(upbeat music) - [Jim] It is just the Poplar Street Bridge, but it was designed to bring St. Louis into a new era, and it wasn't easy getting there.

- [Reporter] 10 barges broke loose from their tow, almost dumping the north stand into the river.

- [Jim] Why these folks needed and found a safe place to learn how to fight.

- So it kind of started as like me trying to get some friends together, and then I ended up having 10 people I'd never met before show up on my first class.

And I was like, "Whoa."

- [Jim] Why some veterans have told this organization, "Thank you for your service dog."

- And so to understand what the dogs do, you really have to understand PTSD and how it affects your brain.

- [Jim] And there are hundreds of old St. Louis legal documents just like these that are revealing the stories of fighting for freedom from slavery.

- Actually took my breath away when I first started working with these court records.

These, it rescues these lives from history.

- [Jim] It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(lively jazz music) (lively jazz music continues) (lively jazz music continues) (lively jazz music continues) I am Jim Kirchherr.

A lot of our ideas for "Living St. Louis" come from simple curiosity, but I'll admit, for all the countless times I crossed the Poplar Street Bridge, I was never thinking, "Wow, this is interesting."

Well, it's the anniversary of the bridge's opening, and as it turns out, there really is a pretty good story there.

This week back in 1967, a brand new bridge over the Mississippi River was open to traffic, finally opened.

There had been a lot of delays, so many issues, that even the Missouri State Highway Commission called its documentary "The Bridge That Wouldn't Be."

(classic instrumental music) - [Narrator] In the chill predawn hours of November 9th, 1967, workmen were busy with the final cleanup.

For days, crews had worked around the clock getting ready for the official opening of the Poplar Street Bridge scheduled for high noon.

- [Jim] Notice what he called it.

Yep, the Poplar Street Bridge.

Other names just didn't stick.

Not then, not now.

The other downtown bridges, Eads and MacArthur, were named for people, but they were old, been charging tolls, and just not up to the task of handling traffic in the age of the interstate.

And planning for a new bridge began in the 1950s with Missouri and Illinois both agreeing to the project in 1958.

- [Narrator] It had to be simple in design and elegantly proportion to add beauty, yet not obstruct the view of the river, the skyline, and the city's handsome waterfront development centered around its gleaming Gateway Arch.

- [Jim] The Globe Democrat reported that Arch architect Eero Saarinen approved what was termed a harmonious development.

- [Narrator] Nor was the new bridge to detract from the classic beauty of the Eads Bridge upstream.

- [Jim] With the Gateway Arch and the new baseball stadium in the works, St. Louis was counting on a tourism boom, and the bridge would be a big part of that.

Preliminary work was underway by 1960, choosing the route, the approaches, the land acquisition.

But even after construction began, the completion date kept getting pushed back.

- [Narrator] Workman refused to work in temperatures under 15 degrees, and there were days of biting cold.

- [Jim] And in 1965, floods.

- [Narrator] The damage was tremendous.

The cleanup job disheartening.

The delay, costly.

It was like starting all over.

Then 10 barges broke loose from their tow and played havoc with the steel erection on Pier 3 almost dumping the north span into the river.

A fire of unknown origin struck the top of Pier 6.

The heat was so intense that reinforcing steel curled like ribbons.

The damage ran high, and the project fell two more months behind schedule.

Construction on the Poplar Street Bridge and the Gateway Arch had started about the same time in 1963 with the expectation that both projects would be completed together.

The Arch graced the skyline, but the bridge couldn't seem to get off the ground.

- [Jim] By 1967, the bridge was nearing completion.

And the plan, or really the hope, was that it would be open in time to handle traffic for the World Series, Cardinals and Red Sox.

But nope, another last minute problem.

- [Narrator] Mainly because the epoxy placed on top of the zinc coating failed to stick properly.

It had to be removed, and the on-again-off-again bridge opening was off again.

- [Jim] It wasn't until November 9th that the new interstate highway bridge was finally doing its job.

