Ep. 476: CSX's Historic St. Joseph Swingbridge

July 2016, ST. JOSEPH, MI -- The lakeside cities of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph are split by the St. Joseph River, a significant obstacle for any surface transportation. For the rails of the Pere Marquette, the solution was this swing bridge, still in operation today, well over a century after its first crossing. Rewinding the clock to 1904, the Pere Marquette railroad was only a handful of years old, following the merger of several smaller roads into a regional conglomerate that encompassed nearly all o