After L&N established the yards at Patio in 1916, they built a bridge spanning the tracks to reach the isolated neighborhood—also called Patio—on the east side. In later years the bridge fell into disrepair.
By 1987 the one-lane steel bridge with a wooden plank floor had been the source of complaints for at least a decade. That August an inspection revealed a new problem—several cracked beams. CSX maintenance workers replaced the beams with new ones.
City manager, Ed Burtner, reported to city commission on his talks with CSX, the owner of the bridge. CSX agreed to renovate the bridge if the city would assume its future maintenance. One issue not resolved was how to provide fire protection for the Patio neighborhood, seeing that most of the fire department’s equipment could not safely pass over the weight-limited bridge.
Three years later, amid another round of bridge repairs, the parties were still talking. CSX would only agree to restore the bridge to its original condition, arguing that it was not their responsibility to upgrade the structure. They offered to contribute $25,000 that the city could put toward replacing the bridge, which was estimated to cost just under a million dollars.
In 1993 CSX replaced the wooden floor boards of the bridge but talks about upgrading the structure had ended. The city was forced to come up with a new plan. It involved acquiring a tract of land beside Shearer Elementary School where a new street could be built to connect Flanagan Street with the Patio neighborhood.
In December 1994 the city held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the newly-completed Hamilton Street. It ran south from East Broadway, passing the Flanagan Street extension, to Patio Avenue.
Finally, in February 1996, the old bridge came down.
I am grateful to rail photographer, Garland McKee, for permission to reproduce his work in this series of articles. Garland lives in Lexington and, after fifty plus years, still goes on the road to photograph trains.
