The line went through the cities of East Dubuque, La Crosse, Prescott and Newport before arriving in St. Paul.
In 1887, additional tracks were constructed at La Crosse and Winona.
The line would be 25 miles longer than the parallel Milwaukee Road running in Iowa, but would feature softer grades.
CB&N featured retaliations from Milwaukee Road and Chicago & Northwestern about this parallel route. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy stepped in and absorbed the CB&N in 1899.
By 1910, with the CB&Q making a large profit off the line, they began double tracking. The project was completed by 1912.
Over time, with the mainline becoming even more profitable, the CB&Q took much traffic from the Milwaukee Road. While the Milwaukee Road was struggling in the 1970s,
the CB&Q merged into Northern Pacific and Great Northern to form Burlington Northern.
The BN operated this line until they merged with Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad in 1996 forming BNSF.
BNSF is the current operator of the line, operating nearly 75 trains/day across it. The portion from La Crosse to St. Paul is now known as the St. Croix Subdivision
06/26/21
This standard through girder bridge crosses the Black River at its confluence with the Mississippi River.
Built in 1917, the bridge consists of three main through girder spans, then six deck girder spans, and 63 concrete slab spans. The entire bridge is set on concrete substructures.
This type of bridge is common along mainlines. Easy to construct and extremely robust, these bridges are good for carrying mainline traffic.
Overall, the bridge appears to be in good condition. Significant replacements to the modular concrete slab spans has occurred.
The author has ranked this bridge as being locally significant, due to the common design.
The photo above is an overview. The author hopes to get back to this bridge in the near future for better photos.
| Upstream | Lytle's Landing Trail Bridge |
| Downstream | Confluence With Mississippi River |