Illinois Terminal's Highline Bridge - St. Louis, MO

Illinois Terminal Highline Bridge - St. Louis, MO

An old railroad signal still stands on the former Illinois Traction System (ITS)/Illinois Terminal System (ITC) bridge in North St. Louis, at Chambers Street and North 10th Street. The railroad bridge originally carried electric interurban passenger trains from the McKinley Bridge's railroad approach at Branch Street to the Illinois Terminal train station (the former Globe Democrat newspaper building) in downtown St. Louis.

At the time this photograph was taken, the bridge had been unused for many years. However, up until the June of 2004, the bridge was used to bring in newsprint by boxcars for delivery to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, St. Louis' biggest daily newspaper. I was able to capture some photographs of the newsprint delivery in the spring of 2004, just a few months before the operation ended. The final railroad move over the bridge occurred a few years later in the winter of 2006 when the switching locomotive that was used for the newsprint delivery job was sold off and moved from storage under the Post Dispatch's building.

Today the bridge is known as the Iron Horse Trestle and is owned by trail group that hopes to convert the bridge into a public trail and park similar to the Highline Bridge in New York.

Photo taken: January 28, 2012. St. Louis, Missouri.