Vince Mpls: 100 years ago the Twin Cities were among the top railway centers in the US. Today the only passenger stations are NorthStar commuter in Minneapolis and Amtrak at St Paul Union Depot. Let's visit all the lost train stations, starting with downtown Minneapolis. There were 15! 🧵

100 years ago the Twin Cities were among the top railway centers in the US. Today the only passenger stations are NorthStar commuter in Minneapolis and Amtrak at St Paul Union Depot. Let's visit all the lost train stations, starting with downtown Minneapolis. There were 15! 🧵

0/ Minnesota's first rail service began July 2 1862, connecting the east side of St Anthony Falls with steamboat landings in St Paul. Technically this side of the river wasn't Minneapolis yet, because that wouldn't happen until 1872, but it's on the timetable so we'll count it.

1/19 The 1st train "station", not much more than a shack on wood planks, stood on Main Street SE between Maple and Walnut (today's 7th and 8th Streets SE), directly in front of today's Stone Arch Apts. The 10-mile trip to St Paul took 45 minutes, less time than the Green Line

2/ The 2nd terminus in town, the FIRST inside Minneapolis itself, was built in 1865 by the Minnesota Central Railway, to points southeast via Fort Snelling. This was a more substantial frame building at S 2nd Street and 5th Ave, where today's Marriott Residence Inn is now.

3/ The Minnesota Central was eventually bought by the Milwaukee Road, which built a pretty Victorian confection a block south at Washington Ave and S 4th Street in 1876. This served several lines and was the first to connect to such exotic places as Duluth and Chicago

4/ Milwaukee Depot was replaced again in 1899 by a grand Spanish Revival that still stands today, less its ornate cupola that blew off in 1941. The last train left here in 1971. Redeveloped into a hotel in 2001, it has one of the nation's only surviving truss-roof train sheds

5/ On the west edge of downtown, the St Paul & Pacific Railroad built a bridge across the river at Nicollet Island in 1867 to points west. Their new Minneapolis station was a combo passenger/freight affair located in the current railway trench near the T3 North Loop building.

This is Town of Saint Anthony erasure.

Exactly. We were first.

Shouldn't your skeet say the Town of St. Anthony?

I couldn't fit it in one :( I also copied it from my Twitter thread, which ofcourse brings out the worst in people.

Thanks, I knew you would have a good reason.

I live a block from Union Depot in downtown Stp. Beautiful building. One of the tracks runs right past my husband's work in the suburbs. "Cool! Must be nice to take the train to work." LOL what train? We drive our car there and back, there and back, every day, there and back 🤦

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