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== Building ==

== Building ==

Nathaniel Taggart, founder of the [[Taggart Transcontinental Railroad]], built this bridge in the second half of the nineteenth century. For reasons that the novel does not describe, the Taggart Bridge eventually became the only remaining Mississippi River crossing in the entire country.

Nathaniel Taggart, founder of the [[Taggart Transcontinental Railroad]], built this bridge in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was the first bridge to cross the [[Mississippi River]], and eventually the last.

 

Taggart almost was not allowed to build it. Barge operators local to the town of "Bedford, [[Illinois]]" (actually, [[Rock Island]] is the more likely location) sued Taggart for "tortious interference with livelihood," in that they would lose their business to the railroad. They sought an injunction directing Taggart to stop building his bridge and use barges to ferry his trains across the river. Taggart fought the suit, though he lost at the district court level. At one point, his entire workforce deserted him. In response, he personally took tools in hand and tried to build his bridge single-handedly when he wasn't appearing in court.

 

 

The Atlantic Southern Railroad also built a bridge over the Mississippi. But in the winter before the last year of the great strike, flood-borne logs knocked the bridge out. The Taggart Bridge remained as the only functioning Mississippi River crossing in the entire country.

== Economic decline ==

== Economic decline ==