Hudson E. Bridge was a charter director of the University and gave $130,000 to the 1870 fund-raising campaign, which was one of the largest gifts received in the W.G. Eliot era. Bridge accumulated the majority of his wealth through the manufacturing of stoves, but he was also a director, and later president, of the railroad system that evolved into the Missouri Pacific. Most of his gifts in 1870 were earmarked for an endowed chancellorship, which still bears his name.
Washington University is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2003-04.
