Then and now: Great Northern Railroad
James Jerome Hill, a Canadian-American born in 1838, was a rail tycoon of the 19th century. At 18 he settled in Minneapolis, working as a bookkeeper, eventually learning the freight and shipping business. He was also adept at math and land surveying, and helped to start a steamship company and a coal business.
Section:Gallery
-
1936 – A Great Northern steam engine pulls a load of logs, likely cut in the forests of Idaho, through downtown Spokane and over the Post Street Bridge, which was being widened in December 1936. The Great Northern Railway was built in part by James J. Hill, one of the great rail barons of the late 1800s, who built one of the transcontinental railroads through Spokane and added a giant rail yard and repair complex in Hillyard. Jesse Tinsley/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
-
2019 – The aging Post Street Bridge, built in 1917, is severely compromised by age and deterioration and is scheduled for replacement, but continues to carry a single lane of traffic and pedestrians. Gone is the steel trestle that once carried Great Northern trains alongside it from 1902 to the early 1970s.
Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Share on Social Media