Three in the morning, and the lights strung along the Eads Bridge are about the only thing awake in the valley. B&B Snow Removal is already out with the blade down, opening drives, parking lots and walkways across East St. Louis before the first shift stirs. Winter reaches the American Bottom behind a cold front out of the northwest — wet, heavy snow that piles up in a hurry and turns to glass by daybreak, so salt goes down behind the plow before it gets the chance. There is no better sight at sunrise than black pavement where six inches used to be and a car that starts, backs out and goes. East St. Louis and its neighboring towns wake up to that, storm after storm.