PHYSICAL HISTORY AND CHANGING SUPPLY CHAINS

Today I posted some pictures from Wolf Point on the foto side. I also took a few pictures of the railroad bridge that stands, apparently, eternally open at Carroll Street.



I have never seen that bridge in operation, although I remember being told that a train used to run once a day across that bridge to the old Sun-Times building (the under-construction Trump Chicago deal) with newsprint. I never saw it happen though. I assumed it would happen in the middle of the night. A little googling this morning shows me that I was in error about the time, and this page has very, very cool photos and narration of the bridge in operation, as well as a freight train snaking through the loop.

Of course, now the Sun-Times printing facility is at Damen and the south branch of the river (or so) and their offices are in the Apparel Center at Wolf's Point. It seems unlikely that anyone will ever build a supply chain in the loop that requires a freight train to get to the door again, so this activity is almost certainly history now.