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Railroads of Ann Arbor
In the nineteenth century, railroads had a tremendous impact on the
development of Ann Arbor. Initially, railroads were used to transport
goods, such as livestock, wool, and coal. Later, trains not only
transported cargo, but provided passengers with the opportunity to visit
and explore nearby towns and, through connections in Detroit, Chicago, and
Toledo, the rest of the country.
The Ann Arbor Railroad Company operated the line that ran through Michigan
in a north-south direction, from Toledo, Ohio to Frankfort, Michigan and,
via car ferry, across Lake Michigan. It had its headquarters in Howell,
Michigan. Click here to see the
Railroad map of Michigan.
Although the Ann Arbor Railroad Company no longer operates north of Ann
Arbor, its past was carefully documented by Claude Stoner. An optical
engineer, Stoner's personal hobby was railroad photography. His images of
railroad stations, trains, passengers, and employees vividly recall the
role of the railroad in the everyday lives of Ann Arbor's early
twentieth-century residents.
While most trains ran without incident, railroad crashes were
occasional,
chilling events. Newspapers ran front-page articles with arresting
photographs and first-hand interviews. Of the accidents that occurred near
Ann Arbor, one of the most spectacular was the Huron Valley Bridge
collapse
of 1904. Click here for a picture of
the Huron Valley River railroad crash.
By the end of the 1960s, both the Michigan Central Railroad and
the Ann Arbor Railroad Company were in decline. The popularity of the
private automobile and the rise of the commercial trucking
industry competed with railroads for passengers and freight.
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Students On Site is a community
project of the Arts of Citizenship Program at the University of Michigan,
funded in part by the Michigan Humanities
Council and the U-M Office of the Vice-President For Research.
This website is a collaboration between the Arts of Citizenship Program
the CHICO
Project of the School of Information
and the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.
The tracks of two sets of railroad systems can still be found in the
city.
The Michigan Central Railroad Company, established in 1846, operated the
line that ran across Michigan in an east-west direction. Ann Arbor was one
of many stations along this line and was part of the route from Detroit to
Chicago. This line linked Michigan to cities on the East Coast, such as
New York and Boston.
