St. Louis was to American exploration of western space what the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral became to American exploration of outer space. Each required a base or launching pad. It started when President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to find a corridor to the Pacific along the Missouri and Columbia rivers. And it continued for generations after as traders, soldiers and families started their journeys west from St. Louis. Even today St. Louis is known as the Gateway City, symbolized by the 630-foot arch that dominates the skyline.

St. Louis profited greatly from its strategic position on the Mississippi River. But then the railroad changed everything. In 1856, the Rock Island Railroad Company completed a bridge across the Mississippi River in Illinois, far north of St. Louis. Goods and people, who for generations traveled through St. Louis to cross the Great Mississippi River, could now head due west, bypassing St. Louis.

The new bridge opened a rivalry between St. Louis and Chicago. As new railroad technology extended Chicago’s reach west, it threatened St. Louis merchants and the livelihoods of boat captains, pilots, mates, deckhands, and dock workers called roustabouts.

Prior to then, steamboatmen had opposed all bridges across the Mississippi. Not only were bridges considered hazards to navigation, they threatened business. Goods destined for Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa could now flow by train through Chicago instead of continuing by boat to the wharves and warehouses in St. Louis. In 1855, just before Rock Island Railroad Company first bridged the Mississippi, St. Louis recorded nearly seven thousand arrivals and departures of steamboats. That’s a lot of business to potentially lose to a rival city. "The Railroad will do most of the business now done by steamboats on the upper Missouri and its tributaries," predicted one railroad advocate.

Railroad technology changed what was important in transportation. Proximity to a major river had long been a geographical advantage. With the development of the railroad, the flow of commerce was literally turned on its side. Previously, most commerce flowed from to north to south via steamboat, linking Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and New Orleans. The railroad created an east-west orientation of traffic, benefiting Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, and other cities. Just how far west Chicago’s reach might extend, no one knew. San Francisco Bay, and perhaps even to the distant Pacific Northwest, were possibilities.