Interstate Viaduct was the name of the original connecting link between Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kansas. The span is pictured on an old post card mailed from Kansas City in 1913. The roadway was originally 55 feet wide with an 8-foot-wide walkway for pedestrians. The privately owned viaduct was built as a toll bridge and “was a losing investment for owners,” according to the Kansas City Journal of Oct. 19, 1918, “as the people showed a dislike in paying tolls. For a while the street railway company used the viaduct and this was quite a source of revenue for the bridge company.” The viaduct was sold Oct. 30, 1918, for the bargain price of $1,775,000, about half of the original cost. Kansas City, Mo., paid 56 per cent and Kansas City Kansas, 44 per cent. A formal opening with a short ceremony was held Oct. 30, 1918, when executives of both Kansas Citys met at the state line on the viaduct. Howard Ross, secretary of the viaduct company, stood in the center of a group sketched that day by an artist for The Star. Pictured were the two mayors, Harry Mendenhall of Kansas City, Kansas and the acting mayor of Kansas City, F.G. Robinson. They were shown shaking hands. Others in the group were F.C. Merstetter and B.C. Twenhofel of the Kansas City, Kansas, Chamber of Commerce; John B. Brown, Kansas City, Kansas, commissioner; E.M. Harber, city counselor, Kansas City, Mo.; and W.P. Motley, president of the Kansas City, Mo. Board of Health. At this time the viaduct was renamed the Intercity Viaduct. In 1969 the name was changed to Lewis and Clark Viaduct. The long low building at the right in the post card picture taken from the east end of the viaduct bears the signs “Foundry” and “Kansas City Hay Press Co.” The Company manufactured a machine called the hay press, an early-day, horse-operated machine which preceded the hay baler. The Kansas City hay market was the largest in the world in 1907, with 31,000 cars yearly. Ephraim C. Sooy organized the company in 1880. The building at the left is that of the Helmers Manufacturing Company, a wholesale furniture house, still operating at that location today. Kansas City Star, August 28, 1976.
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