Devil's Elbow Bridge

Teardrop Rd., Devil's Elbow, MO
Phone:

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The Devil's Elbow Bridge over the Big Piney River opened in 1923 and carried Route 66 traffic from 1926 until 1945. When this bridge was approved in 1922 it was said to be one of the first major highway project on the "Direct Route" between St. Louis and Springfield. The curved approach to the bridge made it difficult for the large military trucks to use, thus the beginning of the 4 lane Hooker Cut a mile north of the bridge and the realignment of Route 66 in the early through mid-1940s.

The town of Devil's Elbow is just across the bridge. The town name comes from a very sharp bend in the river that gave loggers a lot of trouble when they tried to float logs down the river. If the loggers tied too many logs together like a raft it made it hard to get them around the bend.

The bridge is just beyond a wye in road just past the Devils Elbow Inn. It has a total length of 588 feet with the longest span being 161 feet. The deck width is 19.4 feet and there is no sidewalk. The bridge is posted with a maximum clearance of 13 feet 8 inches.

This photo shows the bridge in 2012. It was closed in October 2013 for renovations and reopened, three months early, on May 23, 2014. Signage from the bridge is currently located at the Pulaski County Visitor's Center in St. Robert. The bridge was heavily damaged in the big flood in the spring of 2017, but has since been rehabilitated and reopened again.

Photo(s) 2012, 2016