This blog has covered quite a bit of history related to Riverside Park in Indianapolis, with the most recent posts about the park highlighted the history the steamboat Helen Gould and the Indianapolis Canoe Club. While this post does not focus exclusively on Riverside, the park is still a central scene for this topic: tracking the remains of the Lafayette & Indianapolis, and later Big Four, railroad through Indianapolis.
This topic stems from images in the Helen Gould and Canoe Club posts above, which show the 30th street bridge over the White River. The images also show another bridge, upstream from 30th Street, also crossing the White River. An excerpt from a Helen Gould photo, below, shows the bridge in question. This is a railroad bridge, but today, there is no visible sign of the bridge at that site. But knowing the bridge had been there led me to research the history of the railroad and to explore the remnants of the bridge and the rail line itself.
The rail line which once crossed the White River at this point was originally the Lafayette & Indianapolis (L&I), one of the original railroads in the Circle City. The line was started in Lafayette in late 1851, using iron and materials which were shipped to that city on the Wabash & Erie Canal. The line was then constructed south to Indianapolis.
Starting from downtown and going to the north, the line runs from the Union Depot, the precursor to today’s Union Station, north along the eastern bank of the Central Canal. In between North and Walnut Streets, the latter now being the Cultural Trail, stood the L&I depot, one of the original depots constructed in Indianapolis before the Union Depot was completed. I’ve written about two other original depots for the Bellefontaine line and the Madison & Indianapolis line.
From there, the line runs north through the new IU Health complex. South of 10th Street, there are no remains of this rail line in downtown. The eastside of the canal has been changed greatly over the past 150 years, although as recently as the 1980s the remnants of rail line were still visible along this route. The location of the depot is now a housing complex just to the southeast of the Colts Playground on the canal basin at St. Clair.
One remnant of the rail line, albeit not a physical remnant of the line itself, is Lafayette Street, a side street which runs north/south half a block to the west of Senate. While one would probably presume this was named after the French aristocrat and Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette, it derives its name from the former L&I (the railroad is named for a town which derives its names from the war hero) which followed the line of the street northward. In a few places Lafayette Street is an unmarked alleyway. There used to be a section north of the I-65 overpass where the street was still intact, but that has been obliterated by the IU Health construction in that area. While the street still appears on some maps, I was not able to locate any street signs noting the "Lafayette" name.
Like many railroads, the L&I has undergone name changes over the years. For our purposes, the L&I would eventually fall under the mantel of the Big Four Railroad, a conglomeration of several railroads across the Midwest in 1889. The railroad was also called the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (thus the "four" in Big Four). The railroad was based in Indianapolis, and in 1929 would have its headquarters at the Chesapeake Building on the southeast corner of Meridian and Maryland. Today the building houses a Hampton Inn.
Returning to the route of the Big Four line (which was the "Chicago Division" of the Big Four), once north of 10th Street, and into the IU Health property, the line takes a long gradual curve to the west, before it crosses MLK Jr. Street. This bend was the location of the 1903 Purdue football team train crash which killed 17 people and injured another 40. The curve in the tracks is shown below, with MLK Jr. Street (then Northwestern Avenue) in the bottom right corner, looking south towards downtown. Today Interstate 65 runs on the left side of the power plant in the center of the photo, although the power plant has long since been demolished. Following the accident the railroad's route was changed to enter the downtown area from the west. The line from downtown northward and past the point of the Purdue crash was still used as a "commercial switch," meaning only commercial traffic used that stretch of railroad.
Once across MLK Jr. Street the railroad roughly parallels the canal again and runs through an industrial area before reaching Fall Creek. The image below from Google Streetview shows the route to the northwest through the industrial area.
Here, the line crossed the creek, just a short distance from the Central Canal aqueduct. The bridge for the Big Four is no longer there, having been removed in 2017-2018, although the abutments on the north and south side of the creek are still clearly visible, especially when paddling in the creek. The south bank (or river left if you are paddling) abutment is made from cut stone, while the north side is concrete.
The cut stone abutment is older, while the concrete abutment dates back to 1917, as shown on the date plate above, when the channel of Fall Creek was widened on the north bank and an additional span was added to the bridge. The image below is an excerpt from a larger image of the canal aqueduct over fall creek and shows part of the Big Four bridge (the north end) prior to the widening of the creek.
Just north of Fall Creek, the rail line crosses Burdsal Parkway, and although the rails themselves have been removed, their former location is evidenced in the pavement on the parkway, as shown below.
A few feet past this is one of the more substantial remains of the rail line: A crossing over the Central Canal. Here, the rail line is still in place, and it crosses the canal on a diagonal, using a steel framed platform which sits in the canal, upon which the tracks are laid.
Once across the canal the rail line takes a slight turn to the north and runs parallel to the Central Canal. The path of the line is now occupied by an extension to the Central Canal Towpath Greenway, a relatively new trail which opened a few years ago.
A spur of the line also continued north on the eastern side of the canal, running to just north of 30th Street and at one time served the ice houses and ice ponds owned by the Armstrong family. Also, at 25th Street, the northwestern section of the Belt Railway connects with the Big Four line.
At 29th Street, the Big Four left its parallel course along the canal and continued its northwestern track, passing just north of the site of the Naval Armory at 30th and the White River. Here is where the rail bridge at the beginning of the post was located. There are not many photos of this bridge but below is another excerpt from a larger photo which shows the Big Four bridge in the background.
