Photographs MSS 157-0903 through 0914 are tentatively identified as the result of a tornado in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1896. That fateful Wednesday began as many summer days still do in the Midwest, warm and muggy. By midafternoon, a storm system had moved over Illinois and Missouri, blanketing the St. Louis area with thick clouds. Just after 5pm , the storm broke forth with torrential rain, thunder, and lightning. What would become known as the Great Cyclone or the Great St. Louis Tornado touched down 6 miles west of Eads Bridge. Moments later, the clouds took on a greenish hue and began to swirl ominously. The barometric pressure dropped significantly. And, what would become known as the Great Cyclone or the Great St. Louis Tornado touched down 6 miles west of Eads Bridge. In less than half an hour, the tornado carved a three-mile-wide path of destruction across St. Louis. It would most likely be rated as an EF4 today, with winds estimated between 168 and 199 mph. While it was just one of nearly 40 tornadoes to touch down in the central and southern parts of the country between May 15 and May 28, the Great St. Louis Tornado of 1896 still remains the third deadliest tornado in the United States. This single tornado is estimated to have killed at least 255 people and injured another thousandThis single tornado is estimated to have killed at least 255 people and injured another thousand. According to the May 29, 1896, edition of the Chicago Tribune, In all probability the exact number of those whose lives were crushed out by falling walls or who met their fate under the waters of the raging Mississippi will never be known. Once the tornado made it to the Mississippi River, it decimated steamboats and other vessels in the harbor, breaking them into pieces and scattering them from the Missouri to the Illinois shore. And, while the sturdy Eads Bridge remained standing, nearly 300 feet of its eastern approach was torn away. Pieces of the bridge weighing several tons were even scattered 100 feet away. After it battered the Eads Bridge, the tornado continued across the Mississippi into East St. Louis, Illinois, where it did the worst of its damage. Scarcely a house or building remained standing, with everything along the river completely swept away. (https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/great-st-louis-tornado-1896)