- [Narrator] Eight lanes of traffic began streaming across the only toll-free bridge between downtown St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois.

- [Jim] Over the years, several names for the bridge were suggested.

Eisenhower, who started the interstate highway system.

Kennedy, after his assassination.

And finally St. Louis named it for Bernard F Dickmann, the 1930s mayor who started the riverfront clearance, even though nobody really had naming rights, and East St. Louis could have come up with its own name.

Didn't matter though.

Nobody really called it the Bernard F Dickmann Gateway Bridge, or after the name change in 2013, the William Clay Bridge.

Today it handles traffic for two interstates, and yet in St. Louis, we still give it a perhaps appropriately understated street name.

It was, after all, designed to be functional, not flashy, when it opened 57 years ago, better late than never, this week in St. Louis history.

(classical instrumental music) Over the years, some of our favorite stories involve groups of people with common, sometimes offbeat interests.

Banjos, Laurel and Hardy movies, roller skating, or in the case of Veronica Mohesky's story, people getting together to learn how to fight, and in the process, finding a place of safety and acceptance.

- [Veronica] Mad Green has been participating in martial arts since before they were in kindergarten.

- My dad was an MMA fighter.

So I started punching things like as soon as I could.

I started kickboxing whenever I was like four and karate whenever I was like seven or eight.

- [Veronica] But Green, who uses they/them pronouns, says there came a time when they no longer felt welcome in the sport.

- And then I just did that until I was a teenager, and I started fighting with my dad too much, and I stopped, and then I came out, and then it was like, gay people aren't welcome here.

So in my youth growing up in the male culture, toxic masculine culture of like MMA and martial arts, it's like homophobic slurs were tossed around like nothing.

You know?

And it's comes from everybody.

And I have seen so many ranges of people from the martial arts community, and it is pretty constant.

- [Veronica] So over a year ago, Green decided to create Queer Fight Club.

- Five, four, three, two, one!

And I was like, I am sick of being the only person I know who knows how to fight, and I really want the rest of the queer people in my life to be able to fight.

So it kind of started as like me trying to get some friends together, and then I ended up having like 10 people I'd never met before show up on my first class.

And I was like, "Whoa."

- [Veronica] And the class has grown since then.

Today is New Member Day at Queer Fight Club.

So Green will be teaching some kickboxing basics.

- Everybody got me, sequence 1112.

The very beginning is really like getting people to connect with their body and being like you can move this way, and you'll feel the difference.

And it's really fun because whenever people hit mitts for the first time, they're like shocked that they could actually throw a punch.

- [Veronica] But Fight Club is a bit of a misnomer.

Mad says it's really more about self-defense.

- It's unsafe to be queer in Missouri, and like St. Louis is like this blue little dot on the map.

But I've like gotten more homophobic and transphobic remarks here than I did like in the middle of the corn in Indiana.

So it doesn't really like matter, it's just like super unsafe here.

And it's definitely self-defense and kind of arming people with like the confidence to be able to defend themselves.

- [Veronica] LGBTQ+ people are nine times more likely to experience a violent hate crime than non-LGBTQ+ people, according to the UCLA Williams Institute, - I was privileged to grow up with access to education about queer issues.

That being said, I do, of course, still live in Missouri, and so I am seeing rights actively being taken away from trans people.

- [Veronica] That's Tad Schultians.

They've been going to Queer Fight Club since it began about a year ago.

They say it was tough growing up in Missouri.

- In school, I, you know, saw kids, and I was bullied for being queer or looking queer, or whatever thing they could pinpoint.

And so it's been a really unique and uncomfortable balance of growing up with that acceptance and still growing up among all of the hatred and homophobia and transphobia.

- [Veronica] In 2024, the Missouri legislature introduced 40 anti-LGBTQ+ bills, according to the ACLU.

Missouri introduced some of the most anti-LGBTQ+ legislation out of all 50 states.

That's why Green says the connection Queer Fight Club provides is so important.

- Whenever we do, whenever we have a new members day, our new people come, I make everybody sit down and like say why you're here.

