Back in the 1980s I used to walk across that bridge many of times and I seen it flooded over the bridge back then. Thank you, I enjoyed seeing the bridge again.😊
Thank you for a look at this bridge. As an Australian fan of US interurban and streetcar history, it’s nice to get a close look at what remains. Another interesting remnant is a length of street track still intact in the intersection of W North St and N Calvert St in Muncie. It’s visible on Street View. Interurbans were always a shaky financial prospect. Most were on their last legs by the 1920s, with with a handful surviving past the early 30s, getting a boost due to WW2 rationing, but then dropping back off once gas was cheap and available again and cars were in the showrooms. National City Lines existed to acquire city and town transit businesses, not interurbans. The reality is, once affordable cars became available, people wanted freedom from schedules and fixed routes, and interurban ridership dropped. And I say this as a traction fan.
Wish we still Had it today. When I was a child I lived 800 block of north Mulberry street in Muncie. The street was still brick and the tracks were still there. Two blocks from my house was white river where it crossed. There are huge concrete blocks in white river that was part of the inter urban bridge. As a kid we use to go out and climb on them. Still there today. One day I watched mulberry get paved over the bricks. I have a piece of the track that my grandpa was able to get.
My father was born on the west side of N. Mullberry in the 800 block. The blue place they tore down about 7-8 years ago, right behind Fisher Brake, There is/was a video on TH-cam of the inturburan crossing the river and coming down Mulberry. As is passes that house you can see my grandfather 1933 Pontiac coupe out in front of the house. Probably in about 1935-36. I can not for the life of me find that video again.
@ if you find that video I would love to see that. I think I can place that house. If behind fisher brake that should be 900 block. North of Maple street. It was such a great neighborhood when I was a kid.
You are right about hidden gems, my wife and i tour the US in our motor home, we keep a very loose itinerary because as we travel we discover so many interesting things in small towns a citys along the way, we often spend several days in a area taking in local sights.
Satolli, another great history lesson on the "Inter Urban" with your friend Jean. My Father use to talk of the old "Traction Cars" around Cincinnati. Cheers, Mate.
Wow the interurban ended 1941 in Indiana. 3:21 I live in the DFW area and Texas Electric Railway ran from 1901 to 1948, funny how that is. Now DART light rail runs right next to the old Interurban.
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 1996 when it running. I should say in some areas it runs by the old TER . They spent millions to recreate the same thing.
Some facts about Indiana's interurban routes ends. At the end the lines were mostly owned by a company called Public Service Indiana. They sold both transportation and electricity. The power lines and generators that supported the interurban also provided power to the communities along the way. By the late 1930's they had a long history of losing money on transportation and making it on power and they wanted to expand their power business. The Wall Street banks would not loan them money to expand the power business because they were convinced it would end up subsidizing the interurban operations. Public Service was forced to end the interurban operations to get the money to expand the power business. They did continue in transportation with Trailways Bus Lines, which became a separate company and ended up buying Grayhound in the 1980's and changing all the Trailways operations to Grayhound for the better name recognition. Public Service Indiana became a major power provider in Indiana until Duke Power bought them out about 1990. One of the ways to locate old interurban routes is to look for power lines as Public Service Indiana continued to use the right of ways to run their power transmission lines on and they are still there till this day in many cases.
Actually if you watch at the very beginning of the video where I'm doing the introduction, that is on top of the bridge. There's nothing left up there from the original line.
I live in Terre haute Indiana and according to the map of the city in the early 1900s the inter urban railway line ran just about a block from my house. The rail car could be seen from my front porch. It is now the national heritage trail.My house too is very old. It was built in 1860.
You could be in Indianapolis in an hour on the inter urban....yeah sure....but with your car you could bring your shopping right up to your door in your own driveway......and do it on your own schedule. ....in comfort.....out of the weather. Don't get me wrong....I love these videos about the old bridges and rail trails.
GM did the same thing with the street cars in Detroit. Gm bought the system and shipped the whole thing to Mexico city . This enabled GM to sell more cars in Detroit.
As I do the introduction at the beginning, I'm walking across the bridge. As far as a drone, the vegetation is so thick, I couldn't get any decent shots.
