I thought this was interesting.
I found this somewhat interesting story. Saint Louis was one of the rail capitol's of this country. It's Union Station at its height, combined the St. Louis passenger services of 22 railroads, the most of any single terminal in the world. At its opening, it was the world's largest and busiest railroad station and its trainshed was the largest roof span in the world.
At one time there was a push to build a transcontental line from St. Louis to the Pacific. The Gasconade Bridge disaster of 1855 dashed those hopes, not to mention the looming Civil War.
A quick synopsis of the disaster from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...ridge_train_disaster
Another story from the website of the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/l...fd-da1e93c31d54.html
-jim
