Jeff Pierson recently took his drone copter onto the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis and got some fascinating footage from the air.
Not only do you get an overhead view of the 1929 bridge, but also the two remarkably close looks of the intake towers in the Mississippi River that once helped supply water to St. Louis.
If you want to know what’s inside one of the towers, this St. Louis television station got a rare look.
According to the City of St. Louis website, intake tower No. 2 no longer operates, but it serves as a backup for when the current water-intake system goes down. The tower was designated a city landmark in 1971.
Pierson’s video also adds useful notes to the footage.
The Old Chain of Rocks Bridge carried Route 66 from 1936 to 1968 until the Interstate 270 bridge opened nearby. The closed bridge was used in the last scene of “Escape from New York.” At one point, the bridge was going to be torn down for scrap. But the price of scrap metal dropped, making such a project financially unfeasible.
The old Chain of Rocks Bridge reopened in 1999 to the public as part of a pedestrian and bicycle trail. The bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
(Screen capture of above the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge from the Jeff Pierson video)