In the last post, I covered a lot of the history of interurbans in general. Today, I want to focus on electric traction in Indiana. The thing that should be pointed out here is that it is difficult to separate the electric street cars from the interurbans in this state. They go hand in hand…and, actually, one company would own both in some cities. Again, the big one would be the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern, which owned numerous interurban lines and the city street railways in Terre Haute and Indianapolis.

Electrification of railways came to Indiana in 1882 with the attempt at a change over with the South Bend Street Railway. It didn’t go well. The electricity dissipated to ground faster than the power plant could supply it. The officials in South Bend didn’t give up. They tried again on 15 November 1885. This time it was successful, to a point. The street car actually moved…using electrical power. But the amount of power needed made it economically a failure. In 1886, the electric cars were put away, replaced with the mule cars that had been in use for years.

Two years later, Terre Haute would have its first electric street car. 30 August 1888 was the day that an electric car operated on the Lafayette Street Railway. Less than a decade later, electric street cars were running in Terre Haute, Vincennes, Evansville, Indianapolis, Richmond, Kokomo, Fort Wayne, Anderson, Muncie, Elwood, Columbus, Logansport and South Bend. The real yardstick about the success of the electric traction car was the number of miles of track. For instance, 1893 track mileage included 173 miles of electric lines and 92 miles still serviced by mule. Change those numbers to 269 (electric) and 29 (mule) for 1894, and you get the idea that mules were on their way out for good.

As mentioned in the last post, the first two interurban lines were the Brazil Rapid Transit Company (1892) and the Union Traction Company (1898). Between 1895 and 1900, more cities came onboard with electricity for their street car systems: Washington, Madison, Hammond, East Chicago and Whiting. On top of that, another intercity electric railway would be built between South Bend and Elkhart.

1900 would be the big year, though. From the very beginning of the year, 1 January 1900, the first traction car would operate from Greenwood to Indianapolis, a total of 12 miles. This line is still memorialized with the names of city streets in southern central Marion County (and at least one place in Johnson County). But other lines that would open in that year included connecting Terre Haute to Brazil, Indianapolis to Greenfield, LaPorte to Michigan City, and Aurora to Cincinnati. By the end of that year, electric lines totaled 678 miles in Indiana. Mule miles totaled 7, with 13 cars, in all of Indiana.

Nearly 200 traction companies, whether interurban or street railways, were ultimately operating in the state. Another 250 were working toward that status, but never actually made it. Economic recessions stopped most of those companies in the planning stage. Also along the way, there were labor difficulties, injunctions by other companies trying to do the very same route, and troubles with gaining access to towns (franchise rights), among other problems. Problems with the steam railroads, and the electric roads crossing their right of ways, would end up with a lot of time lost in litigation that usually would go the way of the interurban companies. The loss of franchise rights caused laborers hired by the interurban company to fight with police and firefighters in a large street brawl. In the end, the line went through when 1,000 residents of the city got together and worked to end a lawsuit by the city of the interurban company because of that fight.

The worst day in the history of interurbans in Indiana was 21 September 1910. Seven miles north of Bluffton, near the unincorporated village of Kinsgland, at shortly after noon, a wreck on the Fort Wayne & Bluffton would take the lives of over 40 men and women, mostly from Bluffton. “Indiana never had such a disaster on any of its lines of transportation before. It is the greatest disaster in the history of electric railways in the world.” (Source: Muncie Evening Press, 22 September 1910) Where the wreck happened was a curve that was “hidden by small woods that run down to the track, so that one motorman can not see another approach.”

The wreck was that of a small car heading north along the line and a heavy special car heading south. The northbound car was, at one point, known as #233 on the Industry line of the Muncie Street Railway. By all accounts, it was no match when it came to colliding with the big, heavy, interurban car coming the other way. The only instructions that the southbound car had was to clear the line for regular cars. This didn’t happen. Fred Corkwell, motorman of the southbound car, either didn’t see or outright disregarded orders with regards to the northbound car. The Muncie Press reported, the day after the wreck, that 40 people were killed, with eight people injured. Of those eight, four, including Motorman Corkwell, were listed as “probably will die.” In the end, 42 people died as a result of the wreck.

