Gateway State Trail - Wheelock Parkway Bridge

In 1880, the Wisconsin and Minnesota Railroad (W&M) would complete 54 miles of new railroad extending from Abbotsford to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.  By 1885, 109 additional miles would be completed from Chippewa Falls to St. Paul, Minnesota.  In 1888, the W&M would be acquired by the Wisconsin Central Railroad, which would be renamed the Wisconsin Central Railway (WC) in 1897.  The WC had previously completed a mainline, extending from Chicago to St. Paul.  In 1909, the WC would be leased by the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway (Soo Line), which itself was controlled by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). The Soo Line had constructed a large network of railroads, connecting the Upper Midwest with Canadian Railroads.

In 1910, the WC began a series of projects to reconstruct the route.  The largest project was a new 18-mile alignment between Withrow and New Richmond, Wisconsin and the bridge over the St. Croix River, which opened in 1911.  This new alignment reduced the amount of grades and curves, and provided a connection to the Soo Line tracks at Withrow.  Additional relocations included 19 miles between Owen and Spencer which bypassed Abbotsford, and 11 miles between Colfax and Howard.  The old St. Croix River bridge would be scrapped in 1916, the Abbotsford to Curtiss segment abandoned in 1934, and the Curtiss to Owen segment abandoned in 1938.  By 1961, the WC, Soo Line and Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic would be merged to form Soo Line Corporation, a holding company controlled by Canadian Pacific Railway.  The segment between St. Paul and Carnelian Junction would be abandoned in 1980, and acquired by the Minnesota DNR. 

After the Soo Line acquired the Milwaukee Road in 1986, this route became less important, as the Milwaukee Road purchase provided Soo with additional connections between Chicago and St. Paul.  In 1987, the route would be sold to Wisconsin Central, Ltd. Known as the "new" Wisconsin Central, the railroad acquired several excess rail lines from the Soo Line and C&NW, before being acquired as the American subsidiary of Canadian National Railway in 2001.  Today, the Gateway Trail utilizes the line between Carnelian Junction and St. Paul, while CN operates the remainder of the line as the Minneapolis Subdivision, part of the principal CN connection between Minneapolis and Chicago.