Kentucky and Indiana Terminal Bridge

The Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge (K&I) is a railroad bridge connecting Louisville, Kentucky and New Albany, Indiana. It is notable for its two abandoned automobile lanes flanking the railroad tracks. I set out, as I have done so in the past, to photograph the crossing. Within two minutes of arriving on-site, I was greeted by the friendly New Albany police. Oh well, that didn’t stop from photographing the bridge!

 

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Constructed from 1883 to 1886 by the Kentucky and Indiana Bridge Company, the crossing contained a single standard-gauge rail and two wagon lanes, and was the first fixed-crossing for wagons over the Ohio River in Louisville. The idea of a bridge between the two cities came about  after the completion of the Louisville Bridge Company’s span at the Ohio River Falls, which connected Louisville and Jeffersonville. That span, completed in 1870, had vested interests from both the Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) and the Pennsylvania Railroad. In addition, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) and the Monon (LNAC) used the bridge. The B&O and LNAC had small yards in Louisville, and the main Monon yard and shop was in New Albany.

 

Because of the cross-traffic, it did not take long for New Albany to desire a crossing of their own.

 

Upon the completion of the span, the Kentucky and Indiana operated the Daisy Line – named for its yellow cars, an early commuter train service. The passenger service proved to be extremely popular, and by 1906, the service was handling 1,250,000 passengers a year.

 

In 1893, the B&O stipulated that the K&I replace the wooden trestles in Louisville with iron.(3) When the project was completed, it forced the Kentucky and Indiana Bridge Company went into receivership.  The B&O, Monon and Southern all bid on the K&I Bridge in 1899, and purchased it one year later, and renamed the bridge company to the Kentucky and Indiana Bridge and Railroad Company.

 

By 1901, the Ohio River crossing was obsolete. It could not handle the newer, heavier steam engines, and long trains had to be broken up into segments due to weight restrictions.

 

In late-1907, the Bridge and Railroad Company sold its commuter rolling stock and stations to the Louisville & Northern Railway and Light Company, and exited the commuter rail business all together. Early in the next year, the elevated commuter line and its associated stations were abandoned in favor of a connection to the streetcar tracks. In essence, the commuter train service became an extension of the Louisville trolley service. Two extra car trains were added, however, to meet the heavy usage demands. By 1910, the bridge handled 96 streetcar crossings and carried 1,800,000 passengers per year.

 

Beginning in 1910, the K&I bridge was rebuilt and double tracked to handle not only heavier trains, but automobiles, costing $2 million. Construction began in June 1910 and was completed in November 1912. Another major upgrade resulted in the creosoted wood block roadways being removed in favor of steel grids in 1952.

 

The Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge featured a rotating swing span, which allowed the bridge to rotate for the passage of ships in high water. The bridge, however, was opened only four times, twice for testing in 1913 and 1915, and again on January 18, 1916 for the passage of Tarascon and for the Australian convict ship Success on March 28, 1920. In 1948, the K&I refused to open the bridge for the Gordon & Green, citing inconvenience and the costs of cutting power and communication lines on the bridge. The K&I and the Louisville Gas and Electric Company later paid damages to the ship’s owner. In November 1955, the K&I requested permission to permanently disable the swing span from the Army Corps of Engineers, which was granted.

 

It was not until the opening of the Second Street Municipal Bridge in 1929, did Louisville have a second automobile crossing over the Ohio River. The opening of the downtown span did not affect the revenue that was generated from the K&I Bridge, although the opening of the Sherman Minton Bridge in 1969, which carrys Interstate 64 and U.S. Route 150, drastically affected the span.

 

In 1979, an overweight dump truck caused a small segment of an automobile lane to sag about one-foot.(3) The bridge operators promised a quick fix to reopen the roadway, but the lanes were instead abandoned.

