St. Paul’s train to nowhere

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There’s been a fair amount of chortling over plans for high-speed rail in the country, and in these parts there’s been plenty of hand-wringing over a St. Paul-to-Chicago leg. Should it go through Red Wing or down through Rochester?

We didn’t have these nagging problems when we dreamed bigger dreams.

The Infrastructurist notes today that there was once a plan for train service from St. Paul to London…

The most striking line from this system — which is really saying something for a system that includes a track to the North Pole — is a double-tracked bridge that extends across the Atlantic Ocean and runs, via an incredibly straight course, into London. Behold the St. Paul & London Intercontinental Doubletrack Railway:

(h/t: Boing Boing)