the Downtown Quincy Historic District were constructed, including the city's first skyscraper, the Western Catholic Union Building, in 1925. The increasing presence of the automobile led Quincy to consider alternatives to Mississippi River crossings. Prior to the automobile, the most common means of crossing the near-mile wide river was by boat or ferry. In 1928, construction began on the Memorial Bridge which was a two-lane truss toll bridge; it opened in May 1930. By 1945, the city had repaid its outstanding bonds and eliminated the toll. On April 12, 1945, a tornado ripped through the business district of Quincy and severely damaged the courthouse. The wind was so severe that it blew the roof off the structure, damaging it beyond repair. Because the incident occurred a few hours after news reached Quincy of President Roosevelt's death, several residents joked that "FDR and God were just fighting over the power-up there." Five years passed before a new courthouse was completed. In 1987, the cable-stayed Bayview Bridge was constructed with the intent of alleviating traffic on the aging Memorial Bridge. Today, both bridges complement each other by carrying westbound (Bayview) and eastbound (Memorial) traffic. Although the lighting was originally intended for the Bayview Bridge during its construction phase, the actual installation of lights didn't occur until 2015. During the Mississippi River flood of 1993, riverside businesses and industries suffered extensive damage when the river crested at a record 32.2 feet (9.81 m), above flood stage. For a time, the Bayview Bridge, one of Quincy's two bridges, was the only bridge open across the Mississippi River between Alton, Illinois and Burlington, Iowa. The Memorial Bridge was closed from the end of June, due to water over its western approach. On July 16, 1993, the Bayview Bridge closed when the river submerged the land on the west side of the Mississippi River at Taylor, Missouri; Quincy's bridges reopened 73 days later on September 26, 1993. On November 19, 1996, the United Express Flight 5925 collided on landing at Quincy with another Beechcraft, a private King Air, that was taking off from an intersecting runway. All occupants of both planes, twelve on board the 5925 and two on board the King Air, were killed as a result. A flood in June 2008 submerged much of Quincy's riverfront and low-lying regions not protected by the bluffs. Record Mississippi River levels occurred on June 22, 2008. The