Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Photos: Multimodal Node

Near the southern terminus of the Monon Trail at 10th St., there's a pretty interesting criss-crossing of transportation systems. Consider this list:
  • Interstate Expressway - I65/I70 Interchange
  • Freight Railraod - CSX Railroad
  • Urban Street - 10th St.
  • Urban Sidewalk - 10th St.
  • Rail-to-Trail Recreational Path - Monon Trail
  • Future Urban Bike and Pedestrian Path - Northeast Corridor of the Indy Cultural Trail
  • Proposed Commuter Rail - Northeast Corridor
There are so many systems it's difficult to capture them all in one photograph. Here's my best attempt, looking south across 10th St.:

You can see the CSX line and I65/70 at the upper corners, 10th St. and its sidewalks in the middle, the Monon Trail at lower-right where it will meet the Cultural Trail (it will head to the right off the photo) and finally, I'm standing on the proposed commuter rail route, which would go due south over 10th St. on a bridge at this location.

This photo doesn't capture the all the systems but I've included it because I think it's a better photo overall:

Turning around looking north, you see the proposed route for a commuter rail line serving Indy's northeast suburbs out to Noblesville, the former Nickel Plate Line.

Just to the right of the route sits this little building. I'm not sure what its purpose was, but it was certainly related to the rail lines that passed by this location.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I was up there not too long ago when touring Cottage Home, and people were walking, skating, riding bikes, a train was roaring, and trucks were buzzing by on the interstate; extremely lively...If you go a little down Mass Ave north of 10th you get a cool view of the skyline, as illustrated in your second shot.

thundermutt said...

The little house was likely a switching station where the three or four railroads came together. The Monon and NKP ran alongside each other in the north-south corridor, and the now-CSX line was another historic RR (NYC-Big Four, I think).

CorrND said...

Yeah, switching station seemed most likely. I just wasn't sure why the station would be right there as opposed to the other side of 10th where the lines would have merged.

I haven't been up that section of Mass Ave in years, Matt. I'll have to get over there at some point. Google maps shows some more brick roads in that area that I'd like to explore.

One other interesting thing I found in this area is that INDOT built bridges for I-70 to pass over Lewis St., but Lewis is a fenced, private road south of 13th St. Very odd.

E. said...

It's great to see you're back! I'm guessing the Cosmo fire really put a temporary damper on this great blog. Anyway, kudos to great pictures and updates. Cheers! :)

CorrND said...

E. - I was pretty bummed about the Cosmo. But really, my posting is pretty much directly proportional to my ability and want to get out and take pictures. It's tough to want to go out and take pictures when it's cold, so I usually just pick a day and grab a ton and then parcel them out over a week or two. I had a longer than usual streak of not going out with my camera recently. Now that it's getting warmer, I should have more regular posts.

Plus, Matt does such a great job with the cool photos! Mine are really just more informational or snapshots-in-time of construction projects. This time of year is usually when construction heats up but I don't think we're going to see many starts this year.

thundermutt said...

Walk over to 16th & Meridian from work some day. Massive steel superstructure for CVS is up.