And one of the most like common answers is that people want queer community.

- [Veronica] Schultian says the classes have increased their confidence.

- I was a very different person entering this class one year ago, and I feel I've grown so much, both physically, mentally, emotionally, socially.

It really, Queer Fight Club has rounded out, I feel all parts of my life.

- [Veronica] This was Cecilia Tornetto's first class.

- It's really difficult as a trans person to find spaces to be active in your body and also feel safe while you are being active in your body.

It's definitely been empowering to come to a space with all queer people.

- By queering it and making it a safe and a community, we are bringing out like the best of boxing and the best of kickboxing, and it's like how much people support each other, and like you train and you sweat and you hit each other, but then you like hug and you like support each other.

And that's kind of like what I want to bring out of the sport.

We're gonna be really loud and really queer and really angry.

- For Veterans Day, a story that's about basic training, but not for new military recruits.

It's for the service dogs who can help veterans with a variety of disorders and disabilities.

Brooke Butler on just what it takes to do that job.

- Over.

Yes!

- [Brooke] There's no denying the joy we feel when we interact with a dog.

Sure, they slobber and shed, but it's worth it for the unconditional love.

In fact, having a pet is so comforting, in 2019, there were nearly 200,000 people seeking registration for their pet to be considered an emotional support animal.

But these dogs, as much emotional support as they do give, are actually highly trained official service dogs.

They train for up to two years to support victims of post-traumatic stress disorder through the organization Got Your Six Support Dogs.

- We just got asked yesterday by like somebody coming in, they're like, "What is Got Your Six?

What does that have to do with dogs?"

- [Brooke] And Executive Director Nicole Lanahan explains the phrase, "Got your six," comes from World War II when fighter pilots would give their location in terms of a clock.

When someone was at your six o'clock, that meant they had your back.

And the slang stuck, not just for military, but also for first responders.

- And so we knew, I wanted something that military, law enforcement, first responders would know, "Hey, that's, I know that slang, this organization is for me, it's this is my organization."

Honestly, in the beginning, which is so funny, I was the biggest skeptic of PTSD service dogs.

I was thinking, "Okay, you guys, you just want to take your dog on an airplane."

- [Brooke] Nicole has been training dogs for over 20 years in various capacities from narcotic dogs for the military to diabetic and mobility assistance dogs.

But after several people contacted her with requests for PTSD support dogs, she started to investigate the details.

- And so to understand what the dogs do, you really have to understand PTSD and how it affects your brain.

- [Brooke] Historically referred to with terms like shell shock or battle fatigue, PTSD has been affecting soldiers since the creation of war.

In fact, references to symptoms of PTSD even date back to survivors of saber-tooth tiger attacks.

But the problem is, a world where saber-tooth tiger attacks are pretty few and far between, the psychological responses are still the same.

- For example, I was supposed to do an interview with somebody who applied for a service dog, and they never showed up.

About an hour after they missed their appointment, I get a phone call, and it was them sobbing, saying, "Look, I tried to come in, I really did.

I need this dog, but I saw a cardboard box on the side of the road, and I had to turn around."

You and me, we're like, "Cardboard box?"

But to them, they know that over in the desert, that's where they would hide bombs is in trash.

And so they're driving past the trash, and frontal lobe says, "Hey, we're in America.

There is no bomb in that box."

But the amygdala speaks up and says, "Hey, do you wanna risk it?

Is it worth risking your life?

And ultimately, no.

So I'm gonna turn around and go home where it's safe."

- [Brooke] But even with understanding the science and logical explanation behind PTSD, there was still the question of how a dog could be of assistance.

- Are they just dogs that make you feel better?

It has to be more than that, because the Americans with Disabilities Act says a service dog has to be able to perform a medical task in order to be a service dog.

So I'm thinking, "What is this task?

They have to do something."

- So we're just doing nothing while that cat walks around.

So I like to say that training is actually quite boring because teaching neutral is doing nothing in the face of a distraction, right?

And that's the first thing we start with is solid, pristine obedience.