One head on collision in Illinois stopped a plan to connect Terre Haute to Charleston and Mattoon, Illinois, by forcing the line between Charleston and Mattoon, owned by the Central Illinois Traction Company, to become one of the first into receivership. This was due to damage claims for an accident that cost the lives of 18 people and injured 50 others.

One of the first signs of the financial instability of the interurban companies reared its ugly head during World War I. Costs of materials and labor were increasing, but the electric traction companies could not raise fares, as most of them were set by city franchise agreements. One company in Indiana would not survive the upheaval. More on that later.

On 21 November 1928, Rose Polytechnic Institute lost the President of the school, Frank Caspar Wagner, when he drove his car into the path of the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern train while leaving the school. Wagner was trying to cross the THI&E tracks to turn onto National Road (US 40) from the West drive into the school grounds. The train hit Wagner’s coupe at more than 40 miles per hour. It took over 100 car dragging yards for the motorman to finally stop the train. The irony of the accident is that the West Drive was created due to a member of the faculty of the school being killed, in a similar manner, by trying to the leave the school grounds using the Middle drive. Dr. Shelton Johonnot was killed in 1924 at a crossing that did not have enough visibility.

Many think that the Great Depression was the major impetus for the downfall of the interurban network in Indiana. While that is mostly true, the first line to have been abandoned happened on 3 November 1917 when the Goshen, South Bend and Chicago called it quits. The GSB&C was actually owned, at the time, by the Gary & Interurban Railway Company. “The public service commission of Indiana, in an order issued here Thursday, wiped away the last vestige of the fantastic dream that years ago promised to develop into a New York-Chicago ‘air-line’ electric railway project that would make possible a ten-hour, direct, high speed electric railroad between the two great cities of the American continent.” (Source: South Bend News-Times, 2 November 1917) The IPSC pointed out that there would be no hardship with the abandonment of this line. The area was well served by railroad lines out of Chicago.

1930 saw the creation of the Indiana Railroad, described as “one big traction empire.” (Source: Terre Haute Tribune-Star, 7 September 1969) Before the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern became officially part of the Indiana Railroad, the company had abandoned 188 miles of traction line in late 1930. In 1931, the Indiana Railroad dropped another 70 miles of line. 1932 saw the loss of another 205 miles. Sleeper service, which was a service that started in Indiana on the interurban connecting Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, in 1903, was cut from the Indianapolis-Louisville trains. This was one of the last such services in the entire country.

The Indiana Railroad found itself in big trouble. While it was abandoning lines all over the state, the company did place 35 new cars to limited service from Indianapolis to both Fort Wayne and Louisville. The economic recession of the period hurting the company stability was compounded by a six week strike by Indiana Railroad employees. The company would end all rail operations in 1941.

Also before the entry of the United States into World War II, the end of local electric street car service occurred in Terre Haute, Vincennes, Evansville, Anderson, South Bend and Mishawaka. Indianapolis would end electric street car service when the College Avenue line ran its last cars on 9 January 1953.

“Electric traction is defined as any means of transport in which vehicles are powered by electric motors supplied with electricity from relatively distant power generation stations.” (Source: Terre Haute Tribune-Star, 24 August 1969, pp 72) It makes sense that this article, and the three following, came out in the Terre Haute newspapers. The center of Indiana’s interurban service was owned by a Terre Haute company (Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern).

One would think that Indiana would be the leader in interurbans. Well, unfortunately, Indiana came in second when it came to mileage to Ohio, which actually had 800 more track miles. But, the term “interurban” was first created by Anderson Lawyer Charles L. Henry, a former Indiana State Senator and member of the U. S. House of Representatives. But the interurban did catch on quickly, especially in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Utah and California. At one point, the interurbans were the fifth largest industry in the United States. But, with the creation of tax supported highway departments across the United States, the major draw of the interurban would go away…as would the companies that provided the service. To a certain extent, the irony was that the interurbans (and steam railroads, for that matter) were helping support, through their payment of taxes, the competitor that would kill them both.

