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Built St. Louis
Venice, Illinois
The outer reaches of Venice are criss-crossed by rail lines and a major switching yard, interspersed with farm fields and even a state park.
This spectacular rotting trestle was the railroad approach to the ricketty old McKinley toll bridge, closed for years to rail traffic, shut down entirely in the late 1990s, and currently undergoing renovation for automobile traffic.
Site reader Kenneth McGreevy adds:
"This was also built by the Illinois Terminal and was called the Venice High Line. It was built to avoid grade level crossings with the many rail lines serving the industries of the area.
"All of this and more can be explored in The Illinois Terminal Railroad by Dale Jenkins, 2005."
The rotting wood trestle was destroyed by fire in 2005; the steel elevated was removed in 2006. Only the steel and stone portion above the railyards remains. More of its remnants and the bridge they served can be seen at the Industrial City tour.
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The trestle and high line ran straight through the southern edge of Venice's residential areas until its recent demolition. |
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North of Venice, Horseshoe Lake State Park offers both peaceful respite, and surreal views of the distant St. Louis skyline and the Granite City Steel works.
The park's central lake was once a bend in the Mississippi River -- a vivid testimony to this region's nature as a flood plain for the mighty river.
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