The Merchants Bridge, officially the Merchants Memorial Mississippi Rail Bridge, is a rail bridge crossing the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri owned by the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. It opened in May 1889 and crossed the river three miles (5 km) north of the Eads Bridge. The bridge was originally built by the St. Louis Merchants Exchange after it lost control of the Eads Bridge it had built to the Terminal Railroad. The Exchange feared a Terminal Railroad monopoly on the bridges but it would eventually lose control of the Merchants Bridge also.