History shows that the first rail cars being powered by batteries in Vermont in 1834, and the first electric traction cars shown off in Berlin in 1878 through a third rail. There were plans to provide power through the two rails that made up the roadbed. Some problems that could not overcome included short circuits in the rain (or snow) and shocking passengers and horses crossing the line. 1885 saw the introduction of overhead power lines and a trolley pole to provide power to the traction motor. This was the last item to create both the street car service (up to this point being dragged around, especially in Indianapolis, by mules!) and the interurban service to come.

The first interurban in America, after a solid start in Europe, connected Newark to Granville, in central Ohio, east northeast of Columbus in 1889. By 1916, the interurban network, although it really couldn’t be called that directly, in the United State hit its peak at around 16,000 miles, with 2,000 of those in Indiana. (Put that into perspective – between Indiana and Ohio, that was 4,800 miles of interurban track. Meaning one-third of all of the interurban tracks in the entire country were in these two states.)

Now that the history of how we got to interurbans in Indiana is taken care of, let’s focus on the state. Indianapolis, and to a certain extent Terre Haute, were the center of the Interurban in Indiana. “From Indianapolis, interurban lines radiated to every major community except Bloomington. There was no interurban service to Vincennes or Madison, or from the Calumet Region south to the Wabash River.” (Source: Terre Haute Tribune-Star, 7 September 1969, pp 25) Systems in Ohio and Indiana saw the advantage to connecting to one another fairly early, with the most known of these connections linking Indianapolis, through Richmond, to Dayton, Ohio. Because of these connections, and the Winona Railroad route, it was possible to travel from Ohio to Chicago, via Indiana, using interurbans.

Out of Terre Haute, interurbans connected to Brazil (and from there, Indianapolis), Clinton, Sullivan and Paris, Illinois. Fare were 25 cents (to Brazil or Clinton) and 35 cents (to Sullivan and Paris). There were many rural stops, as there were on all such routes. Most of those were numbered, and those numbers were used far past the end of the interurban era. Trains typically ran at 25 miles per hour, with some running around 50 miles per hour or so.

The “Highlander,” a service of the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern between the title cities, accomplished that trip in 2 hour and 5 minutes. This would be the fastest connection, at the time, between Terre Haute and Indianapolis. Most of the cars along the THI&E could run 55 miles per hour, handle 50 passengers, and have baggage areas of around 50 square feet.

The center of interurban transportation in Terre Haute, unlike in Indianapolis, still exists. On Wabash Avenue, between Eighth and Ninth Streets, is a building marked “Terminal Arcade.” That would be the center of both interurban and street car traffic in Terre Haute. It should be noted that, according to the Terre Haute Star of 27 October 1949, the “Terminal Arcade” building was, at the time, owned by Anton Hulman, Jr. By the time of the articles in 1969, that building had been taken over as the Greyhound Bus station in the city.

Terre Haute traffic, in 1920, included 73 trains coming into the city on a daily basis, with 8,000 passengers being served. Adding the 15 million yearly street car passengers, using Terre Haute’s 50 street cars on 30 miles of track, and Terre Haute was quite the passenger center.

Interurbans were not immune to the treatment received by the steam trains. Such is the case for the THI&E train running from Indianapolis to Martinsville on 30 January 1923. Two armed bandits stopped the train near Maywood, robbing the passengers of around $1,000 in cash and valuables.

The same man that created the word “interurban” also came into the ownership of the Anderson mule car street car line in 1891. The next year, the mules were gone with electrification. He then decided “to promote a network of lines connecting various cities of the Indiana gas belt.” (Terre Haute Tribune-Star, 7 September 1969) He went on to form the Union Traction Company.

The title of first interurban line in the state is debatable. It depends on the size of the towns connected, really. The Brazil Rapid Transit Company, opened on 16 July 1892, connected Harmony to Cottage Hill through Brazil. This 4.5 miles of track could be considered the first. However, Union Traction Company, on 1 January 1898, opened between the cities of Anderson and Alexandria. Some people consider this the first true interurban, since it connected two cities.

