Originally Posted by
stardognine
I kinda wish someone from St. Louis would chime in. There are actually several bridges there, it looked like, but I think I took one of the wrong ones. 🙄😉
And that’s hardly even a River, way up in Minnesota. 🤪 They have to travel South awhile, to get to be big rivers. 😁😉
I lived in the Metro East area of Illinois from 2012 to 2018, and often rode into St. Louis from Illinois. In my opinion the best crossing of the Mississippi in the area is over the McKinley Bridge at Venice, IL. There's a wide, separated bike/pedestrian lane which connects to the Riverfront Trail on the Missouri side. Venice is a small town, and a couple miles of low-traffic street riding through there connect you to Madison County trail system, which allows you to escape all the heavy traffic in the Metro East.
I prefer the McKinley Bridge to the Eads Bridge for a couple of reasons: The McKinley Bridge's separated bike/pedestrian line is wider (and in my experience, cleaner) than the one on the Eads. And riding through Venice is a lot more pleasant, IMHO, than riding in East St. Louis. The crime situation in East St. Louis is probably exaggerated, but I always felt better riding through Venice.