This historic overpass on North Wilkinson Street was likely built for the Central of Georgia Railway in the 1920s or thereabouts. The Central of Georgia was later absorbed by Norfolk Southern, but since there were numerous lines running through Milledgeville at one time, I haven’t been able to confirm. This one was obviously built with local materials; the red clay so famous in Middle Georgia is shining through. The line which this overpass serviced is now abandoned.
Built in 1920’s. Trucks weren’t so big back then.
That looks like a very low clearance underpass.
looking at old railroad maps and tracing the line on a current map it was a line of the Georgia Rail Rad company . Apparently the railroad originally went all the way back to the Civil War period.
I once saw a train that had derailed at the crossing right next to the Amtrack station in Savannah, some years back, scattering the cars like matchsticks! I was fortunately not there at the time, but came across it a day or two later, when I tried to use that route on my way home, and had to turn around because that crossing was still blocked.
Lesson learned: Always stay back from a railroad crossing at least 50 feet when a train is going by! If a car comes off the track and you are right in front of the track, you have no time to react and nowhere to go, particularly if a line of cars pull right up behind you. If one of those freight cars lands on your car, you are dead.
A wooden railroad overpass crossing Louisville Road at Staley Avenue on Savannah’s westside was abandoned some years back, because the rail line it supported was no longer being used. Several years after that, the overpass was torn down. I heard that was because the cost to tear it down was less than the property taxes the railroad had to pay on it, even though the line was no longer used.
Tax consequences often drive construction plans!
Fortunately, a brick overpass similar to the one pictured above, east of the one on Louisville Road I mentioned, where it crosses Boundary Street, is still in place. It, too, is historic. The Atlanta-Savannah train the Nancy Hanks used it coming into the Central of Georgia Railroad station that is now the Savannah History Museum.
The year was 1971. I was on my way to a wedding when a pulpwood truck in front of me struck the overpass and lost its load of pine logs. I can still see it like it was yesterday.
That would have been something to see, Tom!
It sure was. The logs came tumbling down like fiddlesticks as I hit the side of the road.