A “75 year dream” was realized in Chillicothe on October 7, 1961, when the East Main Street Overpass was dedicated and officially opened for traffic.

More than 5,000 people were on-hand that day for the dedication of what has affectionately become known to residents of Chillicothe and Ross County simply as “The Overpass.”

As early as the 1920s city officials and residents began to dream of ways to eliminate the delays, and the dangers, caused by long, heavily laden trains moving slowly across the city's streets. It was even more of a burden when the trains held up traffic on one of the busiest streets in town. As the photo above shows, years ago there were not only a lot more trains using the tracks, but there were a few more sets of tracks and rail lines than there are today.

By the time City Council approved the “0-5” plan for the overpass, they already had access to $150,000 of voter approved money with which to cover the city’s portion of what would end up being a $1.359 million project. (An approval of the “0-4” plan would’ve had the central span of the overpass swing slightly north.)

Visintine & Co. out of Columbus came in with the lowest bid, winning the construction contract. Federal dollars amounting to $1.106 million paid for the majority of the project. In addition to the city’s share, which ended up being only $123,000, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) paid $65,000, as did the Norfolk and Western (N&W). The N&W also agreed to relocate at least one set of tracks to accommodate the overpass, and at least one railroad building was torn down and rebuilt in another spot.

The overpass itself ended up being 650 feet long (and is made up of 15 “spans”); it is 57 feet wide, meant to accommodate a six-foot sidewalk, two-foot medium, and 27-inch safety curb (and four lanes of traffic of course). It was also designed to be a minimum of 23 feet above the railroad tracks.

Before the groundbreaking even took place (which was on July 16, 1960) 44 property owners had made damage claims amounting to $1.15 million, and lawsuits followed the construction. Detours began to go up on July 7, 1960 and parking bans were imposed. Both the detours and the parking bans inconvenienced residents, and while some grumbled, most took it in stride.

Officials invited the public to attend the groundbreaking, and even allowed them to take part – as long as they brought their own shovel. Everyone who attended was to receive a souvenir sticker.

Despite the damage claims and any lawsuits, no one denied the need for an alternative to the daily traffic delays. A study cited in the Chillicothe Gazette on July 7, 1960 found that there were 7,826 “car crossings” of those E. Main Street tracks in the 24 hour period surveyed, as well as 138 “train movements” during that same time period. Wow! 138 train movements! I’m not sure how many there are today but there can’t be more than, what, a couple dozen a day? One thing though that is for certain is that there are certainly more “car crossings” now.

On July 26, 1960, crews digging a 100 foot long, 7 foot deep, 12 foot wide trench uncovered two small sandstone grave markers. The markers belonged to a sister and brother: Eliza Ann Dunlap, who had died August 16, 1823 at just nine months and 18 days; and Joseph Benson Dunlap, who died less than a year later, May 22, 1824, at just eight months of age. Both were children of Joseph and Margaret Dunlap. It was reported that the carving in the headstones was still quite clear, even though the burials were 137 years old.

That area of course had once served as the “Old” Presbyterian Cemetery (one of two original Presbyterian Cemeteries, the other and probably older one being near the modern intersection of Bridge and Riverside streets – too close to the river to have been a good idea). The old cemetery land had been purchased in 1870 by the Scioto Valley Railroad (which later became part of N&W). The graves were dug up, and their occupants moved to either Greenlawn or Grandview.

After nearly 52 years “The Overpass” has done its job quite well. Now that travel and trade by rail are both significantly less than they were 50 years ago, some people talk about bringing the concrete mountain down. I don’t think it will happen – unless for some reason the cost of repairing or maintaining it is more than the cost of tearing it down. But then those same people who complain about it being there would likely complain the most about having to wait once in a while for a train to pass, or scream the loudest about the dangers when some careless driver or pedestrian ended up being hit by a train.

Can you imagine the size of the potential backups at the Main and Bridge street intersection when a nice long train crawled its way across the tracks at rush hour?

For what it’s worth, I for one hope that someday trains make a comeback. I hate sharing my highways with so many 18-wheelers, and I think if we’re ever going to decrease our dependence on foreign oil, using trains instead of semis to move goods is a great place to start.

So for now let’s keep our ugly concrete mountain right where it is… just in case.