A Quick Historical Look at Columbus Railroads

A few clips from a locally-produced documentary on the Short North section of Columbus. For those who aren't from Columbus, it's real simple, the "Short North" was a police ward of High Street north of downtown but south of the OSU campus area, and the name has stuck. Union Station was in the area where the Convention Center is now, and served C&O, N&W, New York Central, Pennsylvania, and B&O lines.

The majority of the arcade (or facade) came down the evening of October 22, 1976. The main station closed on April 28, 1977. For the next two years, Amtrak used a metal shed under the Fourth Street Viaduct as a station. Union Station was demolished during September, 1979 and Amtrak's National Limited (the sole passenger train through Columbus since 1971) was canceled on October 1, 1979, and for the next 17 years, Columbus was the largest American city without intercity passenger service (Phoenix has held this position since 1996, when the Sunset Limited was re-routed).

The area was also surrounded by rail yards, which were declining in usage since the 70s, closed in the early 90s to give way for the construction of I-670 through the area and there is only one track that runs near the Convention Center near where Union Station used to be.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Columbus
• Union
• Station.