This is the first of two articles about this particular subject. Part two will include the expansion of interurbans in the state, and the decline between 1930 and 1946, when the Evansville & Ohio Valley was converted to trucks and buses. Depending on how one looks at it, either the Evansville & Ohio Valley or the Chicago, South Shore and South Bend were the last interurban lines in Indiana.

George Edward Kessler. The man had such an effect on transportation in Indianapolis that his name is memorialized along a boulevard that stretches across Washington Township, and then ducks into Wayne Township. He was one of the foremost landscape architects in the United States. But some of what Kessler, at least in Indianapolis, is known for wasn’t his original idea. Kessler made it work…and made it real.

Kessler was born on 16 July 1862 in Frankenhausen, now in Thuringia, Germany. By the time he was three years old, his parents had moved to the United States. He and his family lived in New York and Dallas, Texas. He would go back to Europe to train at the Grand Ducal Gardens in Weimar in 1878. He then went on to further training at Charlottenburg Polytechnium and University of Jena.

His first work in the United States was in Kansas City, Missouri, where he designed the park and boulevard system for that city. In 1904, he worked on the layout for the grounds of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1910, that city became his home base and home town until he died.

Kessler came to Indianapolis in 1908, when he was hired by the Indianapolis Board of Park Commissioners as a landscape architect. His plan of creating parks throughout the city, and then connecting them with sweeping boulevards, was presented in 1909. Kessler would not be the one to recommend White River and Fall Creek Parkways, those predate his even coming to Indianapolis by over a decade. His plan was more inclusive than those prior. While earlier plans included White River and Fall Creek, he wanted to add Pleasant Run and Pogues Run to the boulevard system. Most of the park system would be linear parks, between boulevards on both sides of the stream.

The one exception is what would become Pleasant Run Parkway. That boulevard connected Garfield Park (more on that park later!) to Pleasant Run Golf Course via Margaret Christian Park and Jamison (now Ellenberger) Park. Some of this boulevard would be difficult to complete due to some railroads being in the way. Pleasant Run Parkway crosses under the Pennsylvania Railroad Louisville line at Garfield Park with that bridge being specifically built for that purpose. Crossing under the Indianapolis Belt Railroad north of Garfield Park also had overpasses built for both the north and south drives, although the construction of those bridges is very different on both sides of the creek. The crossing of the NYC and the second crossing of the Belt were bypassed by not building the parkway next to the creek. The last railroad underpass was actually built as a bridge over the creek, with the road crossing Pleasant Run as the PRR and B&O crosses over Pleasant Run, and the parkway.

Kessler did have some work on Indianapolis parks other than the boulevard system. Going back to Garfield Park, Kessler was responsible for adding the Sunken Gardens and the bridges that dot the landscape of the park. Anyone that has memories of “Ticklebelly Hill,” thank George Edward Kessler.

The Park Plan that included White River and Fall Creek started with the hiring, by the Commercial Club (now Chamber of Commerce), of landscape architect Joseph Earnshaw in 1884. Earnshaw’s plan to build winding boulevards along the two major waterways in the city, from Washington Street to the State Fairgrounds, was shot down almost immediately. The big factor was cost. Another factor was, quite understandably, that the entire city would have to pay taxes for the building of these parks, but the north side would have those parks. This caused some misgivings by those on the south and west sides. The essentially same plan was put forth by the firm Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot. Cities of 100,000 were allowed at this point to create a park department. That didn’t last long.

The parks and boulevards plan stagnated until 1907. The next year, Kessler was hired. Kessler took the plans that were brought up since 1894, expanded them with plans for Pleasant and Pogues Runs, and finally came up with a plan to only have people directly affected by the park system to pay for it by creating separate taxing districts.

From 1908 until 1915, the Parks Department retained Kessler and his firm. In that time, Kessler designed and worked on his plan. In addition, his firm was contracted for work on University Park (1915), Garfield Park (1915) and Riverside Park (1916). The last task brought to Kessler and his firm was a parkway on the north side of the city. Kessler recommended a parkway stretching from Fort Benjamin Harrison to Eagle Creek. What would be built would be a winding road along the Cooper Road corridor on the westside, east along the 56th and 59th Street corridors across Washington Township to west of Fort Harrison. This new boulevard was completed in 1929.

