In case you were ever wonderuing why there is an old bridge along the Line Creek Trail there is a perfectly good reason. The Line Creek Trail from Englewood Road/56th Street north to NW 68th street sits on an old roadbed and this was the way for folks on the west side to get to the east side.
Over time Line Creek has moved further to the east and cut lower so the bridg is out of place. Line Creek through Vaydik Park has changed a lot over time. The soil is highly erodible and the creek has reached some equilibrium between 64th Street and the bridge due to the limestone bottom and banks on the west side of the creek.
Why did people travel on the west side of the creek? Because Waukomis Drive didn't exist. It was the Kansas City-St. Joseph Interurban Railroad. Next time you are driving down Waukomis, take a look at the west side of the road and notice the old bridge retaining walls near the Line Creek Train and Line Creek Elementary. Since Waukomis was train track, people drove on the west side. You can still get glimpses of the old road beds. Some of the road still exists near 68th Street and serves about 4 houses include the Shields residence.
Down near I-29, there are road beds on both sides of the road. The area there was platted back in the early 1900's with roads on both sides of the Interurban. The picture below is looking north at the east side of Waukomis near I-29. If you squint, you can see two ditches.
It's a lot easier to visualize the old roads on the west side. This picture is looking north at the west side of Waukomis right near the picture above. The fence lines are the actual property lines and the old road was right where I was standing.
This is looking south at the west side.
I highlighted the location of the bridge in red in the 1930 Pettis Township plat map below.
The 1948 USGS topo map shows the old road system a lot better. Once someone crossed Line Creek, they could continue north to Miltonwood or go east towards Parkville by going up the hillside and winding up at the intersection of NW 56th Street and Byfield. To see the route, check out the birds eye view here. Between 1930 and 1948, US 71 was built. US 71 used to be Route 9 through Parkville until that point.
The roadbed up the hill still exists. I snapped this picture last spring.
Next time you use the trail, take some time to look around and see if you can find old access roads and imagine driving in the area before paved roads.
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