Kentucky and Indiana Terminal Bridge

 

2 A view of the Louisville approach to the Kentucky and Indiana Terminal Bridge.

 

3 The northbound lane splits to the right and goes underneath the twin railroad track crossing.

 

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5 The Indiana approach to the bridge. The mainline now splits to the west behind this vantage point.

 

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View more photographs and historical information after the jump!

Moody.

Driving across the old auto lanes was a right-of-passage for Louisville area drivers, as the lanes were rather narrow and there was no proper modern guardrail.  So you could look directly out of your side window down into the river, with the singing of the iron grates from your tires.  Even more fun if there was a train on the bridge at the same time you were.

 

If you were afraid of heights it would have been tough...

 

There was minimal money invested in the bridge.  The bridge approaches still had their 1920s- or 1930s- era illuminated signs reading "BRIDGE TO INDIANA" or "BRIDGE TO KENTUCKY" and old toll booths.

 

@@@

 

There was a railroad associated with the bridge, the Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Railroad, or K&IT.  They had their own engines (as late as the 1960s) and yards, and operated as a switching and belt line around the city, similar (perhaps) to the way the Indiana Harbor Belt and Belt Railway of Chicago operate.  The K&IT also fostered industrial development in Louisville's West End, offering on-line industrial sites.  One of their sites became, later, part of the WWII -era synthetic petrochemical complex known as Rubbertown.

 

The railroad also had a branch into downtown Louisville, including an elevated line along the riverfront (connecting to the L&N lines coming in from the east).  They initially ran a steam dummy passenger service on this route from downtown New Albany over the K&I bridge to the Louisville wharf, but this was converted to electric operations, making this an early electric-powered rapid transit line, partially elevated along the Louisville wharf (with stations on the trestle, too).  Later this passenger service was moved to streetcar tracks and the riverfront line was limited mostly to freight.

 

 

 

The first el in the US too, beating Chicago...!

Before the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge opened in 1950, automobile traffic between Memphis and West Memphis crossed the Mississippi River on narrow, plank-surfaced roadways on the outside of each of the Harahan Bridge's trusses, with minimal railings between the roadways and a long drop to the river.

The first el in the US too, beating Chicago...!

 

how do you figure? that bridge was finished in 1886 and brooklyn has had real el's since 1881.

and....hold on to your straw boater!....check out this wacky el-arity in manhattan (1867):

 

 

 

 

 

Technically an "el" system is a form of elevated, grade separated rapid transit whereas the elevated portion of tracks we see here are the approaches for basic freight and maybe passenger rail.  The whole system is classified as "bridge" whereas the word "el" describes an entirely different system....as New Yorkers and chicagoans don't refer to the elevated tracks all over our cities as bridges.

There was grade separated, elevated rapid transit in Louisville that fed from the K&I bridge. That is an el, although it was modified to connect to the streetcar grid when the el was abandoned. There are remnants of the elevated rapid transit stations still - that is for another post!

Dayum, you are right then.  I look forward to seeing them.

Yeah, make fun of Louisville now! :P

I'm not sure that that passenger service was purpose-built as a rapid transit line.  The rail connection between the bridge and downtown Louisville might have had more to do with providing main-line freight and passenger transfer from the bridge to the riverfront operations of the L&N lines coming into the city from the east, the old Short Line to Cincy and the Louisville & Lexington connection. 

 

These eastern lines were relocated to terminate at the riverfront after the Civil War sometime, including a freight house, so this would be a logical connection, a riverfront transfer line between the K&I, intercepting the line coming in across the 14th Street Bridge, then across the wharf on a track elevation, then connecting with the L&N riverfront lines.

 

Runnig electrified passenger service over this was perhaps incidental to the main purpose of mainline "steam road" transfer operations (and providing an second passenger depot, this being the Central Station, AKA the "7th Street Station").

 

 

Anybody drive over that bridge connecting Madison In and Kentucky? After I watched the Mothman movie, that

bridge spooked me. It is a tight fit. Good news is heading into Madison as soon as you cross the bridge you bump

right into a liquor store.