George Edward Kessler died 19 March 1923 at St. Vincent’s Hospital after surgery for kidney disease. The Indianapolis Star of 20 March 1923 states “he was engaged a few months ago by the board of park commissioners to develop along broad lines a comprehensive plan of boulevard construction and extension in this city. Plans for the first until of this program, the Fifty-sixth street boulevard from Fort Harrison to Big Eagle Creek, were announced only recently by the park board.” Indianapolis doctors were sent to St. Louis, were Mr. Kessler lived, to check on him as he was reported very sick. He arrived in Indianapolis on 12 March, and was put into the hospital almost immediately. When the new “56th Street boulevard” was completed six years later, it was named in Kessler’s honor.

Another of his last projects was to create a plan for Fairview Park. This job was contracted by the trustees of Butler University, since Fairview Park would be the future home of the college after it moved from Irvington.

George Kessler was not only instrumental in planning in Indianapolis, he had designed parks and boulevard systems for: Memphis, Tennessee; Cincinnati, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; Dallas, Texas; El Paso, Texas; Syracuse, New York; Mexico City, Mexico; as well as numerous other cities. Not only did he create beautiful parks and parkways in Indianapolis, he was also instrumental in the “set back” rule of buildings on Monument Circle, meaning the higher the building, the further it sits back from the street. This is most obvious in the Circle Theater building.

For clarification: I will be referring to the railroad subject of this post at the “Monon.” This is despite the fact that it did not officially become the Monon until 1956. Prior to that, it had an assortment of names. The longest held was that of the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville, a name that it used from 1897 to 1956. For the ease of writing, every reference to the line in its history will be that of Monon. I wanted to make sure that I made it clear that I know that wasn’t always the case. In my defense, it only took the name Monon because that had been its nickname for years prior to it becoming official.

In 1971, the last Class I railroad based in Indiana was sold to interests in another state. The Monon was merged with the Louisville & Nashville. There were some that questioned how long the Monon could have survived in the railroad world of the 1960’s and forward. While the railroad connected three major cities (Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville), it had the disadvantage of running mainly north and south. This limited traffic along the line. Also, since the L&N bought the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Monon’s competitor, Monon management became very worried about their place at the railroading table.

But this post is about what happened to the Monon, especially after the merger. The Louisville & Nashville would, in the same year of merging with the Monon, be completely purchased by the Seaboard Coast Line (itself a merger of the Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic Coast Line). The end of the L&N happened in 1986, and the technical end of the SCL would happen with the creation of CSX in 1986.

Perhaps the most well know part of the Monon, at least in Central Indiana, is that of the Indianapolis mainline connecting Monon to Indianapolis through Monticello, Delphi and Frankfort. Most of the southern end of this line is now known as the Monon Trail, a walking and biking path from almost downtown Indianapolis (10th Street) to Grand Park in Westfield (191st Street), with another section starting at 216th Street for 3.5 miles to Sheridan.

The parts of the old line that would become the Monon Trail were abandoned in sections by the railroad companies that would possess the right to do so. The Louisville & Nashville started the ball rolling in 1974 with the abandonment of the line from Indianapolis’ 17th Street (MP 181.0) south to 10th Street (MP 181.7). This was followed, in 1976, with the abandonment from 17th Street (MP 181.0) to 22nd Street (180.48). This would be coupled with the abandonment, by the Norfolk & Western, in 1974 of the Muncie Division tracks from Indianapolis 10th Street to Indianapolis 13th Street. This disconnected both the Monon (L&N) and the Nickel Plate (N&W) from downtown Indianapolis. At 10th Street, both lines connected with the Penn Central’s “Bee” Line.

The big blow to the Monon Indianapolis Line would occur in 1984 when CSX, now owners of the old Monon, filed for and received the permission to abandon the line from Frankfort (MP 137.5) to the end of line at Indianapolis 22nd Street (MP 180.47). This would set the stage for the Monon Trail in Indianapolis which came about around 15 years after the trains had officially stopped running.

