| A CN local, with 7 cars, crosses the Fox River Navigation Canal via the former C&NW swing bridge in 'The Flats' at Appleton, WI, on 28 Nov. '20. Train was returning from Kimberly and Combined Locks. I haven't noticed a builder's plate, but according to bridgehunter.com, the Warren through truss swing bridge was built in 1908. However, a recent contributor to that site believes it was built after 1919. A photograph caption in the Post-Crescent on 29 May 1974 states that the bridge was "nearly 50 years old." The canal is in the foreground, but the body of water beyond the spit of land to the left is the last remaining scrap of what was once the South Channel of the Fox River through 'The Flats.' Old maps reveal that the west end of the South Channel was filled in at some point between 1916 and 1957. Most of the remainder of the South Channel was filled in the following years. Over the past several years, I have noticed that some misinformed individuals erroneously refer to ‘The Flats’ as ‘Oneida Flats,’ or some other variation. For all of my life, the historic, industrial heart of Appleton has been simply ‘The Flats.’ However, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was referred to as 'The Water Power.' |