Like a medieval wall encompassing an ancient city, an earthen elevation that nearly surrounds the old city of Indianapolis allows limited access through several underpasses. Atop this barrier from time to time roll freight trains over the iron rails of the old Belt Line Railroad.
On Friday afternoon October 1, 1847, locomotives pulling two long trains of passenger and freight cars, along the newly laid iron-lined roadway of the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad, entered the Hoosier capital, stopping at the depot surrounded by an enthusiastic throng of humanity. With this historic event, Indianapolis crossed the threshold of a new era of transportation. Two years later, attorney Ovid Butler (who founded Northwestern Christian University in 1855 — later renamed Butler University) at a meeting called to discuss the appropriateness of railroads laying track in Indianapolis proper suggested “the city should allow the railroads to have a common track round the city.”
By the mid-1850s, eight railroads were operating in Indianapolis, “pouring in daily their thousands of passengers and conveying in merchandise.” As a chief center of railroad activity, Indianapolis became known as the “Railroad City.”
In the immediate years following the Civil War, Indianapolis leaders began discussing building a “‘belt railroad,’ one that shall extend all around the city, connecting with the different railroads that enter the city.” Methodist minister, Rev. John Hogarth Lozier, pastor at Asbury Chapel, in a letter to the Indianapolis Journal proposed “construction of a circular railway” around the city, but for want of an active organizer no action was taken.
The need “to furnish ample facilities for the prompt and rapid transfer” of freight between the railroads and to provide convenient accommodations for local shippers and manufacturers in order to avoid serious delays, risks, and losses became acute by 1873, and largely due to the efforts of Henry C. Lord, former president of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & Lafayette Railroad, and Joseph F. Richardson of Delphi, Indiana, the Indianapolis Belt Railway was incorporated in April of that year to build a twelve-mile U-shaped railroad from northwest of the city to Brightwood. Construction, however, was delayed because of the onset of the financial panic later in 1873.
Despite financing challenges, preliminary work on the Belt Railroad began in 1874 with securing right of way over the entire line and the commencing of grading and putting in abutments for the bridge over White River. By the fall, the roadbed had been completed on the west side of the river. Unfortunately, money ran out and work on the railway ceased the following year.
Early in 1876, efforts to resume the Belt Railway project were initiated with a financial pledge by pork packer Thomas D. Kingan, but little came of this. Later in the year Indianapolis Mayor John Caven urged the completion of the railway suggesting, “as there is a great need of employment by laboring men, and money can be borrowed at a low rate of interest…I have thought it well to present to the Council the question of the construction of this road.” The Union Railroad Transfer & Stock Yard Co was organized, replacing the defunct Indianapolis Belt Railway, and the city issued $500,000 (2023: $14,542,970) in bonds to support the construction cost for the railway and stockyards. Work on the railway began in earnest in July 1877, providing employment to hundreds of men, and with its opening on Monday, November 3, 1877 nearly 2,000 people took advantage of a “complimentary excursion around the Belt Railroad” for only 25¢ (2023: $12) that benefited the Flower Mission for the poor. Also, at this time the stockyards opened.
The Belt Railroad was leased to the Indianapolis Union Railway Co. in October 1882 and the eleven freight railroads coming into the city immediately made extensive use of the new iron road. Over the ensuing years as more rail lines came into Indianapolis, the “belt” provided an efficient means of moving freight cars in and out of the city. By 1910 the Belt Railroad was moving over a million freight cars a year.
To facilitate an uninterrupted flow of street traffic and to eliminate the dangers at Belt Railroad grade crossings, elevation of the tracks began in 1909 with a bridge over East Washington St. Work continued in the 1920s with the elevation of the tracks over streets from West Washington St. around the south side to Prospect St and up the east side to Tenth St. The $15,000,000 (2023: $266,005,452) project not only allowed automobiles and street cars to move safely without delays, but it also enabled real estate development of the area south of the Belt Railroad.
In the fall of 1913, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce conducted a tour to showcase the 250 factories along the Belt Railroad. More than 2,500 citizens representing practically every industry, business firm, and institution in the city took advantage of this industrial excursion. Two special trains with five passenger coaches and five gondola cars each accommodated the crowd of sightseers. As the trains passed by on the route, most of the factories were colorfully decorated with flags and bunting, whistles noisily blared out salutes, and workers along the line greeted the entourage with cheers and waving banners. Several businesses had extensive exhibits displaying their wares. The travelers were given glimpses of the West Side, South Side, and eastern parts of the city before passing through Brightwood and returning to Union Station.
The closure of the Indianapolis Stockyards in the early 1970s and the increased use of trucks to handle freight brought a decline in the freight rail business within the city, resulting in diminished use of the Belt Railroad. The Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) began operating the railroad in 1976 and twenty-two years later CSX, a freight railroad corporation, assumed control of the trackage and still operates on some parts of the old Belt Railroad.