But CSX would abandon a lot of the old Monon over the years. Most of the Monon Indianapolis Line finally came to an end in 1993. In 1992, the section from MP 137.5 (Frankfort) to MP 112.22 (Delphi) was officially abandoned. This was followed the next year with the abandonment from Monticello (MP 98.0) to Delphi (MP 112.22). An industrial track at Monticello (MP 88.33 to MP 98.00) would be abandoned in 2014. The rest of the Monon Indianapolis Line, known to CSX as “0QA,” from what I can tell, remains in service as of the beginning of 2020.

In a previous post about the Bedford & Bloomfield Railroad, I had mentioned a branch line that connected the Monon main to Victoria. I never gave the name of that branch. It would be the Indianapolis & Louisville Railway. When it came under the Monon sway, it was called the “I&L Branch.” This branch was 42 miles of track, from Wallace Junction to Midland. The Louisville & Nashville abandoned that branch in 1981. They also abandoned the last remaining six mile section of the B&B branch, from Dark Hollow to Bedford, in 1981.

The Monon had a branch line from its main at Orleans connecting to French Lick, West Baden, and Paoli. This line, consisting of 18.88 miles of track, was abandoned in two parts: MP 18.88 to MP 8.88 (French Lick to Paoli) in 1976, and 7.08 miles of the remaining 8.88 miles to Orleans officially removed from Louisville & Nashville inventory in 1981.

A major section of the original Monon mainline to Michigan City was the last section (not chronologically, but in terms of this post) to be removed by the Louisville & Nashville. 1980 saw the end of the Michigan City branch from Michigan City (MP 60.03) to Medaryville (MP 15.16). That was nearly 45 miles of track, on a right-of-way in use for 125+ years that was removed in one fell swoop.

The northern end of the line, at Michigan City, was sold to the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend. This included 2.3 miles of track and an industrial track at Michigan City. The 2.3 miles of the Monon Sub at Michigan City was abandoned by the CSS&SB in 1990. The industrial track followed in 2001.

The rest of the old Monon line that was abandoned (after 1945…more on that later) was done by CSX. The last 1.74 miles of the French Lick branch at Orleans was abandoned in 1990. The “Monon Michigan City Branch,” although it hadn’t reached that town in years, was shortlined from MP 15.16 to MP 14.79 in Medaryville. I don’t have a time period on that shortlining.

The northern end of what CSX called the Monon Sub, located on the line from Chicago to Monon, was abandoned in 1985 from MP 19.746 to MP 20.706 in Hammond. Most of the original line is still in service from Monticello to Hammond.

CSX called part of the original Monon mainline the “South Monon.” That line was removed from service in pieces. 1994 saw the end of the line from Bloomington (MP 222.5) to Bedford (MP 245.0). Gosport (MP 203.1) to Cloverdale (190.0) was removed in 1995. Abandonment was applied for, also in 1995, between Bedford (MP 245.0) and Mitchell (251.7). The track, according to Google Maps, is still in place between the last two points. Two years later, the track from MP 203.1 (Gosport) to MP 213.41 (Ellettsville) was abandoned. The section from Ellettsville to Hunters, west of Bloomington, was shortlined around this time. The last of the sections abandoned by CSX of the old Monon mainline occurred in 1999, which saw only included .35 miles of track in Cloverdale.

All of the above information was taken from the Indiana Department of Transportation Railroad Abandonment List. It includes all abandonments and shortlines applied for from the mid-1970’s to around 2012. It makes for an interesting read.

But there were two other sections of the old Monon line that occurred long before L&N merger. First, as mentioned in the Bedford & Bloomfield post, that line, from Dark Hollow to Switz City, went by the wayside in 1935. Another section, also taken from the same Society of Indiana History Enthusiasts post that led to the B&B Branch post, was the original Monon mainline from near Harrodsburg to Clear Creek through Smithville and Sanders, south of Bloomington. This original line contained very steep grades, up to 2.27% (a change of 2.27 feet for every 100 feet traveled). The bypass would be built through the Clear Creek valley, allowing for smaller grades. When the bypass was built, the original main became less used. A bridge washout in 1941 led to even less traffic. This caused the Monon to apply for, and receive, permission to abandon this line in 1945.

