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.

In a continuing effort to write something interesting and something that people might actually want to read, I thought I’d try a “photo blog” with a local history theme. The concept is simple: Find an old photo of Chillicothe or Ross County (I have acquired lots of them over the last few years – though perhaps not always legally in the Internet age…) and hopefully point out some interesting facts about said photo.

This blog is my first effort.

Hopefully, there’s an old photograph for you to look at above these words. If there’s not, I’ve failed already.

The picture you see is an aerial photograph, dated 1955. It was the property of the Columbus Citizen Journal, and I believe the newsworthy event may have been changes to US 23 south, perhaps in conjunction with the construction of a plant a few miles south of Chillicothe that could enrich uranium for atomic bombs.

It’s a fantastic photo that scanned in beautifully for whoever scanned it, and saved very nicely for me, as I borrowed it from the Internet (www.photohio.org).

 There are lots of things to see here, but I have only enough space to point out a few of them.

Let’s start in the very middle of the photo. That’s of course Bridge Street (US 23) snaking its way from north to south (or bottom to top, whichever you prefer). There’s a fairly new bridge to see, but also notice down at the intersection of Bridge and Main, that the color of the actual street seems to change, from a light gray to an almost white color. That’s because Bridge Street south of Main is a pretty new roadway in 1953. Up until 1951 Bridge ended at Main. If this photo were a few years older Bridge Street would stop at Main and if you were sitting in your car on Bridge looking south, you’d be facing a row of buildings (including an aptly named restaurant, Bridge End). Fourth, Fifth and the rest of the “number” streets that today dead-end into, or cross S. Bridge would not have done so, but would simply continue there without an intersection or a dead-end.

Since we’re on Bridge Street, also notice Eastern School, which is the big building standing at the northwest corner of Bridge and Main. The school was built there in 1870, abandoned in 1951, and today that area is occupied by a gas station, a motel, and a McDonalds.

Moving to the bottom of the photo (and the thing I find most the most interesting of all) are all of the buildings that line the Scioto River along Riverside Street (both east and west of Bridge). In 1953 there was no floodwall (thus the big floods of 1913 and 1959). Of course, in 2012 those buildings are all gone: they were bought up one-by-one over the years, until 1977, when they were torn down and work on the floodwall began. What amazes me is that all of those structures “fit” between the river and the street – especially to the west of Bridge. It just doesn’t seem wide enough to have once held all of these homes and businesses, and to me it even looks like they moved Riverside a few feet further south, so it would match up with the intersection of Riverside east of Bridge (there’s a little bend now in Riverside at Hickory that doesn’t appear to be there in this photo). 

  In the lower left quarter of the photo are Hirn Street, Scioto Avenue, and N. Sugar Street. What catches my eye in this aerial view is how nice, wide, and tree-lined Hirn Street looks. A drive down there today reveals a street that looks nothing like this photo indicates it might have looked six decades ago.

Moving south (up in the photo to the top left quarter) we find Chillicothe’s railroad “station.” How amazing is it that almost every one of those buildings is now gone, just 60 short years later? The mass production of automobiles for travel, the preference for using tractor trailers to haul goods, combined with the expansion and improvement of the U.S. highway and interstate system following World War II, nearly made the use of rails extinct (and the automobile has contributed significantly to the loss of many of old structures in Historic Chillicothe for parking lots – again, more on that in a future blog). In the photo you can see Union Station, the “U” shaped roundabout, and other buildings, including the railroad offices along E. Main. One thing you can’t see though in this photo is the “Overpass,” which wasn’t completed until 1961 (again, more on that I think in a future blog).

At the top (or far south) of the photo you can see the paper mill (or mills if you prefer). What’s interesting is how well you can see Hickory Street running south and straight into the Mead side of the mill. Over the years many of the streets and homes down there were purchased by the paper giant, the structures torn down, and those areas – that were once city blocks – became part of the mill. In some spots you can still make out the streets.

Moving to N. Hickory Street and the lower right side of the photo there stands a building that most recently housed Craftsman Printing (if memory serves). The business is long gone, but the building still stands (for now). I don’t know exactly what its original use was but I’m sure it had something to do with the railroad, which ran right beside it (I believe that would’ve been the N&W line, which ran east-to-west through the city, while the B&O went north-to-south and can be seen in the photo leaving the city and heading south along US 23) The north-south rail line is still in use of course, and is today CSX (from a merger of Baltimore and Ohio with the Chesapeake and Ohio line).

In almost the exact center of the photo, just east (left) of Main Street and in the middle of the block between Water and Second streets, is another large building situated along the N&W line. I haven’t done the research to try and find out what business may have been there in 1953 or when the structure was torn down, but today it’s an empty lot (Google Maps/Earth shows it clearly, as does a drive down there).

There’s a lot more to see in this photo, but I’m tired of writing and I’m sure you’re finished reading, so we’ll stop there.

I hope to find other interesting old photos to blog about on a semi-regular basis. And I hope a few people actually read this, otherwise it’s not worth much. But enjoy, and feel free to correct my mistakes (I’m a little concerned about getting the railroads right), or add comments and share even more of our local history with others.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!