In Ohio, along USR 68, southbound, from Urbana to Springfield, you will see culverts at the right-of-way edge, which is what is left of an interurban line. There is a marker at the site of the former depot in Urbana. One of the culverts was covered over when ODOT connected the 68 bypass to 68 a couple of decades ago.
To my knowledge, there are still interurban tracks running along Main Street in Knightstown. When they shut down those trains, it was too much of a hassle to dig up the tracks, so they just paved over them for years. If you go to Locust Lane, back to where the street turns towards Greensboro Pike, there is a trail leading back to Blue River. That trail is where the Interurban ran from the east to Adams Street, then to a building where the American Legion sits. That was a depot and maintenance building for the Interurban. The bridge abutments for the line are still there, even though the bridge was razed in the late 70's. There is a museum dedicated to the Interurban in Brownsburg. 20 years ago, there were some interurban cars in Carthage. Not sure if they're still there or what shape they're in, now.
You forgot me!? It would have been a great day to see the other one. I made a video of it. I also found remains of an old walk bridge. I couldn't tell you anything about it. It looks ancient 😊. Thanks for the video!
Not much left of the Springport Depot now. Its sorta still there I guess. There is a bridge about a mile north of Springport still in the middle of a field. Until they used the right of way for a pipeline last year, there were still a few pantograph stanchions still standing.
That's a pretty long RR center span for the times. Nice that the designers knew the flood history and basically made pier/box culvert/abutments to lessen the chance of erosion around the abutments. I wonder if the deck or side beams have any prestressing or post-tensioning going on (of if it was a thing yet). Deck would likely not be delaminating but for the forest growing on top. Cool piece!!
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 I inspected new and rehab bridge construction for the state DOT for several years. I still work (35 years) in the industry.
I grew up in metro detroit, until the mid 50s they had a trolley system, it was killed of when CEOs of the auto industry complained they couldnt sell cars if people had public transportation. My father who worked for GM from the early 30s to the 70s swore this to be true.
6:23 you can see on the right the shelter that used to be adjacent to my house/property, between my house and Memorial Park. That shelter on the right side of the video at this point was the inner urban structure on the north side of New Castle. It was there when I lived there and then they moved it to the historical society. There was a bridge north of there near what used to be the state hospital. That one was featured in the newspaper, Henry County news, Republican, on the back page in an article called something along the line of down the road or something like that. …and there’s a part just south of there that the bridge was torn down by the softball fields. My house was right there Closest to that bridge. In Raintree Heights. The Bridge north I’m not sure what the gentleman‘s talking about but the bridge north was not steel. Maybe there was another steel one further north than the state hospital. But the one near the state hospital is just like the one in this video Concrete. I can tell you I was on that bridge many many times growing up. We rode our motorcycles in the gravel pit just south of that Bridge all the time.
@@OldcarsNmusic Look at the first “1” and there is no ‘foot.’ The last digit has a bar at the top, like a numeral “7” does. The stone is chipped at the bottom of “7”.
I cross a bridge every week that looks like that one and it was built 1939. In fact the state I live in has many that are falling apart. They need to be replaced!
There was an INTERURBAN line that ran out of Detroit. The concrete electrical wire towers are still there along I-94 going into Detroit. My Father said it cost 5 cents to ride it. Don't know how long or where the tracks ran to. FMR Intelligence Officer
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 kids movie. Judge Doom reveals he is the sole shareholder of Cloverleaf and plans to erase Toontown with a Dip-spraying machine so he can build a freeway in its place, and decommission the railway system to force people to use it.
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 no but just north of Forest Park east side of SR 19 you can see where there had been a bridge . The limestone stantions are still there . Went across white river then turned north into Noblesville . You can plainly see it from Potters Bridge trail . West behind the Moose Lodge .
Nice. Love history! The reason motorists rush past things is because we get no time off in the United States. Tell any foreign person how much vacation you get, if you get any, and they'll be shocked. Our culture is built on rushed, stress-out, fearful, irate consumerism. It's more profitable.
Back in the 1980s I used to walk across that bridge many of times and I seen it flooded over the bridge back then. Thank you, I enjoyed seeing the bridge again.😊
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for a look at this bridge. As an Australian fan of US interurban and streetcar history, it’s nice to get a close look at what remains. Another interesting remnant is a length of street track still intact in the intersection of W North St and N Calvert St in Muncie. It’s visible on Street View.
