CHESTER, Ill. (CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS) – Hundreds of people gathered along the riverfront Monday morning to watch the 80-year-old Chester Bridge come down.

Then, in a matter of seconds, it was gone.

Explosives ripped through the old bridge, sending it crashing into the Mississippi River as cheers rose from the crowd. A piece of local history had disappeared, marking the end of one era and the beginning of another for the crossing between Illinois and Missouri.

Demolition crews used strategically placed explosives to bring the bridge straight down and keep the collapse within a controlled area. Crews will now work to remove the remaining pieces of the old bridge from the river.

The old bridge has been replaced by the $307.1 million Don Welge Memorial Bridge, a joint Missouri-Illinois-federal project named for the late Gilster-Mary Lee corporation president and CEO, who pushed for years for a safer replacement.

Daylin Williams and Adam Gunther reported from Chester Monday morning for the Saluki Local Reporting Lab and Capitol News Illinois.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.