Artist’s rendering of the reinvented Rock Island Railroad Bridge in completed form, just west of the Hy-Vee Arena. Photo courtesy of Flying Truss, LLC.

BY BRAD PACE

Editor’s Note: In late July, Rock Island Bridge representatives announced that due to construction delays the expected opening for the bridge has been moved to spring 2025.

The 1905 Rock Island Railroad Bridge spanning the Kansas River in Kansas City’s West Bottoms was built to last. It dominates the area immediately west of the Hy-Vee Arena (formerly known as Kemper Arena).

Its weathered and lanky form is studded by countless large protruding rivets, binding together over 2,000 tons of “Carnegie” branded steel. More than 100 years ago skilled workers inserted each rivet glowing red hot into precisely-drilled holes and then hammered down the unformed end to close the joint. As the steel cooled it would contract to squeeze the joint tightly together. A strong build was needed to handle the heavy steam locomotives used at the time, along with their loaded freight cars.

The bridge ultimately outlasted the big livestock operations it was built to serve, and even the Rock Island Railroad itself, which filed for bankruptcy in 1975 and was liquidated five years later. But the men who built it so long ago would surely be amazed to see it today beginning a new phase of use as America’s first trailhead and entertainment district over a river.

What follows is the story of this remarkable transformation.

Cowtown Roots

The land that would become known as the West Bottoms was originally settled by native American Indians. In the early 1800s they were joined by French fur trappers and the entrepreneur Francois Chauteau, leading to the area’s original moniker—the “French Bottoms.” Its proximity to the Missouri and the Kansas rivers (the latter known by locals today as the “Kaw”) was ideal for transporting goods traded with the tribes and the early American pioneers.

As Kansas City grew in importance as a hub for commerce, the Bottoms became a destination for huge cattle drives from Texas. “Cowtowns” like Sedalia, Abilene and Kansas City were shipping points to transport livestock and processed meat, hides and tallow to eastern and northern markets.

Vintage stockyards postcard. Photo courtesy of JCHS.

To cope with the growing influx, in 1870 a group of railroad executives fenced off five acres and constructed small stock pens. Those first five acres were quickly overwhelmed, so that by 1871 another 13 acres of pens were added along the banks of the Kaw—enough to handle 100,000 animals. That same year the Kansas City Livestock Exchange was established where cattle were sold to the highest bidder. The meatpacking industry grew right along with the stockyards, drawing in major investments from Chicago packers Philip Armour and later Gustavus Swift.

The days of the area as a remote fur trapping post were over. The legend of the West Bottoms had begun.

West Bottoms aerial view, with Armour meatpacking plant on the right. The bridge in the left of the photo is not the Rock Island Bridge, which is about one mile south. Photo courtesy of JCHS.

Growing to 207 acres, it was Kansas City’s first industrial zone, and home to the nation’s second largest livestock market behind Chicago’s Union Stockyards. Its 20,000 workers could process an amazing 170,000 animals a day.

At the end of a grueling shift in the stockyards or packinghouse a worker could unwind at one of the area’s many thriving saloons, tattoo parlors, brothels and gambling houses. At the turn of the century roughly 80% of Kansas City’s economy was in the West Bottoms.

The Rock Island Line

The incredible number of cattle, hogs, and sheep being processed and then shipped to market was made possible by the railroads. One of the 16 different railway companies serving the West Bottoms was the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, commonly known as the Rock Island Line. It was a storied company even then, with a lineage back to 1847. It was at one time represented by a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln, and would later become immortalized in the lyrics of the folk song “Rock Island Line,” popularized by Johnny Cash.

Down the Rock Island Line, she’s a mighty good road

Rock Island Line, it’s the road to ride

The Rock Island Railroad “Rocky Mountain Rocket” streamliner would not have been found in the West Bottoms, where the trains pulled freight cars, and the passengers were livestock. Photo courtesy of JCHS.

While the stockyards’ location at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers was convenient for water traffic, for a railroad it meant the need for a stout bridge. The initial bridge used by the Rock Island Line to shuttle livestock and freight over the Kaw was of vulnerable wood-pile construction, and was washed away by flooding in 1903. The West Bottoms was covered with water to a depth of six to 12 feet. Fire and looting added to the calamity, causing the nearby areas of Armourdale and Argentine to be evacuated.

