Venice Park: Part of Our History

On November 17, 2007, the roadside park located on Route 3 in Venice was dedicated with the name “Venice Park”. At 9:30 AM, the monolithic statue symbolizing the five areas that The Chamber of Commerce Southwestern Madison County represents was unveiled. At 10:30 AM, the McKinley Bridge was reopened and visitors were allowed the chance to walk across the bridge for the first time since it was closed in 2001. The opening of Venice Park and subsequent re-opening of the historic McKinley Bridge was a critical milestone for the area of Venice, Illinois, providing citizens an easy route to and from downtown St. Louis and allowing the exportation of local goods to surrounding areas in St. Louis. On December 17, 2007, the bridge was fully reopened to traffic in both directions. This video captures the dedication speeches of both Venice Park & the McKinley Bridge, along with the ribbon cutting ceremonies for both event openings. 

Image Source: U.S. GenWeb Archives

Founded in 1873 Venice, in its young age was only considered a village. The village, although small in size, had a large capacity for industry. In the early 1880s Venice had the most amount of businesses present in its vicinity since its birth. Businesses ranged from blacksmiths and carpenters to shoemakers and physicians. As business increased, the recognition of Venice had to follow as well. A few years later on March 16, 1893 Venice was recognized as a city for the first time in its existence. In order to keep up with the industrialization of the entire nation, Venice decided to link its newly deemed city to Saint Louis. Little did they know but the bridge that they would erect would be one of the most used amenities of Venice.

The building of the McKinley bridge started in August of 1907. The driving idea behind the bridge was to transport individuals from Venice, across the Mississippi River into Saint Louis. By linking the two towns together, the bridge would not only promote more visitors to the city of Venice, but access to additional business opportunities as well. The first car, part of the Illinois Traction System, passed across the bridge on September 20, 1910. A few months later the bridge was formally opened to the public on November 10, 1910.

During that time the bridge was owned by the Illinois Terminal Railroad. In 1958, Venice purchased the bridge from the Illinois Terminal Railroad, and raised the toll per car by five cents. Tragedy struck in 2001 when the bridge was closed due to unpaid taxes owed to Saint Louis. However, a settlement was reached in 2004, as the debt was forgiven, and the bridge formally reopened in 2007. 

In addition to the Mckinley bridge, another famous form of industrialization present in Venice is the Ameren power plant. The power plant sits near the Mckinley bridge on the Illinois side of the river, and upstream of the plant located in Cahokia. It was originally opened in 1942 and acted as a “coal-fired plant” until its conversion in the mid 1970s. The power plant was no longer based upon coal, but now on oil and natural gas. Ameren’s power plant continued as such until the mid 1980s when the capacity of the plant declined. However, the power plant reopened in 1995. The plant continued producing, and in 2004 installed new natural gas units.