SE Bill Emerson Bridge Fun Facts

Fun Facts for Kids

The Bill Emerson Bridge in Cape Girardeau was a huge project for the entire state. Each day, it serves thousands of people. To help those cars, trucks and motorcycles safely cross the Mississippi River, a lot of things were used to build the bridge.

MoDOT used 13 million pounds of reinforcing steel to build the bridge. That is equal to the weight of 1,300 elephants. The steel makes the bridge strong to hold all the vehicles.

The cables used in the bridge stretch for 171 miles. If you lined skateboards up for 171 miles it would take 361,152 skateboards. The cables hold the bridge up out of the water.

The 243,688,500 pounds of concrete used to build the bridge is equal to the weight of 902,550 professional wrestlers. The concrete is smoothed flat and provides a surface for the cars to drive on.

The overall weight of the bridge is 266 million pounds. That is equal to the weight of 304 jets.

The beams used to build the bridge weigh 15 million pounds. That is 3,157,894 gallons of ice cream! The beams are located under the road and also make the bridge strong.

The bridge is 100 feet wide. It would take 85 large pizzas lined up next to each other to stretch across the new bridge. The bridge has two driving lanes going into Illinois and two lanes leading to Missouri. Plus, it has a lot of extra space between the road and the edge of the bridge. This space is good in case cars break down and need to pull over.

The Emerson Bridge is 4,000 feet long and connects Cape Girardeau, Mo., with East Cape Girardeau, Ill. That is equal to the length of 13 football fields.

If you stacked soccer balls on top of each other, it would take 540 soccer balls to be as tall as the tallest point on the bridge. The highway is 60 feet from the water and the bridge towers that hold up the support cables is another 300 feet tall.

Currently, 11,000 cars go over the bridge each day. If you lined up 11,000 VW Bugs, they would stretch for more than 28 miles. This is almost the same as the distance between Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Biehle, Mo.