Without its bridge the Rock Island was forced to divert its trains to the Missouri Pacific trestle downstream. A new and stronger bridge was needed as soon as possible. The Rock Island turned to a leader in the industry, the American Bridge Co., which had been formed in 1900 as a J.P. Morgan-engineered merger of 28 different bridge and structural companies. The following year it became a subsidiary of United States Steel. Its manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania would become the largest of its kind in the world.

Workers relied on steam powered equipment and manual labor to construct the Rock Island Railroad Bridge in 1904-05. Photo courtesy of Flying Truss, LLC.

The new company set its attention and considerable ability to design and build two 302 feet-long Pennsylvania-style truss spans (named for the Pennsylvania Railroad) over the Kansas River. As a truss design the new bridge would be characterized by the joining of support members into a series of interconnected triangles. Its concrete foundations were dug 40 feet deep into the riverbed.

After a build cost of approximately $170,000, the new bridge opened for train traffic in 1905, and would serve its owner well for decades to come.

In 1921 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers widened the channel, so a third truss span was added on the east side of the bridge, bringing its total length to 705 feet.

Hard Times

The American Bridge Co.’s engineering was put to the test in July of 1951, when the Missouri and Kansas rivers once again overflowed their banks. The stockyards were completely engulfed causing nearly a billion dollars in damage. While the sturdy Rock Island Bridge had withstood the raging waters, the West Bottoms never fully recovered.

In the wake the Flood of 1951, the L.G. Barkus Co. of Kansas City, Kansas was hired to install four screw-lift gates, so that if the rivers ever overflowed again, all three of the bridges’ truss spans could be raised six feet to safety. With this enhancement in place the bridge was better than new, but the stockyards were in a continuing decline. Some of the meatpacking companies had never rebuilt after the flood. Farmers had begun negotiating with the packers directly, or marketing through other smaller auction houses. Business was off so much that by 1973, the 19,000-seat Kemper Arena could be constructed on land no longer needed by the stockyards.

When the Rock Island Railroad was liquidated in 1980, the bridge was sold to the St. Louis Southwestern Railway Co. In 1987 it was sold again, this time to the City of Kansas City, Missouri, as part of a parking expansion plan for Kemper Arena. The bridge was to have been a pedestrian connector to surface parking on the other side of the river, but instead the city built a two-story parking lot north of the arena.

A few years later, in 1991, an era ended when the stockyards held its final livestock auction and then closed for good. Over its operational lifespan an estimated 443 million animals were “discharged” through the West Bottoms.

A Chance Encounter

The years rolled by with the bridge left abandoned, its tracks disconnected. The future looked bleak until a chance encounter in 2008. Kansas Citian Michael Zeller was drifting down the Kaw on a float trip with family and friends when the forgotten hulk of the Rock Island Bridge slowly came into view.

From his vantage point at the water level, Zeller marveled at the size of the bridge and its towering height over the river. It struck him as a great waste for such an impressive structure to go unused. Staring at the bridge he had an epiphany, remarking that someone ought to do something with it, like “put a restaurant out there and call it Chicken On A Bridge.” From that joke an idea was born.

View from the west end of the Rock Island Bridge, May 2024. Photo courtesy of Brad Pace.

Zeller could not stop thinking about the bridge’s untapped potential. It represented 35,000 square feet of entertainment space, with a river view. As the then development director for Kansas City PBS, he was in a position to know many of the city’s movers and shakers. Over the course of the next five or six years he looked for someone to develop the bridge—but to no avail.

Rather than give up on the idea, Zeller and his English wife Liz decided to become West Bottoms entrepreneurs, forming Flying Truss, LLC, to turn their vision into reality. Zeller says that the concept as it exists today “is the result of a lot of thinking by many people over many years.” Throughout the twists and turns of the idea’s gestation, the one central notion was that the bridge could be thought of and developed like land. He was joined in the project by junior partners John McGurk and Mike Laddin.

Destination Landmark Bridge

Construction underway, May 2024. Photo courtesy of Brad Pace.

Zeller and his team began to fine tune their business plan. They looked for other bridges that had been commercially rehabilitated for alternative uses. In Europe there had once been a tradition of placing small shops on pedestrian bridges. The famous Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence, Italy, which dates to Roman times, features arcades on each side and houses various jewelry shops to this day.

The only known modern bridge redeveloped for commercial use is the Ayan Railroad Bridge in Dong-Du, Daegu, South Korea, with a coffee shop, restrooms, and outlook spaces. But nowhere could a bridge be found to match the ambitious plans of the Flying Truss partners. They would be creating the world’s first destination landmark bridge.

