Photo of a photo.......from a postcard.

An antique frame with a newly created photo from a postcard of the train bridge. I restored the frame and inserted the photo with glass for a customer.

Between Woodward and Madrid runs the Des Moines River. The river eventually runs into the Saylorville dam.  The bridge that crossed the river has continually evolved in the years since Iowa became a state back in the 1880's.  A smaller bridge was there for crossing but a wooden bridge was built for the train.  The train would come through Madrid and stop on an incline near an old cold mining town called Xenia. The trains stopped there because of the large population of Italian coal miners that lived there but the train couldn't start up again on the hill to keep on going.  Eventually the train stop was changed and was further up at the top of the hill and the town of Woodward was established.

A newer bride was built to replace this one with pillars that were 13 stories high, that were made of concrete. The bridge was massive and a long expanse. When the train stopped doing passenger service it continued to do grain service for a number of years.

At least 10 years back, the tracks were removed and the train company sold the metal beams from the bridge as steel was at a high price and they made millions of dollars from it.  All that was left standing were the concrete columns.  Now today a million dollars plus later a bike trail bridge has been placed back onto the pillars. More pictures to follow in other postings.