McKinley Bridge - Venice, IL over Mississippi River and back; Confluence Trail along the levee

Here on our final day we decided to get up and ride over in Illinois so we could mark that off on our Map of states we have ridden in! Our goal is to ride in all 50!  The McKinley Bridge and the trail that heads up into Illinois from it looked like a good choice.  After looking at potential parking, we decided the safest place looked like the Illinois side.  So we drove over the bridge and parked in a nice little park they have just on the other side of the bridge.   The bridge was a steep grade up and a long slow grade down on the Missouri side.  They were nice and painted a line at the point on the bridge when you crossed the state line.   We stopped and took some pictures.   You got a nice view of the skyline of downtown St Louis from the bridge.  We rode across the bridge just until we were ove Missouri land and then back over to the Illinois side and then up the trail towards what we intended to be the Madison County Transit Confluence Trail.   But we ran into a Trail closed sign.  So as you can see it was a very short trip into Illinois of only a little over 3 miles.

S~~

When researching options for riding over the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Illinois, the first hit we came upon was the Chain of Rocks Bridge, a rather uniquely shaped historic bridge on the old Route 66 that today is solely a pedestrian and bike bridge.  Cool, right?  Well, that was my first thought.  However, after more reading, we discovered that the safety of the parking options, even on the Illinois side, is iffy at best. But the thing that absolutely made the hair stand up on the back of my neck was learning of the horrifying and heinous crime that was committed there in 1991, at a time when the bridge was abandoned.  The victims were two sisters, one who would have been my age. After discovering that, there was no way I could go be all touristy and take pictures at a place where something like that had happened.  I just couldn't.  No.

So, I was very relieved to find the McKinley Bridge over the Mississippi River with its protected bike lane and what appeared to be perfectly safe little parking area in Venice, Illinois, at least at 9:30 on a Sunday morning.

~~H

Getting ready to ride the McKinley Bridge!

The apparently perfectly safe little parking area in Venice, Illinois

Bet none of these guys actually built the bridge!

One foot in Missouri and One in Illinois!

Mississippi River and Downtown St Louis viewed from the middle of the McKinley Bridge

My Sweetie!

Ground must be berry interesting!

Yes I am still a teenager at Heart! Had to spit down the drain hole! :)

View of the McKinley bridge from the Trail

Rut Roh! Trail Closed!  Made our ride rather short!

When did we travel to Italy! Lol
And time travel? :)

  

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