Here, There and Everywhere -- Railroads Across America

THE OMNIPRESENT RAILROAD

                Today as almost every day on this trip, the railroad is omnipresent – in sight and in sound.  Like a loving dog that follows wherever one goes.  It’s just THERE – all the time.  Something you can count on. Heavy freight trains lumbering along.  Wherever we turn, there it is.  Back in our urban home, trains of this type seem a thing of the past; suggestions that we use trains for long-distance shipping and drastically reduce trucks on the highway are met with, “But most of those tracks have been torn up.”   Out here, it seems the railroad still rules.  It’s become sort of a dear friend, someone we can always count on to be there.  Perhaps because we’re daily immersed in the size of the thing, and our memories of  “ Hell on Wheels, “   “looks like Cullen Bohannon’s been here.”  “Wonder how General Dodge got along with Thomas Durant.” 

The Western Union

[Where the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific came together out west]

When we were further back west at Promontory, Utah, and the Golden Spike, it was “Dang that evil Leland Stanford” and the other western railroad barons that ran through our minds frequently.  From this side – Iowa --, there’s a different slate of characters than the ones we usually badmouth -- some we’d never heard of before such as General Dodge.   Also,  never had realized that it was Lincoln who had chosen Council Bluffs as the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific.  Otherwise, we’d have at least visited the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs – we’ve passed up every other recommended railroad museum on the path east as we’ve seen so many that it seems like one train car pretty much looks like another.   The toil, the lives, the deaths, the money, the greed, the drive, the vision it took to build this thing – kind of like developing the space program in our century.  One can hope there were fewer greedy rascals involved in NASA.  And talk about immigrant labor and the immigrant communities which remained after the work was done….and the train trips I’ve heard tell of as sporting events to shoot as many bison as possible from a moving train, almost wiping them off the face of the earth, in effect wiping out a good portion of Indian tribes as a result.  [Some say the U.S. government aided or encouraged the destruction of the bison to force tribes into submission or starvation.] 

“…Lincoln had a strong personal and political commitment to railroads as a central part of his vision of economic growth. As an Illinois legislator, Lincoln supported state subsidies for internal improvements and voted for numerous railroad charters. In 1847 he characterized railroad building as “a link in a great chain of railroad communication which shall unite Boston and New York with the http://www.indianahistory.org/our-services/books-publications/railroad-symposia-essays-1/Abe%20Lincoln%20as%20a%20Railroad%20Attorney.pdf

Mississippi.” He was elected president on a platform that declared: “That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country; that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction.” As president, Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act of 1862 and the 1964 (sic) amendments to that act.”  

 

                                                                                                       Abraham Lincoln, Outstanding in his field

All this to say, when you’re near the railroad all the time for days, when it crosses your path or you race beside it for a few weeks, it grows on you just how incredible the whole thing is, what it did for the development of the U.S., for the pockets of several men, for the connectedness and communication between remote states – you realize you’ve taken it for granted, that it’s come to seem like a thing of the past – but out here in the middle of the country it chugs along constantly, two-story cars zooming through the night with goods and grain and groceries.

                   Today’s been a day full of impressive bridges and the satisfaction of locating hard-to-find objects.  And a special thanks to the city of Grand Junction, Iowa, which is building an incredible outdoor museum with a history of highways in Iowa and a spot to view one of the earliest portions of the Lincoln from behind an original bridge that’s now in a field, and can only be seen from afar, back behind a railroad bridge. Purportedly there is still a concrete portion of the old road visible somewhere near that bridge, but not from our vantage point. The Lincoln bridge is in the lower portion of this picture.  We couldn't get any closer due to the railroad tracks and the construction workers and giant trucks nearby!

Above, not a railroad bridge; lovely arch on the Lincoln

  Wagon wheel built in 1911 over the Des Moines river, no longer very useful......water's too shallow to use it as a diving board.  For Ron's sake, I resisted the urge to descend the steep embankment on the opposite side of the river to wade a while.

  

The Kate High Bridge is now two bridges running parallel.  

A local story of fame is that of the Kate Shelley High Bridge; Ms. Shelley’s fame came from her racing through the dark, braving a raging storm, in fear of falling from a high bridge herself, to warn the station agent to stop the oncoming train as the bridge had washed out.  “She’s an Iowa legend based on a true story,”  according to S.E. Schlosser.

                As the weeks go by, we lose that excitement, marveling that we’re standing on spots where big things happened, feeling a connection to those who had been there before.  Today, touching the stonework on the L bridge and viewing the bridge beyond the railroad tracks, some of that wonder has been present again.  So next time you hear the lonesome whippoorwill, give in to that feeling of being 500 miles from home and be wistful for a while.

               

 

Peru, Wyoming, not far from Green River