Lincoln, the law, and a bridge that was in the way

Abraham Lincoln has been on my mind, thanks to a new book. At Trains, we ran a story about Lincoln’s connection to railroading in 2009 during the 200^th anniversary of the 16^th president’s birth. Most people know that Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act in 1862 that authorized the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, today’s Union Pacific. Most know that Lincoln’s body returned from Washington to Springfield, Ill., via a funeral train on board a special private car (more on that). But lesser known is that Lincoln was a vital part of a court case in which he asserted the right of a railroad to bridge a navigable river.

I’ve just started Brian McGinty’s “Lincoln’s Greatest Case,” but I can already tell that it will be a great read. The story has all the elements of a captivating true drama: A famous American character in Lincoln; a startling accident, involving a steamboat, the Effie Afton  that plowed into the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi, sinking, and taking a significant chunk of the bridge with it; and, of course, the legal challenge and its implications. Had this case had come down on the side of the boat owners, we might be writing about the Mississippi River barges on the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific main lines.  Thankfully, the decision went for the railroads, and trains roll right across the Big Muddy. I look forward to reading McGinty’s tale of how it all happened.

I mentioned Lincoln and his funeral train, and while I have your attention, please be sure to see our reporting about the construction of a replica of this unique car. David Kloke, who built the magnificent operating 4-4-0 replica Leviathan in 2009 is nearing the completion of a replica of the Lincoln Funeral Car. Look for a report soon in News Wire and a six-page feature story in our June issue.