Before the days of globalization, heavy industry used to build this country had to come from right here. As such, the manufacturing of steel was of the utmost importance in the late 19th century. And while steel continues to be an extremely important industry, much like the railroad industry, steel production has become much more efficient over time, making relatively small plants obsolete, which is what would happen to the Joliet Iron Works.
Joliet Iron Works in 1901. The mainline of the Illinois Central (now CN) ran right through it. Most of the side tracks are abandoned.
One can even see this consolidation in the corporate history of the Works. The Joliet works was built by the Joliet Iron and Steel Company in 1869. Twenty years later, the Illinois Steel Company acquired it, and Illinois Steel itself was acquired by Federal Steel, which would form US Steel, which is still in business to this day.
The area was renovated in 2009, and is easy to access, if in a somewhat secluded part of downtown Joliet. Visiting early on a Saturday morning, there were few other people there, but it was far from empty.
Located just off of the former Route 66 (today's IL-53) on Columbia St in Joliet.
Heading north from the parking lot, you can see the ruins of an abandoned railroad line which ran over the still very active CN line. This would have connected both sides of the Works together.
Walking up what's left of the bridge.
There are many "KEEP OFF" signs throughout the park, and it's not hard to figure out why when dealing with ruins.
Tons of signs dominate the area, explaining the history and significance of the individual parts of the site.
From how many abandoned railroads are in IL, and PA, this is not surprising.
On the other side of the tracks, more abandoned but inaccessible buildings lay dormant. I wonder if there'll ever be an opportunity to visit those!
Another building. Graffiti was rampant on that side. It should be noted that these buildings are immediately south of the Old Joliet Prison.
Back to the actual ruins here though, the trail diverges here between the I&M canal trail and the walk through the ruins.
This is one part of the ruins that is easier to see from the I&M Canal Trail than the actual walking tour.
The stoves are the largest ruin, much to explore here, more so if you're adventurous enough to ignore the KEEP OUT signs and peek inside.
More piers for a railroad bridge to connect both sites above the tracks.
This ramp was one of the few ruins that you could walk on.
Below the ramp. Hard to imagine these arches are only about 150 years old!
Some graffiti in the ruins below.
The Will County Forest Preserve also made a YouTube Video of a drone flying over the site below;
If you're near the area, there are few places which give such a unique perspective on local history. What many would see as blight is so much more. It is definitely worth seeing for yourself.
This is the story of a small part of the creation of the World as we know it, as both the steel industry and the railroad industry were codependent on each other, as was society for being able to create larger and larger skyscrapers, and the cities we've grown accustomed to today. As always, thanks for reading!
With the hundreds of thousands of miles of abandoned railroad corridors in the world, it's no surprise that some of the most amazing infrastructure humanity has ever built was eventually abandoned, or re-purposed. And indeed, many bridges, trestles and viaducts have been lost to history, such as the Brushy Creek Viaduct in Alabama. But there are also many which still stand today which serve as reminders of bygone days, the folly of man, or the power of Mother Nature, or some combination thereof. Here are 11 such bridges. 11) Goat Canyon Trestle, Jacumba Hot Springs, CA (32.729167, -116.183333) Image: CoachellaValley.com Goat Canyon Trestle is the largest standing (for now) wooden trestle in the United States, and in spots is 200 feet off the ground, and 750 feet long. Built in the 1930's, it's actually a lot younger than it looks, since by the 1930's, steel had all but replaced wood as the preferred construction material for bridges. It was made out of woo
Our Abandoned and Out of Service Railroad Lines Map of lines across the world has gotten a ton of views and support from people across all sorts of interests and knowledge bases. For that, I thank you. But I never really explained how I came to find all of these lines. So with that in mind, today's blog is going to go over how to use Google My Maps to create your own maps for people to find and view and criticize. Of course, the magic of Google My Maps is that you can create maps of pretty much anything, without having to learn incredibly complex GIS systems and selling your soul to ESRI for a license to use ArcGIS. So this blog has been unusually popular, so I suppose I should continue to edit it since it appears people like to learn to make their own maps, so with that in mind, I should note that the map's progress has so far taken me five years, and while I've mapped about 95% of the abandoned and out of service railroad network in the US, it still isn't compl
View from Goldmine Rd, west of Pearl City, IL, along the abandoned CGW right-of-way. Other than a small Canadian National Railway operation near DuPage Airport, a few industrial customers for Union Pacific between Tyler Rd and Kautz Rd in St. Charles, and a small operation serving the power plant in Byron, the entirety of the 147 mile former Chicago Great Western Railway line between Forest Park and Galena Jct is abandoned, making it the longest abandonment from Chicago by far. The line extended from Chicago, on trackage which now leads to the Union Pacific Global 1 yard, and then followed a line immediately north of where the current Forest Park CTA station is today, paralleling the Chicago Aurora & Elgin Interurban Railroad, which itself is abandoned. But before we see what the line looks like today, let's examine Chicago Great Western's history. CGW Westbound at Elmhurst, IL. 1962 Image: Roger Puta The Chicago Great Western was one of the last Class
Comments
Post a Comment