The Monon Railroad

Originally the Louisville, New Albany and Salem line extended through Bloomington in 1853. It was hoped that the line would link Bloomington to markets on the Ohio River at New Albany and north to Michigan City and the Great Lakes, and Bloomington also needed passenger transportation for its new university. The rail line helped the growth of industry in Bloomington. The Showers Furniture Company and limestone companies grew as a direct result of the railroad, and with their growth came the growth of banks and neighborhoods. Industries such as coal distributors supported the railroad and were located up and down the tracks. Railroad depots once occupied much of this city block, with early depots used by the Louisville, New Albany and Salem line and the last depot at this site used by the Monon line. The limestone depot was the third and last at the site, the second depot handled passengers and freight from 1858 to 1911, and the third depot stood from 1911 to 1966, when it closed. Telegraph poles on the east side of the trail are part of a telegraph and railroad signal system dating back to the early 1900s; the top crossbar carried telegraph and later telephone wires, and the lower crossbar carried signals to railroad crossing protection devices and semaphores. Samuel Morse proved in 1835 that electric pulses could be transmitted over a wire, and he later developed a device that received the pulses and embossed them onto paper as dots and dashes, the Morse Code.

Bloomington, Indiana · United States