Freight House: (Was just south of the depot. 3rd Street went to the river back then.)
6th Street Tower: (Satellite)
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| Photos via HistoricalDetroit Photo from the Detroit Free Press archives. |
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| Jim Kelling posted Postcard of Fort Street Union Depot built in 1893 (gone) |
Until 1951, there were docks at the end of Third. Steamships from Cleveland and Buffalo carried hundreds of people at a time. The Lodge Freeway was built under the tracks. [HistoricalDetroit] Also at the end of Third Street, on the west side, was Michigan Central's Third Street Depot. This depot became part of their freight handling operation after their new Detroit station opened.
The Fort Street Plaza does not need this number of thick steel girders to hold it up. When the freeway was built, these girders held the tracks for the station. This "urban tunnel" reminds me of the "Hubbard Street Tunnel" in Chicago.
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| Steet View |
Everything between the depot and the river used to be tracks and freight houses.
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| 1940 Detroit Quadrangle @ 1:24,000 |
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| Photos via HistoricalDetroit Museum of the American Railroad The Sportsman pulls out of Union Depot in Detroit in 1958. |
The fright house on the right side of the above photo was for C&O/PM.
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| 1940 Map of the Union Belt of Detroit |
I learned of this depot while researching the location of this crossing.
Charles Geletzke Jr. shared his post of two photos and the comment: "Here is the GTW crossing tower at Milwaukee Ave. in Detroit, Michigan on the Dequindre Line on January 24, 1981. I have also enclose a drawing showing this crossing in 1922 when the Detroit United Ry. crossed here. This was the reason the tower was originally constructed. (C. H. Geletzke, Jr. photo)"
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I never did find that crossing. But I did learn about the Detroit Union RR Depot & Station Co and about this depot.
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| Kirk Blasko posted 6th st junction. Found this while looking for another tower. Peter Dudley: Sixth Street Interlocking Tower controlled the passenger throat at Detroit's landmark Fort Street Union Depot (FSUD, 1893-1974). During that time, Sixth Street traffic used an underpass UNDER the tracks. Today's Sixth Street Overpass, connecting West Fort Street with West Jefferson Avenue, was intended to enable commuter trains to arrive and depart from Joe Louis Arena Parking Garage (part of which was designed to serve as a rail passenger terminal). The north side of the garage includes vertical clearances tall enough to accommodate passenger trains. Forty years later, the trains still haven't arrived. The garage's namesake arena is currently undergoing demolition, but the garage itself will reopen soon (under a different name). The garage is adjacent to soon-to-be-renamed Joe Louis Arena Detroit People Mover (DPM) Station, which was designed to circulate rapid transit and commuter rail passengers around downtown Detroit. Private sector re-development in the area could threaten a barely-existing double-track railroad easement, which could connect downtown Detroit (via DPM and the garage / rail terminal) and Detroit's Michigan Central Station (currently undergoing renovation by Ford Motor Company), IF this potential commuter rail route is preserved. For more information about my "big idea", click on the attached link: https://challenges.cityoftomorrow.com/.../the-last-best... [link did not work for me] Mark Hinsdale: Sixth Street was still open on first trick Mon-Fri when I started in June,1971. A little more than a month after the advent of Amtrak had eliminated all C&O & N&W passenger moves, I worked it only once, to facilitate the Union Belt job to switch remaining industries in the vicinity. Tim Shanahan shared Charlie DeWeese: Where was it and what did it control? |
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| Peter Dudley commented on Kirk's post Sixth Street Interlocking Tower, 1950 (C&O Historical Society photograph). A building in the distance might be Detroit's Fort Street Post Office (which didn't open until c. 1959). |
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| Mike Delaney replied to Charlie's question Pretty much controlled the throat into Fort St. Union Depot. |
The station is behind the church on the left side of the street, but we can see one of the freight houses further to the left.
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| Michigan Memories posted Fort Street in Detroit in 1912 |
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| Historic Detroit posted Coachmen and their horses await riders arriving at Detroit’s Fort St. Union Depot at 3rd & Fort St. (1898) Photo retouching: D Tour 313 |
According to a comment on the above post, this is the view today on 3rd Street. So the canopy on the left in the above photo was part of the station.
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| Street View, Sep 2023 |
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