The bridge on the ol'man river
The bridge on the ol'man river (original title Le Pont sur le Mississipi ) is a Lucky Luke album that was drawn by Morris and was first released in 1994. The volume was written by Xavier Fauche and Jean Léturgie . It is about the construction of the first bridge over the Mississippi between St. Louis (Missouri) and Illinois (Illinois) by James Buchanan Eads 1867-1874. This bridge, which still exists today, is known as the Eads Bridge after its builder .
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Bat Cayman is mayor of St. Louis on the west bank of the Mississippi and mayor of the Illinois town on the east bank. The ferries, which are the only connection between the cities, also belong to Bat and his brother. The ferries run very irregularly, so that the travelers spend as much time as possible in the hotels and bars of the two cities - these also belong to the Cayman brothers. In Washington, meanwhile, the President personally commissioned James B. Eads to build a bridge over the Mississippi.
A little later, Lucky Luke arrives in St. Louis and wants to cross the Mississippi. Because he is denied the crossing with flimsy arguments, he is hostile to Dick Cayman, Bat's right-hand man. When he also sees in the saloon how the Caymans are pulling the guests' money out of their pockets with adulterated whiskey and manipulated roulette tables, he blows them up and immediately receives a boat for a crossing. However, the rowboat is sunk by Bat in the middle of the alligator-infested river. So he decides to stay and support Eads with the construction of his bridge and protect him from the acts of sabotage by the Cayman brothers.
Because Eads has to struggle with them all the time. Every time the construction appears finished, it collapses again due to sabotage. Cayman even had Luke's "accident" printed in the newspaper ahead of time, so Eads was very astonished to find him alive. Lucky Luke scares the mayor with an alligator in the hot tub and is supposed to be arrested by the new sheriff Dick Cayman. Senator Bridges, who is always with Eads, drives in between and speaks an unexpected verdict: Luke has to help Eads build the bridge.
Construction is now to be resumed. Ned (see Am Mississippi ) brings iron girders for the construction with his ship. But the ship is sunk with tree trunks floating in the river, so that only the wood remains for the construction. This is immediately burned down by the Caymans. Eads is about to give up and starts drinking. When Luke talks about lifting the iron girders from the bottom of the Mississippi, the gravedigger misses him because there are countless alligators swimming there. He notices that the smell of formula that the gravedigger gives off keeps the predators at bay. This makes it possible to recover some of the porters. But Eads is now broke and the workers are on strike.
To everyone's surprise, Luke leaves and Cayman even allows him a luxury crossing to get rid of him. The situation on the construction site escalated shortly afterwards and the workers threatened to lynch James Eads . At that moment, Luke returns with a bag full of money. In a few days he had arrested various wanted criminals and collected the premiums. Construction continues immediately, and even Cayman is now apparently taking part in the work - however, he releases termites on the bridge unnoticed , so that the construction collapses again.
Suddenly the Mississippi water level fell rapidly - an event that Ned had been waiting for to raise his ship. As a result, the iron girders float up again and the bridge can finally be ended.
On July 4, 1874, President Ulysses S. Grant appeared in person to inaugurate the bridge. Because this is not quite finished, Senator Bridges has to drag out his opening speech - he quotes from the Bible and at least reads from Genesis to Job until the bridge can finally be opened. Eads achieved world fame through the construction and was asked for advice by Gustave Eiffel when he wanted to build the Eiffel Tower . Allegedly, Eads should have convinced him to build it out of steel instead of wood.
Remarks
The Mississippi is often called the Old Man River in America , hence the title. The nickname also became known through the song of the same name . The French original edition is called Le Pont sur le Mississipi , according to the old French spelling with just a 'p'.
literature
- Morris , Xavier Fauche , Jean Léturgie : The bridge on the ol'man River ; Reprint 2006; Egmont Ehapa Publishing House