Cleveland, Terminal Tower (Tower City) and Van Swerigen Brothers

[Astronuc]

If one studies American history and industrial development of the late 1800s and early 1900s, one will probably encounter stories of the railroad barons. One may have heard of Jay Gould (and son George Jay Gould), James Fisk, Cornelius Vanderbilt, E.H. Harriman, J.J. Hill, and the Van Swerigen brothers of Cleveland, OH. Each had a significant economic impact on the nation.

The Van Swerigens (Oris Paxton Van Sweringen (April 24, 1879 – November 22, 1936) and Mantis James Van Sweringen (July 8, 1881 – December 12, 1935)) had an interesting place in American railroading. I didn't appreciate the structure of their corporate empire until I read the following. It reminds me of the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads, and then later the PennCentral Railroad and the PennCentral Transportation Company, which became the largest corporate bankruptcy at the time (1972).

https://americanbusinesshistory.org/forgotten-empire-builders-clevelands-van-sweringen-brothers/Some history of terminal tower and the Van Swerigen brothers.
Some folks would like passenger service restored in downtown Cleveland.
https://www.cleveland.com/travel/20...veland-amtrak-station-back-at-tower-city.html

 

[jtbell]

I watched the whole video. The scenes of the Terminal Tower concourse before the 1980s renovation brought back memories.

As noted in the video, "the Vans" (van Sweringen brothers) got into the railroad business because they wanted to build a high-speed route for streetcars connecting downtown Cleveland with Shaker Heights, which they had developed from mostly empty land. The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (the "Nickel Plate Road") owned the land along the section from East 34th Street to Public Square, so the Vans bought the railroad in order to gain access to the right of way.

After the Vans' financial empire collapsed, the city of Shaker Heights bought the Cleveland Interurban Railroad (which the Vans had created to operate their streetcar lines) and set up a Department of Transportation, separately from Cleveland's own streetcar system (Cleveland Railways, later Cleveland Transit System).

Cleveland Interurban Railroad timetable from 1940 (PDF)

Shaker Heights Dept. of Transportation timetable from 1975 (PDF)

When it came time for me to get braces on my teeth, my dentist recommended an orthodontist in Shaker Heights. So, several times a year my mother and I drove an hour to Shaker Heights for my morning appointment, then rode the "Shaker Rapid" into the city for some shopping. During 1970-71 I took my camera along on some of those trips.

The "Shaker Rapid" on Van Aken Blvd. in Shaker Heights in 1971:

And at the E. 34th St. station, on the "rapid transit" section through Cleveland. The Terminal Tower is some distance behind my viewpoint.

The high level platforms at the rear are for the Cleveland Transit System's rapid transit line, which was built in the 1950s and shares this section of track. It uses trains that can not be boarded from street level, similarly to subway / rapid transit lines in New York, Chicago, etc.

The "CTS Rapid" uses infrastructure that was originally built by the Vans, alongside the New York Central route through Cleveland. They planned to build a network of rapid-transit lines radiating from the Terminal Tower (mentioned in the video), but those plans went "poof" because of the financial collapse. The CTS built its line later, mostly in the 1950s, with an extension to the airport in the late 1960s, the first direct rail transit link to a US airport.

The CTS and the Shaker Heights systems (along with some other suburban bus lines) were consolidated into a regional transportation authority (RTA) in 1975, but the high/low platform distinction remains. Trains on the former "CTS Rapid" (now the Red Line) cannot operate on the former "Shaker Rapid" (now the Green and Blue Lines), and vice versa, except on the shared section that has both high and low level platforms. This situation will change in the next few years, because the RTA has ordered a fleet of new trains from Siemens, that can operate on all three lines, with some modifications to existing stations.

 

[jtbell]

I'm watching a Cleveland Browns football game on TV. Before returning to the game after a timeout, the network showed some quick scenes from Tower City.

The concourse layout is very different from the old days. I still vividly remember my first visit after the renovation, probably about ten years after my last previous visit. After arriving via the Green Line (formerly the Shaker Rapid), I was completely disoriented.