From there, we move into their anxiety alerts, which include a lower body alert, such as a foot tap.

Yes, what a good girl.

If I'm crying, yes, very good, (laughs) very nice.

And they do nightmare interruptions, and retrieve items for us.

And one more.

- [Brooke] So the simple answer is, PTSD service dogs pay close attention to their owners, and when they notice a nervous behavior such as foot tapping, knee bouncing or sighing, they alert their owner by interrupting the nervous behavior.

But, of course, with the complexities of PTSD, the relationship between the dog and the owner is a little bit deeper.

(gentle music) - Sometimes I have emotions that I don't even know, I don't even know how to categorize 'em.

Like I'm not mad, I'm not sad, but I don't, I feel something, and I don't know how to verbalize it, or I don't know how to get somebody to understand how I feel like.

And Arkham cam just gets it.

I don't know, he feels it, and next thing I know he is on my lap, or he is flipping upside down on his back and doing something stupid and making me laugh.

- [Brooke] Coming from a long line of Navy veterans, Andy Canning took a while to realize he needed help managing the difficulties that come with returning home from service.

- And I did therapy and things like that, and one of the first things I told my therapist was, "I don't want to be on medication.

I wanna feel, and I want to to feel those things and emotions, but I wanna learn how to control 'em."

But he said, "Well, if you can find somewhere that'll do it, I think a support dog would be a great thing."

So I did some research, did some research, and ended up finding out that a friend of mine from school was a trainer here at Got Your Six Support Dogs.

The first thing you have to fill out the application.

It's like 20, 25 pages long, and you first print it out, and you're like, "Oh my gosh, it's gonna take forever."

Well, it's that way for me, personally, it's that way for a reason.

To even get started in the process, you have to want to get better, right?

So you gotta do the legwork.

- [Brooke] That legwork includes references and insight from your therapist, a primary care physician, your spouse and/or family members.

And after the application is received and approved, there's about a year-long wait list to get matched with a dog.

But once you're in, Got Your Six provides more than just the dog.

- So we make sure, with our applicants, that they're already, one of our requirements is they're already participating in therapy, but when they're here, one of the things, again, that makes us different is, they get a two-week trauma resiliency program with the service dog.

- [Brooke] This 14-day trauma resilience program includes a 24/7 therapist on site, workshops on mindfulness and stress relief techniques, and, of course, lots of interaction with your dog.

And all of this is at no cost for the veterans.

- So when they're here, we cover the cost of their meals, their hotel.

We also make sure that they have all of the supplies they need for their dogs, the dogs care for the entire year.

And all of that costs us, when it's all broken down, it costs us $25,000 per dog.

So that, since we are a non-profit, we have to fundraise all year.

- [Brooke] A lot of their support comes from donations, both monetary and supplies.

But Got Your Six is a big advocate for the Pause Act, which provides government funding for pairing service dogs with eligible veterans.

- Ever since the Pause Act happened, unfortunately we've seen a lot of backyard garage organizations pop up hoping to get some government money for training a dog.

And we've already seen and heard horror stories.

So we wanna make sure that anybody that's looking for a service dog, even not through us, just making sure that the organization that you go look is accredited.

- [Brooke] These non-accredited organizations are most likely offering services because the demand is just so high.

But looking at the transformative results, it's a worthy demand to supply.

- Or like feeling stuck, and I feel surrounded, he'll kind of bump me and say, "Hey, we're all right.

Let's do this."

He keeps me in the moment, and lets me enjoy my life the way I want to.

Prior to this and prior to getting help, I probably wasn't the best human to be around.

It's like somebody, not that my family didn't, and not that my therapist didn't, but somebody that I have never met before in my life cares enough to give me a chance.

(uplifting music) - You could say our next story is about documents, and it is, but it's really about people.

The documents sat in courthouse files and boxes in St. Louis for, well, 150 years or longer, but only recently have they been revealing the stories of courageous people who sued to win their freedom.

Just east of the St. Louis Civil Courts building is the Freedom Suits Memorial.

