Antietam Street-Grand Trunk Railroad
National Register of Historic Places

Antietam Street-Grand Trunk Railroad

Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan
Listed
February 18, 2000
Type
Structure
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
00000114

About this property

The Antietam Avenue Bridge was located where Antietam Avenue passed over the Dequindre Cut (formerly owned by the Grand Trunk Western Railroad) in Detroit, Michigan. It has been demolished due to structural deficiencies and will be reconstructed. The original bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. By the 1920s, there were over 400 industries operating on Detroit's east side. However, the combination of the city's haphazard street plan, the expansion of large factories, and the substantial network of rail tracks conspired to slow traffic within the city, particularly in the east-west direction. In 1923, the city of Detroit and the railroad began a plan to build 22 grade separations; both parties agreed to share the cost. One of the tracks to be regraded was the line paralleling St. Aubin Street. These tracks ran from the northwest, where they connected with a network of other lines, to the southeast, where the tracks turned to parallel the river and supplied a number of large factories, including the Detroit-Michigan Stove Plant, the United States Rubber Company Plant, and the Parke-Davis Research Laboratory. The tracks terminated at the Brush Street Station in downtown Detroit. By March 1930, sixteen of the crossings of what now is known as the "Dequindre Cut" were finished, including the nearby Chestnut Street Bridge; the Antietam Avenue Bridge was completed soon thereafter. In 1964, the Antietam Avenue Bridge and the Chestnut Street Bridge were teamed as a one-way pair. In the 1980s, the railway was abandoned, and ownership changed hands. In 2005, construction started on the conversion of the Dequindre Cut into a rail trail. The first 1.2 miles (1.9 km) were opened to the public in 2009. The Dequindre Cut is in good condition, and the course of the Cut and how it relates to the street grid is apparent from the Antietam Avenue bridge. The bridge is good evidence of the grade separation effort early in the twentieth century. However, due to structural deficiencies the bridge was demolished in 2008 and was reconstructed. Antietam Avenue Bridge from HistoricBridges.org: photographs of the original bridge and replacement slab.

Location

Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan
42.34537, -83.03459

Categories

COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENTTRANSPORTATION
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church
Industrial
0 mi
Chestnut Street-Grand Trunk Railroad
Industrial
0.1 mi
Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Parish Complex (Boundary Increase)
Listed
0.1 mi
Mies van der Rohe Residential District, Lafayette Park
Listed
0.2 mi
St. John's-St. Luke's Evangelical Church
Industrial
0.2 mi

Nearby Battles

Battle of Bloody Bridge (Pontiac's siege of Detroit)
1763Colonial
0.3 mi
Pontiac's War — Battle of Bloody Run
1763Colonial
0.4 mi
Pontiac's War – Battle of Bloody Run July 31 1763
1763Colonial
0.8 mi
Battle of Bloody Run (Pontiac's War, 1763)
1763Colonial
0.8 mi
Pontiac's War - Battle of Bloody Run 1763
1763Colonial
0.8 mi

Questions about this property

When was Antietam Street-Grand Trunk Railroad listed on the National Register?

Antietam Street-Grand Trunk Railroad was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 18, 2000.

What type of historic resource is Antietam Street-Grand Trunk Railroad?

Antietam Street-Grand Trunk Railroad is classified as a structure in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Antietam Street-Grand Trunk Railroad?

The period of significance for Antietam Street-Grand Trunk Railroad is recorded as the industrial era.

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