NEB&W Guide to the Railroad Causeway Across Lake Champlain

Last Update: 2009-11-13

Layout Photo Gallery Table of Contents

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Overview

• A section of the topographic map shows the causeway was built curved to follow an underwater sandbar, as the lake was only a few feet deep here. On the "long fill", there were two bridges, a swing bridge on the north section and a fixed girder bridge on the southern section. The clusters of little squares along the shore line are summer cabins.
  • [Map.]

Causeway

• When first built c. 1900, the fill was not yet protected with the large blocks of marble rip-rap.
  • [Postcard view looking south from Allen's Point on South Hero.]
  • [Photo courtesy Bob Nimke.]

• Within a few years, the rip-rap had been added.
  • [Postcard of the "Island Flyer" heading south. (Same tree as in the postcard above.)]

• A postcard view of the shorter causeway from Grand Isle to North Hero Island, across what was called "The Gut". (Note the bridge is opened.)
  • [Postcard view.]

• A Rutland photo of the causeway appeared in the June 1, 1940 Railway Age. The caption specifically pointed out the use of marble slabs for rip-rap.
  • [Company photo.]

• These two Phil Hastings photos which appeared in Jim Shaughnessy's The Rutland Road made us want to model this spectacular scene. The first view was taken from South Hero Island looking southwest, with the swing bridge barely visible.
  • [Prototype view.]
  • [Second view.]

• There is a low-level 1940's photo of a train on the causeway, with the swing bridge in the background. Note how large the marble rip-rap is. Also, interesting to see the amount of foliage, not just a product of neglect toward the end.
  • [Photo c. late '40's.]

• Near the end in the 1960's, the tracks began to be overgrown with weeds. This Jim Shaughnessy photo was taken from the south end (the "mainland), looking north.
  • [Prototype view.]

• The causeway after abandonment. Note the size of the blocks.
  • [Prototype c. 1970's.]
  • [Another view.]

Swing Bridges

• All three swing bridges on the causeway were built at the same time and as far as I know, all identical. This makes it nearly impossible to figure out which bridge is which in any photos.
  Up until near the end, the bridges were kept closed until a boat needed to pass. During the last few years, as the number of trains dimished down to just a few a day, the bridge was kept open unless a train was due. (This would mean the men would have to row back and forth to get on the bridge to operate it.)
  Before we had seen photos of the bridges, we had been to the causeway a number of times and walked from the South Hero side up to the bridge opening. Looking across the gap, we figured there would be some foreshortening, so trying to take that into account, we guesstimated the distance at 60 feet. Then one time we brought a boat and strung a string from one end to the other, later measuring it at about 180 feet, three times what we guessed.

• The swing bridges were manually operated.
  • [Closed. Color photo by John Gardner.]
  • [Open. Color photo by John Gardner.]
  • [Cranking it open c. late '40's.]

• At the north end of the long fill was what was called the Point Allen bridge, the south end of the island named Allen Point, probably for Ethan Allen. (As I identify which bridge is in which photo, I will separate that photo into its own section.)
  • [Photo of the Allen Point bridge, left open, c. early '60's. By this time, trains had ceased running. Photo courtesy Bob Nimke.]

Drawbridge Tender Shanty

• I think all three shanties were identical, but there may have been some variations. All three are built in the Queen Anne shingle style.
  • [Valuation notes c. 1917 for the Allen Point shanty. (Can't read all the notes.)]
  • [A trainman watches an approaching train, early '50's. Note what appears to be a large tool box next to the shack, and an outhouse across from it. (If I had to guess, I'd say this was also the Allen Point shanty with South Hero in the background.)]
  • [Close-up on one of the shanties. Photo courtesy Bob Nimke.]
  • [Close-up of the Allen Point shanty just before it was torn down in '64. That must be South Hero in the background. Howard Towsley photo courtesy Bob Nimke.]
  • [Close-up of the Allen Point shanty from the other direction, just before it was torn down in '64. Howard Towsley photo courtesy Bob Nimke. (By the way, Nimke writes that Waverly Lavigne, Jim Prime, and George Wilford were three of the bridge tenders that worked here.]
  • [The bridge tender shanty at Peloit's Pt., North Hero, VT. Photo c. '65 courtesy Bob Nimke. (This shanty clearly has some differences from the one seen above.)]

On The Layout

• Our causeway.
  • [Layout view.]
  • [Bigger.]

• Tom Amrine built a mockup of the bridge that is so detailed, most visitors think it is the finished model.
  • [Model photo.]
  • [Model photo, sky and water digitally enhanced.]

See our Layout Guide for the causeway.

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