MOUNT VERNON — Old postcards are a wonderful source of period images, and there are many of Mount Vernon floating around among postcard collectors. The larger postcard printers flooded the market with certain images, which remain common.
Much more fun, however, are rare items, such as the image here, from the Knox Time Collection of local history photos on Facebook. It features the (then) Pennsylvania Railroad bridge (the metal hogback truss bridge in the foreground) and the Main Street viaduct, the stone structure in the background.
This image is rare because the vast majority of postcard photos that are out there focus on the stone viaduct from the other side. This is the only one I’ve seen that puts its focus on the metal bridge. This unusual angle, taken by a photographer who set up near the edge of the river, makes the Pennsylvania Railroad depot look close to the metal bridge.
In fact, it was (and still is) across South Main Street.
The bridge and depot were built as part of the original Cleveland, Mount Vernon and Delaware Railroad, which later tranformed into the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus railroad before being sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The depot was in service from 1905 to 1952. The postcard photo probably dates somewhere between 1905 and 1915 or so, judging by the style of the locomotive and the relative lack of automobile traffic.
For the stories and pictures of some of the train derailments on this line, check out this earlier History Knox column for further information.
