UP Madison Street Bridge (Near West Side)

In 1864, the Chicago & North Western Railway (C&NW) constructed a 1.75-mile railroad line, extending along Rockwell Street from South Branch Junction to Ogden Avenue.  At South Branch Junction, the railroad met the Galena Division, the C&NW mainline to Iowa.  At Ogden Avenue, the line interchanged with the St. Charles Airline, which was jointly owned by the C&NW, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, the Illinois Central Railroad and the Michigan Central Railroad.  The C&NW constructed this connection to provide a more direct route to the St. Charles Airline, as well as to the south side of Chicago.  During the late 19th Century, the C&NW was quickly expanding their railroad network, with Chicago being the major hub for the railroad.  A parallel line was added by the Chicago, Saint Louis and Pittsburgh Railroad Company (CStL&P) in 1885.  The CStL&P would be consolidated into the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway, known as the Panhandle Route.  

In the late 19th Century, railroad traffic had become a significant safety hazard for the City of Chicago.  A solution was devised to elevate the railroad tracks throughout the city, placing the railroads upon embankments and constructing subways at each street.  This section of railroad was elevated between 1898 and 1899 as a joint effort between the C&NW and the Panhandle.  The Panhandle would be reorganized as the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad in 1916, leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1921 and merged into the Pennsylvania in 1956.  Traffic over this route significantly decreased in the later portion of the 20th Century.  In 1968, the Pennsylvania merged with rival New York Central Railroad to form Penn Central Railroad.  The Penn Central Railroad was short lived, as it was plagued by operations issues stemming from the merger of the two systems.  The railroad filed for bankruptcy in 1974, and many of the lines were reorganized into Conrail.  Conrail was formed by the Federal Government to take over profitable lines of multiple bankrupt railroad companies in the eastern United States, including this line.  Conrail would abandon their portion of the line in 1986.  In 1995, the C&NW would be purchased by the Union Pacific Railroad.  The line is now known as the Rockwell Subdivision, and serves limited traffic.