A delay occurred during the construction of the southern bridge when a crane dropped a section of it into the river and it had to be rebuilt.

Construction on that bridge began on August 5, 1942, and it opened two years later.

Prior to the construction of the original bridge, river crossings in this area were made via the Davis Street Ferry in the Carondelet neighborhood of St.

[3] The current bridge carries traffic for both Interstate 255 (part of the St. Louis beltway) and U.S. Route 50.

[3] The names comes from the nearby Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, itself originally part of the large Jefferson Barracks military complex, established in 1826 and decommissioned in 1946.