Indiana Transportation History
Dedicated to the sharing of transportation history in Indiana.
When one looks at a railroad map of Indiana, especially ones like one of my favorites for this subject like this from 1898 (Railroad map of Indiana. | Library of Congress (loc.gov)), it is easy to see that the numerous railroad companies sprang up independently to connect the towns of Indiana. Unfortunately, the truth is … Continue reading Fort Wayne And Southern Railroad
Looking through newspapers for information about transportation items can come up with some interesting results. Today, I want to look at a full page advertisement that was taken out in the 18 December 1915 issue of the Fort Wayne Daily News. The headline asks the question: “What Has The Traction Company Done For Fort Wayne?” … Continue reading Tooting Their Own Horn: Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Traction Company
The last entry, 1878: A Fort Wayne Street Guide, led me to looking up the subject of this entry. Indianapolis had gone through a major change of street names from 1894 to 1897. Fort Wayne, it appears, did the same. The following was reported in the Fort Wayne Daily News of 9 December 1897. “The … Continue reading Fort Wayne Street Name Changes
In fairness to the rest of the state, I have decided that I will share the street guides from other places around Indiana from the same year as last week’s Indianapolis street guide. Today, it’s Fort Wayne. Now, it doesn’t have the same information available as the Indianapolis City Directory. There is no addressing in … Continue reading 1878: A Fort Wayne Street Guide
If one looks at a map of Fort Wayne, the first thing you would notice is the interstates that flank the city. I-69 flanks Fort Wayne to the west, and I-469 to the east. Between the two, it forms a circle around Indiana’s second largest city. But the designation of I-469 was a late comer … Continue reading Fort Wayne Bypass
In the article “1889 Fort Wayne Rail Transport,” I used the last paragraph to mention a small railroad that was being built at the time, the Findlay, Fort Wayne & Western. I want to take this chance to delve deeper into that road that lasted a little over two decades. The FFtW&W started life as … Continue reading Findlay, Fort Wayne & Western
One of the things about the way I sit to write these blogs is that nothing is set in stone when I start. Most of the time, I sit at my desk trying to come up with ideas. (We won’t discuss the forehead shaped divot in the front edge of my desk!) And since I … Continue reading 1889 Fort Wayne Rail Transport
When the Auto Trail era began in Indiana, with the help of the Hoosier Carl G. Fisher, Fort Wayne was one of the cities that would benefit from this new found “Good Roads” movement. By 1920, the Rand McNally Auto Trails map listed six named routes passing through the city. These were, in numerical order … Continue reading Auto Trails from Fort Wayne
While Indianapolis was Indiana’s largest city, and had the most railroads connecting it to the rest of the country, Indiana’s second largest city was connected by railroads relatively early. Like Indianapolis, Fort Wayne wasn’t controlled by one railroad company. While the largest railroad company in Fort Wayne was the Pennsylvania, it found itself also on … Continue reading Railroads in Fort Wayne, 1880
Here at Indiana Transportation History, we have extensively covered interurban transportation facilities radiating from Indianapolis. Indianapolis was clearly the leader in the electric traction. But other cities in Indiana did have a collection, although smaller, of electric traction lines radiating to other points. Today, I want to focus on Fort Wayne, Indiana’s second largest community. … Continue reading Fort Wayne Electric Traction Options
In working on genealogy, particularly that of my wife and her family, ties to the railroads of northern Indiana became readily apparent. One branch of my wife’s family comes from what I call “over the mountain.” My family is from the Westmoreland County, PA, area. Hers are from Somerset and Cambria Counties, which are on … Continue reading Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway
When Fort Benjamin Harrison was built in Lawrence Township, in northeastern Marion County, getting there was quite the chore. It has been built along the Big Four’s Bellefontaine, or Bee, line. This allowed steam locomotives to pass by the new Army post on a regular basis. The Big Four, with its affiliation with the New … Continue reading 1917: Main Roads to Fort Benjamin Harrison Need Work
One of the beautiful things of the internet, one of the things that make doing something like the Indiana Transportation History blog so easy, is the access to a world of information. Yes, some is accurate, and some isn’t. But my favorite resources, as I have shown over the past almost two years, is maps. … Continue reading Railroads of Indiana, 1850
I spend a lot of time looking through old newspapers. It all started with my genealogical research. But I realized that this blog could benefit from the very same resources. And, if you have followed this blog, you know I do use them a lot. Today, I want to cover some newspaper articles about the … Continue reading Newspaper Blurbs about Lincoln Highway in Indiana
Here at Indiana Transportation History, I have covered a lot of topics. One that comes up a lot, even if I don’t write about it, is the electric traction, or interurban, railways. I have decided today to give a complete recap of every blog entry that I have done about that very interesting subject. Sometimes, … Continue reading Indiana Interurban History – A Complete Recap
Today is the second of the series covering state roads in Indiana’s counties in alphabetical order. Today, I will cover, as the title states, Allen County. And, just like the last post of this series, it will be done with a lot of maps, and start with the history of the formation of the county. … Continue reading 1920-1960: Allen County Roads
Today, I want to start a series, with a lot of maps, that shows the evolution of the state highway system in each county from 1920 to 1960. Starting with the first county, alphabetically. First, let’s start with the creation of Adams County. Dated 7 February 1835, “formation by statute, effective on publication. The formation … Continue reading 1920-1960: Adams County Roads
When one looks at a current map of Hamilton County, one notices a very distinct line that runs around Noblesville. That line used to connect Indianapolis to Fort Wayne (or more actually, Cleveland, Ohio) directly in the time before the interstates. The route of that line would be directly replaced by the interstate. Ironically, it … Continue reading OSR 37/SR 37 in Hamilton County
In 1930, the city of Richmond decided to change the names of a lot of streets. The city decided to rename streets in the northwest and southwest sections of the city to conform to the “Philadelphia System” of street naming that was in use on the east side of the city. This involved street names … Continue reading 1930 Richmond Street Name Changes
Today, I want to give a brief overview of the next five original state roads that were created with the law that created the Indiana State Highway Commission in 1919. I have covered the first ten, if you are interested, in these articles: “Dec 1917: Main Market Roads Officially Announced” and “Original State Roads 6-10.” … Continue reading Original State Roads 11-15
Indiana Transportation History 