Interurbans were always a shaky financial prospect. Most were on their last legs by the 1920s, with with a handful surviving past the early 30s, getting a boost due to WW2 rationing, but then dropping back off once gas was cheap and available again and cars were in the showrooms. National City Lines existed to acquire city and town transit businesses, not interurbans. The reality is, once affordable cars became available, people wanted freedom from schedules and fixed routes, and interurban ridership dropped. And I say this as a traction fan.
I agree 100%.
Wish we still Had it today. When I was a child I lived 800 block of north Mulberry street in Muncie. The street was still brick and the tracks were still there. Two blocks from my house was white river where it crossed. There are huge concrete blocks in white river that was part of the inter urban bridge. As a kid we use to go out and climb on them. Still there today. One day I watched mulberry get paved over the bricks. I have a piece of the track that my grandpa was able to get.
Great story! Thanks!
My father was born on the west side of N. Mullberry in the 800 block. The blue place they tore down about 7-8 years ago, right behind Fisher Brake, There is/was a video on TH-cam of the inturburan crossing the river and coming down Mulberry. As is passes that house you can see my grandfather 1933 Pontiac coupe out in front of the house. Probably in about 1935-36. I can not for the life of me find that video again.
@@TheBilllebob I'll look for it.
@ if you find that video I would love to see that. I think I can place that house. If behind fisher brake that should be 900 block. North of Maple street. It was such a great neighborhood when I was a kid.
@@beverlymichael5830 OK, I'll let you know.
You are right about hidden gems, my wife and i tour the US in our motor home, we keep a very loose itinerary because as we travel we discover so many interesting things in small towns a citys along the way, we often spend several days in a area taking in local sights.
Exactly! You can find interesting sites everywhere.
What a beautiful bridge, thank you for another great video
You're welcome!
Thanks 😊 for keeping history going! ❤
You are most welcome.
Satolli, another great history lesson on the "Inter Urban" with your friend Jean.
My Father use to talk of the old "Traction Cars" around Cincinnati. Cheers, Mate.
It's a piece of history that I'll never see.
Great find! Beautiful old bridge! Glad its survived! Thanks for sharing it with us!👍
I've heard about it for years but couldn't find it on my own. I needed Gene to show me where it was located.
Wow the interurban ended 1941 in Indiana. 3:21 I live in the DFW area and Texas Electric Railway ran from 1901 to 1948, funny how that is. Now DART light rail runs right next to the old Interurban.
When was the DART line started?
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 1996 when it running. I should say in some areas it runs by the old TER . They spent millions to recreate the same thing.
love this stuff
Lot's of neat stuff out there.
I live in Crawfordsville, and the THI&E used to run through here.
Yes it did.
Some facts about Indiana's interurban routes ends. At the end the lines were mostly owned by a company called Public Service Indiana. They sold both transportation and electricity. The power lines and generators that supported the interurban also provided power to the communities along the way. By the late 1930's they had a long history of losing money on transportation and making it on power and they wanted to expand their power business. The Wall Street banks would not loan them money to expand the power business because they were convinced it would end up subsidizing the interurban operations. Public Service was forced to end the interurban operations to get the money to expand the power business. They did continue in transportation with Trailways Bus Lines, which became a separate company and ended up buying Grayhound in the 1980's and changing all the Trailways operations to Grayhound for the better name recognition. Public Service Indiana became a major power provider in Indiana until Duke Power bought them out about 1990. One of the ways to locate old interurban routes is to look for power lines as Public Service Indiana continued to use the right of ways to run their power transmission lines on and they are still there till this day in many cases.
Great information! Thanks!
Great info. Would have been interesting to see up along the actual bridge. What's left of the tracks and the approaches?
Actually if you watch at the very beginning of the video where I'm doing the introduction, that is on top of the bridge. There's nothing left up there from the original line.
Nice video!
Thanks!
I live in Terre haute Indiana and according to the map of the city in the early 1900s the inter urban railway line ran just about a block from my house. The rail car could be seen from my front porch. It is now the national heritage trail.My house too is very old. It was built in 1860.
Great place to live!
The old depot in Kennard still stands and last time I checked is still being used as a residence.
I'll check it out. Thanks!
Great information thanks
You're welcome!
I never heard of it. Very cool. Thanks for sharing!
