There are so many overpasses in Chicago that it is difficult to pick one to discuss. This photo chose a couple overpasses for me to look at.
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| Al Krasauskas posted View of the nearly completed railroad track elevation by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company, at the crossing intersection of South Canal Street and West Cermak Road. View is looking northeast, towards downtown. Shows the residential and storefront wood-constructed buildings that once stood at this location. The saloon building with the hung Citizens Brewery's Beer sign, stood at the future location of one of the Cuneo Press complex of factory buildings that were built in 1922, at West 22nd and South Grove Streets. This photograph taken on September 25, 1903. Jack Franklin shared Robert Fiedler: I believe the Alton also used this bridge. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Robert's comment And the IC. This old aerial photo shows the area before the Orange Line reused the Santa Fe passenger route. It shows that there were six tracks across the two streets. I'm sure that, from west to east, it was 2 tracks each for GM&O, IC and Santa Fe. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Robert's comment Since all of the railroads had to elevate their tracks, I've noticed that sometimes it is done as a joint project. Sometimes they share the embankment and abutments but build their own bridges. In other cases, everything is shared. It looks like in this case that everything was shared. We can see on the abutment where the two bridges for the Santa Fe tracks have been removed. |
Because Chicago required the railroads to elevate their tracks in the city at the beginning of the 20th century, most of the overpasses in Chicago are now over a century old. And a derailment at Sibley, IA demonstrated that, no matter how small a bridge is, a failed bridge can cause serious damage.
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| Street View, Aug 2019 |
While I was taking photos of the Cermak Road Bridge, I grabbed a shot of a locomotive on the move to document that a UP loco was in this area. It think it was using Southern Pacific trackage rights to get to Canalport intermodal yard. Southern Pacific used to have trackage rights on the BN/CB&Q tracks to access that yard. UP would now be coming from its former C&NW tracks.
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| 20150705 2506 |
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| Digitally Zoomed |
I walked east on Cermak Road under the GM&O+IC and Orange Line overpasses to get a closer look at the UP/C&WI+NS/Pennsy overpass. I had noticed how this overpass forces Cermak to become a one-lane road. I had wondered why there was only one lane of traffic on this road when I found so much street parking west of the Cermak Road Bridge. Another reason for just one lane is to allow room for turn lanes.
While I was here, I turned around and got a photo of the other side of the Orange Line and GM&O+IC overpasses.
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