Remnants of railroading past

Two of the last major remnants of railroad lines on Spokane’s north riverbank are being demolished as work progresses on Kendall Yards, a 78-acre commercial and residential development near downtown Spokane.

A Union Pacific viaduct at Cedar Street and Ide Avenue and a Great Northern bridge abutment near Monroe Street and Ide had been silent sentinels since 1973. That’s when UP’s and GN’s north riverbank rail lines were abandoned and all rail traffic through the city was moved to the south side of the river.

Large jackhammers, scoop buckets and heavy-duty dump trucks were making the viaduct and abutment vanish last month. Large steel I-beams from the viaduct will be recycled and used in Kendall Yards landscaping, workers said.

The huge development also will include a missing link in the Centennial Trail.

UP and GN used separate bridges – demolished in the 1970s – over Monroe Street and the Spokane River to get to rail yards that were removed for the World’s Fair in 1974 on the site now known as Riverfront Park.

As demolition crews worked last month removing the abutment and viaduct, many passers-by had no clue of the role the structures had played in the city’s history.

“I think you’ve identified the last remnants on the North Side,” said local railroad historian Jerry Quinn.

He and other railroad historians keep track of such historic markers, in part to help document Spokane’s rich railroad history.

The city was built along the Spokane River, which for a time in the early 1900s was paralleled by more than a half-dozen railroads bringing goods, services and passengers to the community.

Still remaining farther west on the north bank is a large concrete abutment above People’s Park and the Spokane River. It formed the north end of a towering milelong Union Pacific trestle that passed over High Bridge Park.

It is on city-owned land just above the area where a white-water park is scheduled to be built.

The Union Pacific line, coming into Spokane from the west, was closest to the river.

As the UP line approached Maple, its grade was built on an earthen berm, its inclines held in place with a patchwork of large rocks. Small sections still are visible from the Maple Street Bridge – but won’t be much longer.

The UP line went over the viaduct at Cedar and Ide, with a siding built to serve a row of fruit warehouses on Ide.

As it approached the Monroe Street Bridge, the UP tracks were laid on a man-made berm created by building a wooden trestle, then burying it with hundreds of dump loads from railroad gondolas.

The Great Northern bridge abutment on the western side of Monroe was part of an elevated rail line that passed over Monroe to the GN depot. Its clock tower still is a landmark in Riverfront Park.

The Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway also used the same right of way.

At the west end of what’s now the Kendall Yards site, Union Pacific had a large railroad yard, with a six-stall engine house, fueling facility for steam locomotives and an area where passenger cars were cleaned, Quinn said.

Some environmental cleanup, including removal of topsoil, had to occur there before developers got the green light last year to begin building Kendall Yards.

Over the next 20 years, the Kendall Yards development is expected to bring 2,600 residences and 1 million square feet of commercial space to the land high above the north bank of the Spokane River, stretching west from Monroe Street to Summit Boulevard.

Many people have forgotten or don’t know that the land once was part of the city’s rail link to the rest of the country.

With abandonment of the north bank rail lines, Great Northern and Union Pacific began using the Burlington Northern viaduct on the south side of the river between First and Second avenues.

In 1970, Great Northern became part of Burlington Northern – the railroad now known as BNSF Railway Co.