1857-1963 B&O #18, #19 (Silver Run) and #20 Tunnels west of Cairo, WV

#18: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Satellite?) daylighted

#19: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

#20: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Satellite) daylighted

This B&O route is now the North Bend Rail Trail.

#18 Tunnel

This must have been a short tunnel because the topo map doesn't show it, Bridge Hunter has the wrong location, and I could not find a cut (daylighted tunnel) on the satellite map between Tunnel #19 and Tunnel #17.

#19 Tunnel

Mike Tewkesbury posted two photos with the comment:

The Silver Run Tunnel (#19), west of Cairo WV, built 1853-55 for the B&O Railroad. For many years crews and operators alike reported seeing the specter of a dark haired woman wearing a white dress roaming along the railroad tracks at Silver Run. Legend has it that she frequented the right of way on the blackest of nights searching for her lost lover from long ago. In its day, there was no location as remote as the outpost of Silver Run. It was said that the operators, who manned the station during the dead of night, felt as though they were the last people on earth.

Now part of the North Bend Rail Trail

[This was posted on Halloween, Oct 31, 2025.] 

1

2

Because of the severity of the error in the topo map below, it is nice to have this confirmation of the tunnel number.

Greg Snprone, Oct 2024

Tom Neville, Jul 2025

This lighting clearly shows the brick lining.

Sara R, May 2023

#20 Tunnel

One side of the cut is still bare so this daylighted tunnel was easy to spot.

Satellite

And this corresponds with the tunnel marked on the left side of this map excerpt. The route around Silver Run Station is wrong, and thus Tunnel #19 is not shown. The tunnel on the right hand of the excerpt in Tunnel #17. I included it to show that there is no Tunnel 18 marked between #17 and #19.

1907/07 Harrisville Quad @ 62,500

1855+56+69+72+1910-72 Polk Street SUC Bridge on South Branch

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Chicago Loop; Satellite)

SUC = Strauss Underneath Counterweight

Image via BridgeHunter
"Built 1910 to replace 1872 swing bridge; removed 1972"

The Polk Street Bridge is in the raised position in this photo. Obscured by the smoke on the left was the Pennsy Freight House, the tall building north of Polk Street was the Marshal Field River Warehouse and the buildings on the right are more freight houses.

History's Mirror posted
[I'm not copying the description because it is an example of AI gone wrong. Basically, if a statement is not a platitude, it is wrong. The dredge is in the old channel, not the new one. And "Polk and Taylor Streets" implies an intersection, but they are parallel streets. The photo below shows that the photo was taken from Taylor, and we are looking at Polk Street Bridge.
But it is a great photo of the freight houses and of Polk Street Bridge.]
Franklin Campbell shared
Dennis DeBruler: The dredge is digging in the old channel, not creating the new one. But this is a terrific photo of Polk Street Bridge.

This photo confirms that the train shed that we see in the above photo was for the Grand Central Terminal. And because it includes the Pennsy freight house, I could confirm the streets as Taylor looking at Polk.

B&O C&O Grand Central, Chicago Terminal 1890-1971. posted via Dennis DeBruler

[Taylor Street is at the bottom and Polk Street is the next one upstream.]

We are look West because that is the Marshal Field River Warehouse on the right.

DN-0056536, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum via BridgeHunter

ForgottenChicago
The first swing bridge was built in 1869. That one was destroyed by the 1871 fire so a second swing bridge was built in 1872. The trunnion bridge was built in 1910, and it was designed by Joseph Strauss. The Marshall Field River Warehouse was built in 1904.The postal service acquired the warehouse in 1974 and removed it 20 years later to make room for their new post office.

Chicagology

King Iron Bridge Co., 1874 Catalog via Chicagology
The 1872 bridge was a tubular wrought iron swing bridge.