Korean War's 60th: General Dean Suspension Bridge, Carlyle, IL

The General Dean Suspension bridge is named in honor of Medal of Honor winner and Carlyle, Illinois, native General William F. Dean. Dean was an early hero of the 60-year-old Korean War who helped stop the North Korean advance. It is the only suspension bridge in Illinois since 1976.

The bridge is designated a National Historic Landmark, built at a cost of $40,000 in 1859. It is located just east of Carlyle over the Kaskaskia River just below the dam that creates Carlyle Lake, Illinois's largest man made lake. The bridge is owned by state and its historical significance, for which it received the landmark honor, for the early period of its existence.

The River Crossing

During the early 1800s, the Kaskaskia River crossing was part of the Goshen Trail which carried travelers who had transited the Cumberland Gap into into Southern Illinois at Shawneetown on the Ohio River and west to Alton, a river town north of St Louis. From there, people were able to get to St Louis with a lot less difficulty as they moved west. Many, of course, settled in Illinois without going further west. A belt of hamlets, towns, and villages was created along the path of the Goshen Trail. The Kaskaskia River crossing at present-day Carlyle, of course, was one place where people settled. A ferry or mud bridge supported by logs carried travelers across the river at Carlyle until the building of the original suspension bridge. There was a restoration of the bridge in 1951 and in 1953, the bridge was named in honor of General Dean.

General Dean's Story

The bridge is named in honor of Medal of Honor recipient and Carlyle native Army General William F. Dean, who led his 24th Infantry Division's defense of the Pusan Perimeter during the early days of the Korean War as Soviet-supported North Korean troops tried to overrun the peninsula with a sneak attack on June 25, 1950. Dean's troops fought the rearguard action that blunted the invasion. In the desperate fighting, Dean's troops fought against tanks with 2.36-inch bazookas which were wholly inadequate against the enemy armor. Dean himself knocked out a tank with a hand grenade and directed fire from his tanks which were located in an exposed position. He was last seen assisting the wounded during his division's withdrawal from Taejon, which was being overrun.

The Medal of Honor was presented to Dean's family. It was discovered a year later that the North Koreans had captured Dean and were holding him as a prisoner of war. Dean's memoirs described his harrowing experiences as the highest ranking captured American officer in the Korean War. Dean died in 1981.