The Wabash Bridge carries a single track railroad from St. Louis County to the city of St. Charles

Saint Charles, Missouri

St. Charles is a city in, and the county seat of, St. Charles County, Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 65,794, making St. Charles the 2nd largest city in St. Charles County. It lies just to the northwest of St. Louis, Missouri on the Missouri River, and, for a time,...

. It is positioned next to the Discovery Bridge. It is used by the freight trains of Norfolk Southern Railway

Norfolk Southern Railway

The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I railroad in the United States, owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. With headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, the company operates 21,500 route miles in 22 eastern states, the District of Columbia and the province of Ontario, Canada...

.

History

The current Wabash Bridge, built in 1936, replaced an older bridge of the same name that was built about half a mile upstream. The original Wabash Bridge, built in 1871, was the first bridge in St. Charles County.

In 1884, the Montana

Montana (steamboat)

The Montana was a Missouri River stern-wheel steamboat, one of three "mega-steamboats" built in 1879 at the end of the steamboat era on the Missouri—when steamboats were soon to be supplanted by the nation's expanding railroad network...

, a large steamboat, collided with the first Wabash Bridge. The Montanas remains lie to this date on the St. Louis County side of the Missouri River near the site of the first Wabash Bridge.