Uniquely KC is a Star series exploring what makes Kansas City special. From our award-winning barbecue to rich Midwestern history, we’re exploring why KC is the “Paris of the Plains.”
Scroll through our archive images that show the process of the Hannibal Bridge being built in Kansas City in the late 1860s. It’s rare to have so many photographs in The Star’s archive from that period as photography was still in its infancy.
The fact that there were so many photographs from this project speaks to its importance in establishing Kansas City as a major metropolitan city .
Though not photographed by acclaimed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady , these images made by unknown photographers on the banks of the Missouri River were captured just a few years after the end of the war in the style of Brady who documented events in the field to preserve for history and share the images with a broad audience. It was the infancy of what we now know as photojournalism.
Nearly 40,000 Kansas Citians packed the banks of the Missouri River to celebrate the completion of the first railroad bridge across the Missouri River on July 3, 1869.