Rendering of the planned top deck event space. Photo courtesy of Flying Truss, LLC.

The project would evolve into several main elements. First, in addition to being a public crossing, the bridge will serve as a trailhead for the area’s network of levee trails. Residents of Wyandotte County have far less linear feet of trails per person compared to their neighbors in Johnson County. The reimagined bridge will support trails equity, and will be open for foot and bicycle traffic 12 months a year. It will be a dismount zone, so bikes won’t pose a hazard to walkers. “You get off your bike, and maybe you have a coffee or lunch, and then you get back on and go,” said Zeller.

Second, the western end of the bridge will be set aside as a community gathering place, perfect for a farmer’s market or art fair. At the water level there will be three docks for kayaking and canoeing. According to Zeller, “You can think of it as a steel park.”

Thirdly, the bridge will be a unique “entertainment district” with an 85 yard-long, 11,000 square-foot concrete pad to accommodate public seating and a central kitchen that can serve several restaurants and bars. The commercial operations will be open from St. Patrick’s Day through New Year’s Eve.

There will also be a 75-yard long, 8,000 square-foot upper deck to be used for event rental. This top deck is designed for a capacity of 350 people, including indoor seating for 300, and a 50-foot long bar. Parking will be available from the nearby parking garage, adjacent lots, and along American Royal Drive.

Built Like a Battleship

As exciting as all the plans were, the partners needed to know if the 119-year-old bridge was strong enough to handle their concept. If it wasn’t, there was no project. So, in 2017 the engineering firm TranSystems conducted an in-depth structural inspection and analysis. They concluded that with some planned updates and repairs, the robust bridge could easily handle the development. It was originally overbuilt to withstand the moving weight of loaded freight trains and can carry about 3,600,000 pounds—roughly three times that needed by Flying Truss. And significantly, it had never suffered any salt corrosion, since unlike automotive bridges, railroad bridges don’t need salting in the winter. Ultimately, about $500,000 in repairs were made - a small amount considering the bridge’s estimated $60,000,000 replacement cost.

The main entertainment district on the central truss will feature sweeping views of the river valley. Rendering courtesy of Flying Truss, LLC.

L.G. Barkus and Sons, Inc., the same bridge construction and repair company that installed the four lift gates after the 1951 flood, was selected to handle the initial phase of modifications and repair. The company used the original lift mechanisms to raise the bridge 3. 5 feet to meet the current 750-year flood plain. The old motors were removed and replaced by new hydraulic ones to turn the original gears and screw jacks.

Everything was coming together, but Zeller still needed to procure a lease on the bridge. Since 1987 it had been owned by Kansas City, Missouri, even though it is physically located in Kansas City, Kansas. This was a quirk dating back to the unrealized parking plan for Kemper, and no longer made any sense for either city. So, in 2022 the bridge was sold to the Kansas City, Kansas Unified Government for $1. The Unified Government then granted to Flying Truss, LLC, a 33-year lease, plus an option for one extension. Zeller says that securing the lease was the first concrete step forward in developing the bridge.

Public-Private-Philanthropic-Partnership

The Flying Truss partners knew their groundbreaking development would need some very creative financing. Suspending an entertainment district 50 feet over a river would not be cheap. A combination of public, private and philanthropic financing was used to accomplish what none of the sectors could achieve alone. Zeller stresses that investors will be made whole before the founders receive any dividends. Flying Truss is still accepting investors and donations.

The bridge project has garnered accolades from across the country, being covered by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, among other media. Perhaps the biggest compliment has come in the form of an invitation to join the prestigious “High Line Network,” a think tank for leading reuse projects. High Line properties are selected for their potential to transform underutilized infrastructure into new urban landscapes. The Network’s mission is to support its member projects to create America’s next generation of public spaces.

Kansas City’s newest iconic public space. Rendering courtesy of Flying Truss, LLC.

The reinvented Rock Island Bridge, with its public space and amenities, will be an inviting destination connecting Missouri and Kansas. The eastern end of the bridge is 50 feet from the Missouri border, so visitors enter from Missouri, and then step off the other end into Kansas. “It’s a handshake at the border. It’s going to be a celebration of Kansas City, ” said Zeller.

The Rock Island Bridge will open to the public late summer 2024. Event space bookings are now being accepted for dates starting in August.

1905 Rock Island Railroad Bridge Transformed into Entertainment District