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| Page Four
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Aerial view of the Union Passenger Terminal site, also showing the area to be cleared for the construction of
the Civic Center. For better or worse, by the late 1950's, the urban landscape of this section of the city
would bear no resemblance to what is pictured here. The caption attached to this photograph reads:
New Union Station and related public improvements are shown in this new aerial photograph. Steel work of new station building is seen at right in center of picture, with new passenger platforms extending off to left. Widened Simon Bolivar Ave. which will be the main uptown approach thoroughfare to station is shown in lower part of photo. [New Orleans Railroad Terminal Board Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection] 
In October 1852, construction began on the first Railroad
serving New Orleans west of the Mississippi. This pioneer line-the New Orleans,
Opelousas & Great Western-built only 80 miles of railroad, but it became a vital
part of the 14,000-mile Southern Pacific System, which now extends from New
Orleans to Portland, Oregon. During the past century, the Southern Pacific has
made important contributions to the development of New Orleans, through
providing transportation service to and from the Southwest and West. The SP
served as a partner with the State of Louisiana and the New Orleans Public Belt
Railroad, in the construction of the famous Huey Long Bridge-underwriting a
goodly share of the $13,000,000 cost of bridging the Mississippi.
[New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal Dedication Program,
Saturday, May 1, 1954] 
The Southerner, the Southern Railway's streamlined New Orleans to New York passenger train, crosses
Lake Ponchartrain near New Orleans, 1952.
| [Photograph by Sickles Photo Reporting Service, General Interest Photograph Collection] 
Aerial view of the new Union Passenger Terminal under construction in 1953. The passenger platforms are
complete and Calliope Street (renamed Earhart Boulevard in honor of Commissioner of Public Utilities Fred
A. Earhart, who was instrumental in the planning and execution of the new transportation system) has been
paved and widened. This photograph also clearly shows the location of the old Union Station in relation to
the new station. The old station and its train sheds stood on top of what is now the entryway (then called
"Bienville Plaza") to the UPT and what is now Loyola Avenue.
| [Mayor's Annual Report, 1952-1953] 
Mayor deLesseps S. Morrison and W.G. Zetzman, Chairman of the New
Orleans Railroad Terminal Board, survey the construction of temporary tracks and train sheds leading into
the new terminal. The old Union Station still stands at right. The temporary tracks and sheds were used by
passengers while the new terminal and tracks were being built.
| [Photograph by Leon Trice. New Orleans Railroad Terminal Board Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection] 
The new, permanent train sheds behind the Union Passenger
Terminal.
| [Photograph by Arthur W. Tong. New Orleans Railroad Terminal Board Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection] 
The first train arrives at Union Passenger Terminal, January 8, 1954. The train was the Southern Pacific's
Sunset Limited, which came in from the West Coast on track 12 at 4:35 p.m. Mayor Morrison and other
officials and guests boarded the train at the Carrollton Station and rode it into the new terminal. At 5:00
p.m., the Illinois Central's Panama Limited became the first train to leave the station, bound for
Chicago.
| [Photograph by Leon Trice. New Orleans Railroad Terminal Board Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection] 
Union Passenger Terminal shortly after its completion in 1954. When the terminal opened on January 8,
1954, Mayor deLesseps S. Morrison described the effort to build the terminal and the concurrent
restructuring of a major part of the city's transportation system, more than half a century in the making, as
the "second battle of New Orleans."
| [Photograph by Leon Trice. New Orleans Railroad Terminal Board Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection] 
Union Passenger Terminal by night. The UPT was built at a cost of $2,225,000 and replaced the city's five
scattered depots. At the time of its dedication in 1954, it claimed to be the only air-conditioned station in the
country and served 44 passenger trains of the eight railroads that used the terminal each day. Although the
terminal was owned by the city, it was built and paid for by the railroads themselves.
| [Photograph by Leon Trice. New Orleans Railroad Terminal Board Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection] 
The UPT's fresco murals were painted by Conrad Albrizio, assisted by James Fisher. Albrizio, a member of
Louisiana State University's Art Department also painted a large fresco in the new State Capitol in Baton
Rouge. The murals depict the history of Louisiana in four panels representing the ages of exploration,
colonization, conflict and the modern age. This year the Times-Picayune reported on the efforts of the newly
formed Friends of the Union Passenger Terminal to secure funding to restore the murals, which have
suffered considerable damage over the years.
| [Photograph by Leon Trice. New Orleans Railroad Terminal Board Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection] 
Interior shot of the 140-foot wide main concourse of the spanking new Union Passenger Terminal. The
terminal's frescoes are as yet incomplete. Today, after years of decline, UPT is poised for a comeback.
The City of New Orleans, through the New Orleans Business Corporation, hopes to redevelop the terminal
as a modern transportation center.
| [Photograph by Leon Trice. New Orleans Railroad Terminal Board Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection] 
Union Station was demolished in early 1954, shortly after the first train arrived at the new Union Passenger
Terminal, which can be seen just behind it in this photograph.
| [Photo by Leon Trice. General Interest Collection]
On Christmas Day, in 1830, a six-horsepower locomotive,
"The Best Friend of Charleston", inaugurated the first regular steam railroad
service in the United States, on a six-mile line belonging to the South Carolina
Canal and Rail Road Company (now a part of the Southern Railway System). The
New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad Company was chartered in 1870. Its rail
line from Meridian, Mississippi to New Orleans, which was completed in 1883,
became part of the Southern Railway System in 1916-connecting New Orleans via
Birmingham, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, with the vast area South of the Ohio and
East of the Mississippi River. The Southern Railway System Docks are at
Chalmette, just below New Orleans.
[New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal Dedication Program,
Saturday, May 1, 1954] 
The Southern Terminal was demolished in 1956 and replaced by a landscaped neutral ground. Today a
monument to Latin American hero Simon Bolivar stands in its place.
| [New Orleans Railroad Terminal Board Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection] 
Workmen constructing tracks across the Industrial Canal bridge at Florida Avenue. The work on the bridge
was part of a new stretch of the Public Belt under development in 1957.
| [Photograph by Plaideaux. New Orleans Public Belt Railroad Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection]
The Southern Pacific's steam engine No. 745 was built in 1921 at the SP's Algiers plant and spent more
than a quarter of a century at work on the line. In 1956, it was acquired by Audubon Park, which set it up as
an exhibit that delighted kids for the next two decades. Eventually, a group of local train enthusiasts, the
Louisiana Steam Train Association, gave the old engine a home in Jefferson Parish and began a long
campaign to raise funds to restore it to its original condition. Recent news stories report that money has
been secured to transform the engine and other old railroad cars into a traveling exhibit which will tour
Louisiana in 2003 to celebrate the Louisiana Purchase bicentennial.
| [Audubon Park Commission Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection] 
For many New Orleanian's the miniature train at Audubon Park was their introduction to railroad travel. This
photograph taken in March 1959 shows the little train chugging into the station. A miniature "train" still runs
at the Zoo, but it runs on tires, not tracks.
| [Audubon Park Commission Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection] 
Union Passenger Terminal from the air, showing the train sheds and tracks leading into the station. At the
left of the station, the parking garage for the New Orleans Center is under construction. At the right, the
approaches to the second span of the Crescent City Connection are under construction. The photo dates
from the early 1980s.
| [Photo by Burk and Associates, New Orleans Railroad Terminal Board Series, Municipal Government Photograph Collection] | |||||||||||||||||||
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