Pennsylvania Railroad, Waterfront Belt Line

Former belt line built to connect the Little Miami and Indianapolis & Cincinnati along the Cincinnati waterfront

Standard gauge line opened in 1864

Abandoned in 1986 and dismantled west of Broadway Street in 2000

Opened in 1864, the Cincinnati Street Connection Railway was a joint venture sponsored by the Little Miami Railroad and the Indianapolis & Cincinnati to connect the two lines.  Prior to this date, the nearest connection from the Little Miami to the railroads approaching Cincinnati from the north and west was via the junction with the B&O Midland/Marietta in Loveland.  The line was constructed mainly down the middle of Front Street from the Little Miami's yards west to various connections near Freeman Avenue.  The railroad remained in use until 1986, but by that time much of the route along the central riverfront had been moved closer to the river by park and stadium construction.  West of Smith Street and the approach to the C&O/Clay Wade Bailey Bridge, Front Street (currently Mehring Way) is in its original location, and the tracks remained in place there until the year 2000 when it was repaved as part of the construction of Paul Brown Stadium.  Parts of the abandoned right-of-way still exist on the riverbank between the Robeling Suspension Bridge and Great American Ballpark, but the tracks have been removed.  From Broadway Street east, the tracks remain in an altered alignment through Bicentennial Commons and Sawyer Point, but the flanges have been filled with concrete.  

Photographs from Queensgate to the Purple People Bridge