13 stories up, you will find the Law Library, and that's where you'll find a special exhibit about the history of those enslaved people who had the courage to challenge their owners and the slavery system by going to court to sue for their freedom.

- So I wanted to make sure that that was leading off, so people.

- [Jim] Bill Glankler with the Missouri State Archives put the exhibit together.

It's a small exhibit, four panels, and under glass in this case, three original legal documents, two from the 1840s, one from 1826.

And it was with these filings that the freedom suit began?

- Correct, that's the initial petition where they would, the enslaved person would lay out his or her reason why I should be free.

- [Jim] There were several arguments you could make that you were born free and wrongfully enslaved.

A previous owner had freed you or you had been taken for a time to live in free territory.

That was the argument made in the most famous freedom suit filed by Dred and Harriet Scott.

But for the last 25 years or so, researchers and scholars have been turning their attention to the 300 or so freedom suits that aren't so famous, and not because of the legal history, but because of the human history.

In what kind of condition are those documents in?

- They're in a remarkably good condition.

Some of the older ones from like the 1820s, and so we had to do some, we sent 'em off to do some conservation work, but for the most part, they're in very good shape.

They've just, they were folded up, and kept in metal till drawers for 150, 200 years, and they just kind of sat there.

- [Jim] But these original documents are really the closest you get to their voices.

A lot of that gets lost.

- Yes, yes.

- As the process goes on.

- That's exactly my, that's one of the things that actually took my breath away when I first started working with these court records.

These, it rescues these lives from history, and yeah, a lot of research has been done on the legal culture of it and which is all necessary.

But these tell us a lot about the people.

- [Jim] All this is what led to the movement to honor with memorial those who had sued for their freedom and those who helped them.

It was unveiled at the Civil Courts building in 2022 after a campaign led by Circuit Judge David Mason.

- The thing is, it was sort of undiscovered history, and because it was undiscovered history, it was a long time getting people to understand the impact of it.

Hundreds had petitioned and won, you know, hundreds had petitioned and lost, but St. Louis was sort of a hard bed of this type of litigation.

There were other cities where you had some litigation like this, but everybody knew in St. Louis, the courts were going to respect a slave's right to be free if in fact the evidence showed it.

You know, in the years since, word has gotten out, not only locally, but nationally, and there have been a number of national historians who they've written books and things like that, and in the historical community, it's become a big deal.

- The cases were filed.

- [Jim] University of Iowa legal scholar, Lea VanderVelde, discovered the freedom suits while researching her biography of Harriet Scott.

That led to a second book, "Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom before Dred Scott."

- It's nine families from St. Louis, each with a different posture in terms of their freedom suit.

And each of them reads like a short story.

- [Jim] One of the names that comes up in those suits is the most prominent name in the city of St. Louis, the Chouteau family, founders of the city.

They were involved in fighting freedom suits, including the Dread and Harriet Scott case.

- For them, it was really a mission.

They had several slaves who are suing them.

In this context, it's the Chouteaus who are going to be the losers of the issue of slavery, not just monetarily, they're losing it for their entire empire.

And they were dug in.

This was a mission for them to fight the Dred Scott case, even though they only had a really shoestring connection to Dred through Sanford, who was a Chouteau son-in-law, to fight it to win.

- [Jim] The scholars, I suppose, are coming to you on a fairly regular basis to look into this stuff, right?

- [Bill] Well, we'd like to see more people come look at it.

It is a valuable, they haven't been mined to their full potential yet.

- The exhibit will be on display and open to the public in the Civil Court's Law Library until December 3rd and then will be available to travel around the state.

But if you miss it, there is still the Freedom Suits Memorial outside with the list of the hundreds of St. Louises whose stories are only now just being told.

(inspiring music) And that's "Living St.

Louis."

Questions, comments, suggestions, send them to ninepbs.org/lsl.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Jim Kirchherr, and we'll see you next time.

(lively jazz music) (lively jazz music continues) (lively jazz music continues) (lively jazz music continues) - [Announcer] "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy & Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.