Location: Fort Street Viaduct, Detroit, MI

The Fort Street Union Depot viaduct brought the Union Belt of Detroit (Wabash, PM and Pennsylvania railroad) tracks up to the elevated level of the station company. The viaduct crossed the Michigan Central line to Third Street station which was the primary reason for the viaduct. The viaduct lasted into the 1970's and was torn down by the City of Detroit after FSUD was closed.

Notes

The double track 1% grade on this viaduct was structurally unable to handle larger PRR locomotives, including K-4's which were used in passenger service. Road trains had to wait for light switch engines to  move trains in and out of the depot. Once PRR dieselized, E-7 road diesels were assigned to their Red Arrow trains in and out of Detroit. [CQII]

Time Line

1892. For several weeks the viaduct from the old yards up to the grounds of FSUD has been completed, laid with oaken ties and ironed, and engines have been run over it with loads of supplies for the yard. Two trips have been made with trial loads of railroad iron, flat cars being piled up with double their capacity in tonnage for the purpose of testing the strength of the work. In both cases, the results have been thoroughly satisfactory. The iron trusses bear the tremendous weight without the least apparent effort and the structure maintains itself with eminent satisfaction to the builders.

General Manager Hayes, of the Wabash system, and President Crapo, of the Union Depot Company and the Flint & Pere Marquette railroad company were present at the test of the long overhead trestle, carefully observing its strength under extraordinary heavy loads, and said that in every respect it showed itself as one of the most perfect pieces of engineering work ever built.

It is not well understood that the Union Depot viaduct is a very extensive enterprise, comprising one of the longest elevated structures for heavy traffic in the country. The design of the iron work is that of the Detroit Bridge and Iron Works and to speak of it in detail would be to fill a large volume. The facts of the most public interest, however, are that it is an elevated iron structure, capable of carrying the heaviest of trunk line freight and passenger traffic; is two miles long, representing an investment of over $1 million, all expenses included; fourteen to sixteen feet from the ground and commanding to those who ride on it one of the most attractive views of the river and shipping that could be asked.

In building this long "bridge" the designer had to meet a very embarrassing problem - that of making a rigid piece of work and at the same time one which, without being weakened, would compensate for the expansion and contraction of the metal in summer and winter. This has been met in an original manner by the designer. Every 500 feet is a span, independent from the other portions of the bridge, upon which are massive stirrups, in which the longitudinal girders rest. The expansion and contraction is great, but these independent stirrups will take care of both and at the same time there is not a sliding joint or loose nut or rivet throughout the entire length.

Creeping Rails. There is one perplexing and annoying condition, however, which is known of in advance and which no ingenuity has been able to prevent. This is the subject of "creeping rails." In so long a stretch of track as that on the viaduct, it has been found impossible to prevent the railroad iron from moving in the direction of the greatest trend of traffic. This is so great that it is an unending source of annoyance to railroad men. At the Michigan Central shops in West Detroit, it is necessary to keep men employed at nothing else than cutting off the rails from a track upon which engines all move in the same direction and it adding rails to the other end, so great is the tendency of the iron to "creep". This phenomenon is said to be the result of wave motion, as irresistible as any natural force and utterly uncontrollable. Such a railroad iron be chained to bed rock, the force of the wave motion is such as to move the stone from its bed or else snap the chain.

On the viaduct it is necessary as a matter of safe railroading to run all in-bound trains on the north track and the outward bound trains on the south track. This will cause the creeping track question to become one of the steady items of surveillance and expense to the company.

The track is now being surveyed and is partially laid across the grounds of the depot, and to-day, for the first time, the citizens of Fort street opposite the site will be startled by the appearance of a snorting, puffing locomotive and will be brought to a realization of what the demands of commerce and progress have brought to their doors. Any disappointment felt must be compensated for by the great material advantages secured to Detroit.

From the Detroit Free Press, September 10, 1892. [DFP-1892-0910]