Historical Images of Porter County

Building the Air Line, Coffee Creek Fill
Liberty Township, Porter County, Indiana

Date: Circa 1910
Source Type: Photograph
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: Air Line News
Postmark: Not applicable
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: Building the Air Line. Construction train filling the big trestle south of Chesterton, Indiana. The Goshen, South Bend & Chicago Railroad was responsible for constructing the bridge that spanned Coffee Creek. Since the land approaching the creek was essentially a marsh, fill had to be brought in to create a stable base. The Coffee Creek trestle was 6,800 feet in length (at one percent grade), 180 feet wide at its base, and 30 feet wide at track level. Trestle construction required one million board feet of lumber, which supposedly was harvested from 54 acres of company timberland. More than 400,000 cubic yards of fill was then used to fill in over the trestle. After the trestle was constructed, it was filled in with fill to create an elevated track. The span was completed on September 22, 1910. The Indiana Toll Road now parallels this grade in eastern Liberty Township and western Jackson Township.

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