You're welcome!
You could be in Indianapolis in an hour on the inter urban....yeah sure....but with your car you could bring your shopping right up to your door in your own driveway......and do it on your own schedule. ....in comfort.....out of the weather. Don't get me wrong....I love these videos about the old bridges and rail trails.
Glad you like the project.
GM did the same thing with the street cars in Detroit. Gm bought the system and shipped the whole thing to Mexico city . This enabled GM to sell more cars in Detroit.
I didn't know that!
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 the system is still used today in Mexico city
They did the same thing In Los Angeles.
@@williamstrother7482 How's that?
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 LA had a trolley service. They teared it to make more freeways to sell more cars gas and tires.
Oh....I had hoped top see you walk across it or fly a drone around it.
As I do the introduction at the beginning, I'm walking across the bridge. As far as a drone, the vegetation is so thick, I couldn't get any decent shots.
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 Gosh, it is so overgrown I didn't notice that. Thanks. ....and stay safe out there.
@@rael5469 Always!
People don't realise how convenient and fast those electric trains were. Small towns were more connected them than they are now.
Definitely!
In Ohio, along USR 68, southbound, from Urbana to Springfield, you will see culverts at the right-of-way edge, which is what is left of an interurban line. There is a marker at the site of the former depot in Urbana. One of the culverts was covered over when ODOT connected the 68 bypass to 68 a couple of decades ago.
I didn't know that! Thanks!
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 You're welcome.
To my knowledge, there are still interurban tracks running along Main Street in Knightstown. When they shut down those trains, it was too much of a hassle to dig up the tracks, so they just paved over them for years.
If you go to Locust Lane, back to where the street turns towards Greensboro Pike, there is a trail leading back to Blue River. That trail is where the Interurban ran from the east to Adams Street, then to a building where the American Legion sits. That was a depot and maintenance building for the Interurban. The bridge abutments for the line are still there, even though the bridge was razed in the late 70's.
There is a museum dedicated to the Interurban in Brownsburg. 20 years ago, there were some interurban cars in Carthage. Not sure if they're still there or what shape they're in, now.
Thanks for the information!
You forgot me!? It would have been a great day to see the other one. I made a video of it. I also found remains of an old walk bridge. I couldn't tell you anything about it. It looks ancient 😊. Thanks for the video!
Sorry about that but glad you like the video.
Not much left of the Springport Depot now. Its sorta still there I guess. There is a bridge about a mile north of Springport still in the middle of a field. Until they used the right of way for a pipeline last year, there were still a few pantograph stanchions still standing.
I'll check it out, thanks!
That's a pretty long RR center span for the times. Nice that the designers knew the flood history and basically made pier/box culvert/abutments to lessen the chance of erosion around the abutments. I wonder if the deck or side beams have any prestressing or post-tensioning going on (of if it was a thing yet). Deck would likely not be delaminating but for the forest growing on top. Cool piece!!
You sound like you know your stuff when it comes to bridges.
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 I inspected new and rehab bridge construction for the state DOT for several years. I still work (35 years) in the industry.
They are all over Cincinnati if you know where to look. TY
You are absolutely correct.
I wonder if there are any other areas that have remains of that rail system. Great video.
Yes there are plenty of remains all along this route. Here's a video I did on the Mt. Lawn Bridge: th-cam.com/video/pAbLQ_dTbcU/w-d-xo.html&t
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 just checked it out, thanks.
I grew up in metro detroit, until the mid 50s they had a trolley system, it was killed of when CEOs of the auto industry complained they couldnt sell cars if people had public transportation. My father who worked for GM from the early 30s to the 70s swore this to be true.
I've heard this before.
back home again in Indiana...
Yes sir!
Show the top of the bridge.
I'm walking across the top of the bridge at the very beginning when I'm introducing the video.
6:23 you can see on the right the shelter that used to be adjacent to my house/property, between my house and Memorial Park. That shelter on the right side of the video at this point was the inner urban structure on the north side of New Castle. It was there when I lived there and then they moved it to the historical society.
There was a bridge north of there near what used to be the state hospital. That one was featured in the newspaper, Henry County news, Republican, on the back page in an article called something along the line of down the road or something like that.
…and there’s a part just south of there that the bridge was torn down by the softball fields. My house was right there Closest to that bridge. In Raintree Heights.
