Monday, July 13, 2015

Historic Views of the Former Railroad Bridge on Sandusky’s East Side


Oswald Zistel was aboard his sailboat in the picture above, taken in the early twentieth century. Behind him is the old railroad bridge. In the 1896 Erie County Atlas, a swing bridge is shown along the railroad tracks just past the cove on Sandusky’s northeast side, near present day Battery Park.


A late nineteenth century stereographic image shows the drawbridge of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, along with Ben Icsman’s lumber yard in the east cove area of Sandusky.

           
The bridge and tracks were in use by several different railroads from 1853 until the 1970s, including the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, and the Baltimore and Ohio. In June of 1908, a train wrecked at the drawbridge, causing a large crowd to gather.

     

According to the New York Times of June 22, 1908, an engine carrying a heavy trainload of tourists from Indianapolis who had spent the day at Cedar Point, plunged through an open drawbridge in the east end of Sandusky. While none of the passengers was hurt, J. J. Perrish, the engineer, had both legs broken, and Fred Sullivan, fireman, had cuts on his head and shoulders. Both had internal injuries as well. The gatekeeper of the bridge says the train pulled out at 9 p.m., but had not been scheduled to leave until 9:30.

2 comments:

Dave said...

Awesome update! Thanks for the information.

Anonymous said...

As kids in the 1960's we used to walk on the tracks out onto the water, always attempting to get as far as the drawbridge which seemed quite far in the distance. I don't remember ever making it that far, but if our parents found out we were out there we surely would have been in big trouble!
My gr gr grandfather was local businessman and artist, Ralph S. Tebbutt. We have a watercolor he did of the old drawbridge approx. 1920, it's a great representation of a historical feature now gone from our landscape.