From train tracks to highways, how Indiana became the "Crossroads of America"

ELKHART, Ind. -- Whether you are taking a road trip or just commuting to work or the grocery story, you are bound to run into one of two things, a highway or train tracks. In honor of our Nation's 250th year of independence, ABC57's Sidney Moore dives into why Indiana is labeled as the "Crossroads of America".

Brent Holaway, Assistant Curator, New York Central Railroad Museum explains, “The country was not built on the roads or the airline industry; it was the railroads. The railroads built this country.” The railroad boom in Indiana came after we started to realize travel through the major waterways really limited our capabilities. By 1854, Indiana was ranked 5th for Rail Mileage across the United States. The railway revolution brought communities together and shaped many local cities to what they are today.

Abigail Gratzol, Assistant Curator, New York Central Railroad Museum paints the picture saying, “It's just a place where a lot of important corridors meet, and because of that, it brought a lot of people to the city, and it helped fuel our industries a lot by, you know, transporting goods and people here.” Elkhart was one of the key stopping points for some of the most prestigious trains. Gratzol says, “They brought people here that might not have passed through otherwise, and using Elkhart as an example, our downtown was full of theaters and hotels that were, you know, probably specifically geared towards train passengers, because this was a very common, passenger train route.”

It is pretty hard to travel coast to coast and not make your way into Indiana, when looking at a map of the state you can see how many pathways lead to Indianapolis at the center of our state. But "The Crossroads of America" is an evolving term, going from waterways, to trains and more recently cars.

Fast forward to the 1950s, travel looked a lot different, as the development of highways sparked new jobs and pathways through the state. Part of that boom came from the creation of two nationwide highways that get you from coast to coast. The Dixie Highway and Lincoln Highway.

Aaron Helman, an Author and Historian explains, "At one point in time there were only two transnationals in the United States and the intersection of those two highways was right here where we are standing. It was really South Bend that was the crossroads of the United States first, and that's our heritage, and we have always been in the middle of it all.”

Right at the corner of Washington and Michigan streets in downtown South Bend sits a memorial marker to honor this historic intersection. Helman says, “Being in the middle of everything has brought a lot of diversity to South Bend, and you meet people from other parts of the state who are impressed by the diversity that we have, the Polish neighborhoods that we had, the Hungarian neighborhoods that we had going back for hundreds of years, and that's what happens when you're the place that everyone's coming through all the time.”

Now in present day is Indiana still the "Crossroads of America" after all this change?

Gratzol says, "At the peak of the railroad industry, the United States had 2000 sorry, 266,000 rail miles, and today we have about half of that, but that still gives us the largest rail transportation system in the entire world, even though it used to be double its size." But Helman comes in with a different viewpoint saying we are straying away from the tagline. "Indiana has distanced itself from that tagline in the last several years, because Indiana doesn't just want to be a place that you cross through to get to somewhere else, they want to be a destination."

But at the heart of the state, Indiana is still home to many railways, highways, and pathways, to bring you to wherever your next destination is. One of many reasons why we remain indivisible after 250 years.