Happy New Year 2020 to all of my readers. Today, I want to do a sort of non-transportation related post. Sort of. Since this blog started on 9 February 2019, ITH has had 279 posts with 20,085 views from 13,171 viewers. Of those, I have had 13 posts that counted over 300 views each. Some made it into the thousands. I proudly present the “Indiana Transportation History Top 10 Posts of 2019.”

Yes, most people would have done this yesterday. One big blow out for the last day of 2019. I wanted to give one last day to the past before we move onto 2020 proper. I would love to say there are big changes coming this year. Doubt it. This blog has always been a “screen capture of a rampant mind,” i.e., whatever catches the short attention span at the time. There are times when I can write an entire week of blog entries in one sitting. There are other times when I can’t think of an idea to save my soul. Doubt any of that is going to change in 2020. But I love doing this…and won’t change THAT until I can no longer do it.

Not included in this Top 10 is the homepage of the blog, that in itself has had almost 2000 views.

Number 10: Marion County Interurbans, and Their Remaining Property Lines

18 September 2019: This post focused on little sections throughout Marion County that still show property lines that are still in place 70+ years after the downfall of the Electric Traction companies. Places such as Acton, the Indianapolis Museum of Art property, and a strange straight line connecting Washington Street and Rockville Road were covered.

Number 9: Michigan Road at Logansport

2 October 2019: There have been a lot of questions about the routing of the original Michigan Road through the city of Logansport. I tried to put some of them at rest through the use of maps of the time.

Number 8: Interurbans in Marion County, Where Were They?

30 August 2019: Indianapolis was the interurban capital of at least the state of Indiana. But where were they located? Using maps from 1917, I showed them all.

Number 7: Why Do Indianapolis Street Numbers Start at 9?

10 June 2019: In the beginning, Indianapolis didn’t have numbered streets. When they started adding numbered streets, it started at First Street. In 1894, that changed when First Street became 10th Street.

Number 6: The Cloverleaf Interchanges at US 40 and SR 100

20 November 2019: In 1956, a cloverleaf interchange was built at East Washington Street and Shadeland Avenue (US 40 and SR 100). But it wasn’t going to be the only one. There was also supposed to be one built at West Washington Street and High School Road, the original SR 100.

Number 5: Road Trip 1926: SR 37

30 November 2019: Part of the “Road Trip 1926” series, this post showed the path of State Road 37 on 1 October 1926, the day that all state roads in Indiana were renumbered.

Number 4: Indianapolis Track Elevation

7 October 2019: Vehicle traffic in Indianapolis suffered quite a bit due to the large number of trains coming into the Hoosier Capitol. This all changed starting in the early years of the 20th Century when the city decided it was time to start getting railroad tracks off of ground level…also replacing some ill fated fixes.

Number 3: Dandy Trail

24 September 2019: Designed as a road trip around the city of Indianapolis, before SR 100 was even thought of. Parts of the tour still exist, although the section that has the name has mostly been flooded by the creation of Eagle Creek Reservoir.

Number 2: Why are the exits on I-465 where they are?

8 July 2019: Every exit on I-465 was set up for a particular reason. This post covers those reasons.

Number 1: 82nd and 86th Street Before SR 534 (SR 100)

20 September 2019: This was, by far, the most popular post of the year, with 1,451 views. People have asked why Indianapolis’ 82nd and 86th Streets are connected in the way they are. And it wasn’t the creation of SR 534 (which became SR 100) that put these two roads together. It had been done in the 1800’s. Using older maps, I showed how it happened.

I want to thank each and every one of you that have taken the time to visit my labor of love in 2019. I hope you continue to visit in 2020! Have a safe and wonderful New Year from all of us at Indiana Transportation History!

If there are topics you would like to see covered here, drop me a line at the ITH Facebook Group. I have many resources at my finger tips, and hopefully, I can nail your idea down!