The Cairo Mississippi River Bridge is a type of cantilever bridge known as a Steel Truss Through Deck carrying U.S. Route 60 and U.S. Route 62 across the Mississippi River. Located in the tri-state area of Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri, it connects Cairo, Illinois at its northern terminus to Bird's Point, Missouri at its southern terminus. The bridge was most recently closed for renovation from March 16, 2015, to October 13, 2015. The bridge measures in length with a main span of and a width of . At its apex, the bridge stands above the river with a navigation channel and a river depth of . History At the start of the Civil War in 1861, this area was the southern extreme of American land in which slavery was prohibited (other than the disjoint portion of California). On April 15, 1865, the morning after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the steamboat Sultana was docked near Fort Defiance where 12,000 Union troops were stationed. Less than two weeks later the steamboat, carrying in excess of 2,000 released Union prisoners of war, exploded near Memphis en route back to Cairo, remaining the deadliest ship disaster in American history. In 1876, famed novelist Mark Twain described this vicinity as a "dismal swamp" in his classic novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The bridge originated as a toll bridge in 1929, constructed by the American Bridge Company and the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co. Traveling downstream, the Cairo Mississippi River Bridge is the southernmost crossing of the Mississippi River prior to its confluence with the Ohio River and lies just 2000 feet west of the mouth of the Ohio. Shortly after its completion, a second structure was opened in 1937 connecting Kentucky to Illinois now known as the Cairo Ohio River Bridge, its western terminus only 1000 feet from the Cairo Mississippi River Bridge. In 1954 the toll was removed. In the years since the construction of the two bridges, the town of Cairo has experienced an 81% population decline (1930 to 2010), the most dramatic decrease of any principal city in the United States. The bridges initially played a part in the town's demise as the ferry and railroad industries were severely impacted. In 1978, the Cairo I-57 Bridge was completed less than five miles upstream, bypassing Cairo and contributing to its further decline. Aviation incident Legend has it that in 1956,