In the spring of 1887, worn and frail, the engineer James Buchanan Eads propped himself up in his sick bed to revise plans for his latest project. Outside the window he could hear the sound of waves ...

September 6: The 13-year-old Eads arrives by steamboat in St. Louis with his mother and two sisters. As they approach the wharves, a chimney flue collapses and the boat is engulfed in flames. Eight ...

Few words distressed navigators more than “the bar” — referring to the sandbar that regularly obstructed the mouth of the Mississippi River — until a remarkable engineer from St. Louis solved the ...