cables. It’s how people get to work, it’s how businesses grow, its products from here move to the rest of the country and beyond,” Welge said while speaking of the old bridge’s legacy and the new bridge’s opening. “A strong, reliable crossing here matters to agriculture, to industry, to small towns on both sides of the river, and the big cities beyond it.”
