Elevating the tracks |
Written by Jack Money | ||
Thursday, 12 October 2006 10:00 | ||
March was a happy time in downtown Oklahoma City in 1932. Old wooden shacks, called watchmen’s shanties, were being loaded up on rail cars and hauled away (1) while the Santa Fe Railway tested out its new elevated lines between NW 6 and Chickasaw Avenue, south of Reno Avenue.(2) The lines were raised onto a viaduct of sorts so that automobile traffic flowing east and west across the tracks would no longer have to wait on trains. Instead, they could drive underneath. Now, make no mistake — getting the work done was no small chore.Civic leaders started calling for making the change some two decades earlier. (3) A majority of business owners indicated they would oppose the change at one point about 10 years into the debate. (4) In 1925, the railroad started the first phase of the project by building a new double-tracked bridge across the Canadian River, elevating it six feet higher than the river’s banks. (5) City voters were asked to chip in for part of the cost by Oklahoma’s Corporation Commission — a request made because of the city’s demands for wide-enough underpasses to allow four lanes of traffic for significant streets. At last, in 1932, the railroad began using part of the elevated tracks.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 10 August 2008 01:19 |