The Bridge north I’m not sure what the gentleman‘s talking about but the bridge north was not steel. Maybe there was another steel one further north than the state hospital. But the one near the state hospital is just like the one in this video Concrete. I can tell you I was on that bridge many many times growing up. We rode our motorcycles in the gravel pit just south of that Bridge all the time.
Thanks for the info! I didn't know that about the shelter.
I always look forward to your videos
GOOD! Glad to hear that.
Looks like it was built in 1907 rather than 1901.
I think you are correct.
There's a foot at the bottom of the last digit. It's "1901."
@@OldcarsNmusic Look at the first “1” and there is no ‘foot.’ The last digit has a bar at the top, like a numeral “7” does. The stone is chipped at the bottom of “7”.
@@OldcarsNmusic You're absolutely correct.
Your comment popped up before I saw the video....and I thought man, you know your bridges if you can identify a build date with that accuracy!
Wish i could go back in time...
Very interesting history.
Be nice if the inter urban system was recreated as part of our quest to rebuild & revitalize the nation's infrastructure.
I cross a bridge every week that looks like that one and it was built 1939. In fact the state I live in has many that are falling apart. They need to be replaced!
What is the GPS location?
Gm destroyed the DC Transit bus system in Washington DC so there would be no mass transit there.
I did not know that.
GM gave cities a more efficient system, it wasn't an evil idea just a better way of doing things.
@@naturalobserver1322get where you wanted directly
@@naturalobserver1322I suspect you may have missed his point.
There was an INTERURBAN line that ran out of Detroit. The concrete electrical wire towers are still there along I-94 going into Detroit. My Father said it cost 5 cents to ride it. Don't know how long or where the tracks ran to. FMR Intelligence Officer
Where abouts are the towers???
NAtional City Lines' existence and machinations are not in dispute. They wreaked havoc in Philadelpha very famously.
Good to know.
1907!!
You are correct.
I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and we had structural anomalies in remote places.used to love to explore it was an adventure
I have about 25 videos to release on historic bridges and tunnels in Pennsylvania.
Russiaville still has a station
You mean "Rushville"?
@ that’s not what I said is it? Russiaville , west of Kokomo. Google it, the stations on st rd 26. I posted a link but TH-cam must not like it.
@ Russiaville, st rd 26 west of kokomo. Interurban station south side of the road near the McClure gas station
@ Russiaville historical society has been trying to save it a long time. It had become apartments when I was a young lad.
@ 483 East Main Street is address I get from maps. Pronounced Rooshaville.
@3:36 who framed roger rabbit was a documentary
Tell me more...
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 kids movie. Judge Doom reveals he is the sole shareholder of Cloverleaf and plans to erase Toontown with a Dip-spraying machine so he can build a freeway in its place, and decommission the railway system to force people to use it.
It looks to me like the bridge date is 1907, not 1901. Regardless, either date works with the rest of the story.
You are correct.
Union Traction Co of Indiana Big Blue River Bridge
Exactly!
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 i have been mapping traction lines for years in google earth got all of IL and OH done half done with IN
1901, why did it have 1907 on it then ?
I think Gene was mistaken on the date.
Billie Jo McAllister jumped off this bridge back in the day.....
Really???
Part of an interurban remains in Noblesville .
I have a couple of old old photographs of an interurban from Valparaiso I believe.
Can you give me a GPS location of the remains?
@@historyinyourownbackyard2363 no but just north of Forest Park east side of SR 19 you can see where there had been a bridge . The limestone stantions are still there . Went across white river then turned north into Noblesville .
You can plainly see it from Potters Bridge trail . West behind the Moose Lodge .
❤
Nice. Love history! The reason motorists rush past things is because we get no time off in the United States. Tell any foreign person how much vacation you get, if you get any, and they'll be shocked. Our culture is built on rushed, stress-out, fearful, irate consumerism. It's more profitable.
these kind of things are everywhere. 'abandoned' lol drama
So how did you like the video?
To bad these interurban trains are`nt around anymore. Cars cost WAY to much.
I agree.
Chicago still has some of theirs.
@@paul5683 Yes they do and I'll be doing a couple of videos about them in the future.
For Google Maps, use 39.924167, -85.388833. Is the bridge on public property?
It is private property.