Stan Musial Vetrans Memorial Bridge

Made my first trip (westbound) over the bridge on Easter Sunday.
I had heard rumblings that it was a bumpy ride. The rumblings are correct.
My bridge venture was accidental. The westbound lanes on 40÷64÷70 have a new scheme at the interchange and while I was trying to get around some mopey «Sunday Drivers» who were obviously confused by the new spagetti pattern, before I realized what had happened I was veering slightly northwest and the new bridge spans were ahead of me.
As soon as you get on the bridge you feel a little more confined than when on the PSB and defnitely want to back off the gas as it has the feel of a «surface» street bridge, not that of a major highway/​freeway. No problem there… safety right? But slow of fast, you immediately notice the bouncy, jolty ride and you don’t have a chance to admire the bridge or the vista as you are being tunneled through «Jersey barriers» within the 2 semi-​narrow lanes in each direction.
Pleasantly, as I had made this bridge trip inadvertently, as you get halfway across you see that of the 2 lanes of westbound travel, a left lane is designated for traffic that is getting off downtown on Tucker. Yup! You get to see a side of «North» city that you haven’t had access to in years. That area of Tucker that used to dead end just past the Post Dispatch and Mo Bar and Grille is now through for traffic as that is where the new bridge dumps you off into downtown. Pretty cool, but for a bridge that was advertised as providing a major relief valve for traffic on the Poplar Street Bridge and a bypass for the congestion around the mess that was the I-​55/​I-​40/​I-​64/​I-​70 split… one lane… well, not so much.
In retrospect, I’m sure glad I experienced the bridge on Easter Sunday afternoon when traffic was light. I can only imagine how crazy it gets when left-​lane drivers headed to points west realize they need to get over to the right lane.
Tell me I’m wrong, but this didn’t feel like a $ 670 million river crossing.
Since my initial review I’ve gone over the bridge westbound again. Now that I know what to expect, the trip was much more pleasant and I was able to admire the beauty of the architecture and look up and down river a bit. I still don’t think it feels like a groundbreaking architectural or aesthetic achievement, but with the new closures downtown as Arch Ground improvements are furiously underway, I’d say the relief the bridge will provide to westbound 70 travelers will be immense.