Unlike other now demolished White River bridge sites around the city, the remains for the Big Four bridge are not easily visible. While there was a mid-river pier, or support, for the bridge in photos, there are no remains of this, and newspaper reports indicate it was removed around 1911.
The banks of the river in this area have also undergone significant changes over the years, with levee and flood control projects reshaping the riverbanks. This means there is no evidence of the abutment on the western bank. On the eastern bank, there appears to be no evidence of an abutment at first glance. However, in early November, when water levels still were very low due to the lingering drought, I decided to explore the area. I had checked this area last year by kayak and found nothing, but the water levels were higher. This time, I was wading in the middle of the river and sweeping the shore with a telephoto lens when I spotted this:
This appeared to be a stone foundation, and I returned to my car and drove to the other bank. This section of the river has a levee wall, which is paralleled by the White River Trail. After jumping the levee wall, you are confronted with a steep riverbank and more honeysuckle than I have ever seen. After much fighting and some profanity, I worked my way down to the waterline and spotted what I had observed from the middle of the river:
It may not look like much, but this is cut stone and is the foundation of the old abutment for the railroad bridge. A few inches difference in the water level would have hidden the foundation. There are no remains of the corresponding abutment on the west side of the river.
Once across the river the Big Four-line cuts across what was the Riverside Golf Course on the north end of Riverside Park. Before the golf course came into existence the area was just part of Riverside Park, and the rail line crossed the park on a raised berm, 10-15 feet higher than the surrounding land. The topographic map below (actually two maps spliced together), from the Ball State Library's Indy Parks archival collection, show this distinctive elevated berm running diagonally across the park terminating at Cold Spring Road in the upper left corner of the image. 30th Street is at the bottom of the image. The bridge over the White River is also shown.
It appears that this stretch of rail line, at least from the bridge crossing northward, was abandoned by the Big Four sometime before 1910. The 1910 Report of the Board of Park Commissioners for 1910, which covers work done in 1909, noted that “[s]ince the practical abandonment by the Big Four railroad of the right of way of its old Chicago division through Riverside Park, the final disposition of the railroad embankment had been a problem for the Board of Park Commissioners.” This date also corresponds with the removal of the bridge pier in 1911 as noted in the Indianapolis News excerpt above.
The park board report continued, explaining that the embankment had provided some flood protection to the southern sections of the park during periods of high water. However, part of the soil from embankment was used in the construction of a new roadway atop a new embankment, or levee, right along the river. At the same time as this constriction, the western abutment of the bridge was also removed, indicating that the bridge itself was removed prior to 1909, even though some maps continue to show the bridge for several years beyond this date
The park was heavily damaged by the flood of 1913, so it seems the reduced height of the railroad embankment was not sufficient to stop that flood. In 1916 the park board minutes discuss the leveling off the remainder of the embankment. The line of the track through the area once the golf course was constructed could still be seen in aerial images in the 1930s, mostly thanks to a line of trees which roughly followed its route. However, this evidence later faded, and when Riverside Golf Course was closed a few years ago there was nothing left of this old line.
Once leaving Riverside Park, the railroad skirted the edge of the bluff upon which the Allison Mansion at Marian University is located. It crosses Crooked Creek, although there is no evidence of a bridge, and parallels the creek on the east side of the Nina Mason Pulliam EcoLab. The image below shows where the railroad would have run through the Marian University property, although there are no remaining signs of the line.
From here, the line goes north, although I-65 and 38th Street obliterate any remains once the line leaves the Marian Property. North of the interstate, Cooper Road follows the rail line through neighborhoods, much of which has a clearly defined embankment upon which the railroad, and now the street, once ran. The line crosses Crooked Creek, near the present-day bridge for 42nd street over the creek. The south bank of the creek has many stones which could possibly be the remains of the abutment for the bridge, likely rearranged for erosion control. The raised hump just behind the V shaped tree is the embankment for the railroad.
Further north, the line crosses Crooked Creek again, near the intersection of 44th Street and Kessler Boulevard. LiDAR scans of this area suggest there are remains of line are still there, including like the remains of a small bridge. However, this section is solidly on private property, and I was not interested in trespassing on this day.
From this point the railroad’s path is lost to residential development with neighborhoods obliterating any sign of the route. A few miles later the line reemerges just north of 56th Street in the Saddlebrook Golf Course where line connects with a CSX line which runs north from Speedway (constructed after the Purdue train crash). Here the Big Four-line crosses Guion Creek, and while I suspect there are remains of the line and a railroad bridge here, the area is not easily accessible, unless I take up golf, which is not going to happen. The line continues north towards Lafayette, passing through New Augusta and then out of the county
Sources
Board of Park Commissioners Meeting minutes, 1916, Digital Indy, https://www.digitalindy.org/digital/collection/ipr/id/639/rec/3
Report of the Board of Park Commissioners for 1910, https://www.digitalindy.org/digital/collection/ipr/id/34971/rec/4
Riverside Amusement Park Canoes, Indiana Historical Society (n.d.)
White River Topographic Maps, Indianapolis Dept. of Parks and Recreation Landscape Architectural Drawings, Ball State University Libraries, https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/IndplsPDArc/id/7968/rec/2
Murphy, Ared Maurice. “The Big Four Railroad In Indiana.” Indiana Magazine of History 21, no. 2/3 (1925): 109–273. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27786221
コメント