The Boonslick Bridge is a series of girder bridge

Girder bridge

A girder bridge, in general, is a bridge built of girders placed on bridge abutments and foundation piers. In turn, a bridge deck is built on top of the girders in order to carry traffic. There are several different subtypes of girder bridges:...

s on U.S. Route 40, Route 5 and Route 87 across the Missouri River

Missouri River

The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...

 between Cooper County, Missouri

Cooper County, Missouri

Cooper County is a county located in the U.S. state of Missouri. In 2010, the population was 17,601. Its county seat is Boonville. The county was organized in 1818 and is named for Sarshall Cooper, a frontier settler who was killed by Indians near Arrow Rock in 1814.-Geography:According to the 2000...

 and Howard County, Missouri at Boonville, Missouri

Boonville, Missouri

This page is about the city in Missouri. For other communities of the same name, see Boonville Boonville is a city in Cooper County, Missouri, USA. The population was 8,202 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cooper County. The city was the site of a skirmish early in the American Civil...

. It is named for Nathan Boone (rather than his father Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...

 which is popularly reported), who built a road between St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 and a salt lick

Salt lick

A mineral lick is a natural mineral deposit where animals in nutrient-poor ecosystems can obtain essential mineral nutrients...

 just northwest of the bridge, which was the first departure location on the Santa Fe Trail

Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...

.

The bridge also has a segregated pedestrian and bicycle path. The Katy Trail State Park

Katy Trail State Park

The Katy Trail State Park is a recreation rail trail that runs in the right-of-way of the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. The nickname "Katy" comes from the phonetic pronunciation of 'KT' in the railroad's abbreviated name, MKT. The trail, widely known as the Katy Trail, is a Missouri...

 diverts from its railbed alignment to cross the Missouri River on this bridge, as the nearby MKT Bridge is unrenovated. The bridge, which opened in 1995, replaced a six-span truss bridge

Truss bridge

A truss bridge is a bridge composed of connected elements which may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads. Truss bridges are one of the oldest types of modern bridges...

built in 1924 that was 19 feet (5.8 m) wide. The earlier bridge was 2100 feet (640.1 m) long with a 584 feet (178 m) approach in Cooper County and 500 feet (152.4 m) approach in Howard County. Three of its spans were 420 feet (128 m) and three were 280 feet (85.3 m).