Admiral Riverboat Moved From St. Louis Riverfront:

Riverboat moving to Columbia, IL Scrap Yard

ST. LOUIS, MO -- (KTVI - FOX2now.com) — What some consider a St. Louis landmark is now gone. The Admiral was towed away from the St. Louis Riverfront Tuesday afternoon.  It's considered the end of an era for St. Louis. The Admiral has been a fixture on the St. Louis Riverfront since the 1940s.  The cruise ship turned casino will now become a scrap heap.

Demolition crews have been working in the past few weeks to make the riverboat shorter.  Workers are taking off the top deck of the boat.  That gave it another ten feet of clearance under area bridges so the boat can be moved Tuesdays morning to a scrap yard in Columbia, Illinois.

Cutting off the top was necessary because the Mississippi River continues to run high.

The Admiral has a long history in St. Louis.  The art deco vessel would cruise the St. Louis riverfront from the 1940's to the late seventies.

The engines were removed and the boat was anchored near the Eads Bridge. The boat later found new life as the President Casino, but the casino finally closed and the Admiral's days were numbered.

Three towboats moved the Admiral to Columbia, Illinois where the rest of it will be torn up for recycling.

And all we'll have left are lots of memories………

The Admiral was once recorded as being the largest river cruise ship in the world and the first Mississippi Riverboat to be fully air-conditioned. In the 1990's the Admiral became a riverboat casino, known as the "President Casino on the Admiral", which went out of business last year.

Source: KY3. By John Pertzborn. 19 July 2011

http://www.ky3.com/news/ktvi-historic-admiral-riverboat-leaving-st-louis-20110719,0,5686733.story