Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge

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Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge

Crosses	Ohio River
Locale	Louisville, Kentucky and New Albany, Indiana
Total length	6,000 feet
Width	70 feet
Opening date	1885

The Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge is a railroad bridge connecting the Louisville, Kentucky area to New Albany, Indiana, constructed from 1881 to 1885 by the Kentucky & Indiana Bridge Company, it opened in 1886. Originally, it included a single standard gauge rail and two wagon ways, allowing wagons and other animal powered vehicles to cross the Ohio River by a method other than ferry for the first time. The K & I Bridge company also owned ferry boats during both the 1st and 2nd bridge, eventually those operations were sold as the bridges success outmoded the need for them.

Upon opening, the bridge company also offered the Daisy Line, an early steam locomotive commuter train service. In 1893, the Daisy Line became electrified, the first steam to electric conversion in the U.S. This train was written about and pictured in "Engineering News". Passengers traveled in multi-unit three-car electric trains from 1st, 4th,and 7th Street elevated stations and other elevated stations in Louisville to New Albany. This commuter rail service was wildly popular. By 1906, there were 3,425 commuter passenger crossings daily and 1,250,000 passenger crossings per year.

In 1893, due to heavy expenditures on the electric train service, the Kentucky & Indiana Bridge Railroad Co. went into receivership but continued operations and later reemerged in 1899 as the Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Railroad Company. There was no interruption of the electric commuter train or other bridge services.

In 1907, the Louisville & Northern Electric Railway and Lighting Co. purchased electric train equipment and rights-of-way from the K & I, and by 1908, the downtown elevated trackage and the elevated stations were no longer used. "Louisville & Northern" changed the commuter trains to street running on the Louisville side by switching the rail gauge with the use of gauntlet track over the bridge.

From 1910 to 1911, the bridge was rebuilt and double tracked to handle increasingly heavier train and now automobile traffic. In 1952, creosoted wood block roadways of the second bridge were eliminated and replaced by steel gridwork roadway. In 1979, an overweight dump truck caused a portion of the steel grate road on the bridge to sag, automotive traffic was banned thereafter.

From its opening in 1886, thousands of crossings were made by multi-car commuter trains between Louisville and New Albany. The last trains of Louisville's sixty year plus commuter rail era crossed this bridge on December 31, 1945. The bridge today sees very heavy freight train usage daily, now without the convenience of the commuter trains or use as an automotive crossing alternative.

The bridge also featured a rotating swing span opening for the passage of ships in high water. The bridge was only opened four times, twice for testing in 1913 and 1915, then in 1916 for the passage of the steamer "Tarascon" and in 1920 for passage of the Australian convict ship "Success". In 1948 it refused opening of the span for passage of the steamer "Gordon & Green" citing inconvience and costs of cutting power and communication lines, an action for which K & I and L G & E both paid damages to that ships co. In 1955 the K & I sought and recevied permission to permanently tie down the swing span from the Corps of Engineers.( The Swing Spans operational history is from both the official K & I history records and Nautical history records of the convict ship "Success". Old photographs of the bridge opened are in postcard form and pictured in the Courier-Journal. The University of Louisvilles Ekstrom Library has a picture of the Convict Ship docked at 5th Street Wharf in Louisville.