The 3.6 miles from Boonville to New Franklin cross the Missouri River into the river floodplain, passing farm fields, the 1816 townsite of Franklin, and the once-important Franklin junction. After the Boonville depot, the route briefly leaves the railroad corridor, crosses the Missouri River on a bicycle lane on the highway bridge, and continues past Kingsbury Siding, where monuments mark the Santa Fe Trail, which began at Franklin, and the first newspaper west of St. Louis. The railroad crossed a short distance upstream, and its first Katy bridge in 1874 was the fifth bridge across the Missouri. The current bridge, a 1932 replacement, was the longest lift-span in the United States when constructed and is no longer needed. Near Sulphur Creek bridge, visitors get their first view of the old Franklin depot, and at milepost 189.1 the ruins of the turntable and powerhouse show the site of what was once a major Katy junction and maintenance center.
