Ewington Overpass on US Route 40 and Pennsylvania Railroad
Starting
in the 1920’s Illinois was determined to get rid of muddy roads and pave them
with concrete. The roads were only one lane
most of the time and that lane was only 12 feet wide. If something was coming
down the road someone had to get on the shoulder to pass. While this was problematic it was much
better than what they had before. In May of 1922 a concrete bridge was being
erected over the Pennsylvania Railroad and US Route 40 in Ewington that would
stand until state replaced it in 1977.
The bridge was 24 feet wide and had solid concrete guardrails on each
side about 3 feet high and over a foot thick.
While it was great in 1922 it was very narrow and dangerous by
1977. Large trucks when meeting would
very often slap mirrors passing on the bridge.
40
Notice in the background to the east there is a bypass bridge, which was prior to the new concrete bridge. Coming off the bridge to the right the highway made a sharp right hand turn to run west again.
.
Here is a picture of the bridge crew who worked on the bridge dated May 16, 1922. The railroad laid a sidetrack north of the double tracked main line to bring in supplies and note the boxcar stationed there for storage and supplies. The seventh man on the first row going left to right was my grandfather Glenn Perkins, and the man sitting by the steam engine was his brother Frank Perkins. The fourth man in the second row was their good friend Kenneth Stonestreet.
In
the above picture is a picture of the road dated in 1935 showing the completed
bridge and road layout thirteen years later.
This part of the road has been abandoned when the “double S curves” were
removed in the 1950’s.