For the past few months, drivers have been seeing the half demolished old Gravois Bridge over the Meramec River in Fenton, MO out their windows. When a bridge in Minneapolis collapsed in August 2007 with cars on top of it, a nationwide inspection of bridges was started. The Gravois Bridge was deemed unsafe and never opened again. Money, $5 million, was found to replace it.

But the bridge has sat half demolished since February, stalled do to weather and flooding.

"We can't wait can't wait until they start working again," says Becky Merx at the American Legion Post 400.

But for the folks like Merx, that wait has been a long one.

"We are here to help support the veterans," says Merx, "so with the bridge down that's less income we got coming in and less we can give out back to the veterans."

The lunch crowd has been cut in half while the bridge sits the same.

"You wouldn't believe the traffic that used to come across this bridge, she says.

In fact, Fenton's Mayor Dennis Hancock says as many as 15,000 cars a day crossed the rickety old bridge but all that traffic has been gone for years now.

"There are a lot of people in our city impacted by this." says the Mayor. "It's important for our city to get it done and we want to get it done."

But the Meramec, more importantly the Mississippi, hasn't been cooperating. Flood waters backing up into the work zone have been making it too deep to get a bulldozer down to knock out the piers.

"In the last 140 years there have three times the river has been this high up in the months of June, July and August, This is one of those three years, "says Hancock. "The money is in the bank to build. The problem we have had is that the river has been up consistently since February."

The wait for a re-start maybe near and end, the river is close to being low enough and once it is it will take a day to take it down and start to put a new one back up.

"The contractor is ready to go he has his people standing by we are standing by we are just waiting for the river to cooperate," says Hancock. "We have been watching the weather constantly, I look at the river stages every day and trust me no one wants to get this bridge built any quicker than I do."

Except maybe the veterans who have been waiting for wealth to return it's run over the river.

"Soon as Fenton can do something for us we would appreciate it," says Merx, "pretty, pretty please."