Illinois Terminal McKinely Bridge Approach - St. Louis, MO

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The old railroad approach to the McKinley Bridge is being converted to a trail.
ITS McKinley Bridge Approach - St. Louis, MO

This view is looking north up the old Illinois Terminal (IT/ITS) approach to the McKinley Bridge from Branch Street, in North St. Louis, MO. The former railway bridge approach is now a hiking and biking trail. The Illinois Terminal was originally an electrified railway, and the old catenary wire supports are still standing above the pathway.

Up until June 2004, this approach was still used for railroad operations, though the trains that used it only went up the approach a little ways. Railroad Switching Services of Missouri (RSM/RSSM) operated a train on the old Illinois Terminal Highline Bridge over North St. Louis that delivered newsprint to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. RSM trains would back out of a small rail yard to the south of Branch Street (behind where this photograph was taken from) and move up the approach a short distance, then switch to the track that accessed the Highline Bridge.

The McKinley Bridge crosses the Mississippi River between St. Louis, MO and Venice, IL, and was built by the ITS in 1910. The bridge originally carried both automobiles and trains. After an extensive rehabilitation, the bridge once again carries automobiles, as well as pedestrians and bicyclists.


Photo taken: May 18, 2008. St. Louis, Missouri.
Location: Branch St, St. Louis, MO, USA.

Comments

  1. Shelly GSeptember 12, 2019 at 8:50 AM

    Neat that they kept some of the structure though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tom G.September 15, 2019 at 9:35 AM

      I agree, Shelly. It's nice that the bridge is still serving a purpose, and that by keeping some of the railroad structures the bridge still shows what its original purpose was. Not seen in this photograph is another bridge that was part of this railroad's entry into St. Louis. This approach comes down at Branch Street in North St. Louis. Then behind where I was standing the tracks go right back up onto an elevated rail bridge that winds its way over North St. Louis before coming down to the ground again near Howard Street and Hadley Street. Here's a photograph I took of the elevated rail line back in 2012, https://photoblog.tomgatermann.com/2018/03/still-standing.html .

      Delete
    2. Tom G.September 15, 2019 at 10:12 AM

      Lets try that link again, Still Standing

      Delete

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