DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this story, and I'm passing it along to you the way Duane does — one mile at a time. Here's what happened in El Paso. When the railroads rolled into El Paso in 1881, they did something that seemed perfectly reasonable at the time and turned into a headache that lasted the better part of seventy years.
Those tracks settled right along the northern edge of the city and just... stayed there. And as El Paso grew — as cities do — those same tracks stopped bein' a boundary and started bein' a wall. Right through downtown.
If you were a pedestrian or a motorist tryin' to get from one side to the other, the railroad didn't much care about your schedule. The tracks divided the city, and every crossing cost time nobody wanted to spend. Somebody, somewhere in the early twentieth century, had an idea.
What if we just... put the tracks underground? Dig a trench, drop the railroad below street level, and let the city live on top of it like nothing ever happened. It was the kind of idea that sounds simple until you price it out.
It took decades for that idea to become a shovel in the ground, but in 1948, it finally did. Eight major contractors and twenty-two subcontractors went to work. Robert E.
McKee General Contractor carried the heaviest load — regrading the railroad lines, digging the entire trench, and laying the new tracks. Now, when I say digging, I want you to understand the scale of what that means. Over four thousand five hundred gondola cars of dirt were excavated.
Four thousand five hundred. Eight bridges were built over the tracks. And to finish the whole picture, a one-thousand-seven-hundred-foot overpass across Cotton Street, several blocks east of the trainway, completed the project.
The total cost came to five million, five hundred thousand dollars, and the whole thing took more than three years to pull off. A significant work of civil engineering is what the marker calls it, and that is not an overstatement. Now here's where the story earns its name.
This trainway was going to need something to be called. And the people of El Paso didn't reach for something small. They named it for Bataan.
For the prisoners of war — Filipino and American both — who were captured by the Japanese army after the fall of the Bataan Peninsula during World War II, and who died in enemy camps. Many of those American prisoners, including thousands from New Mexico and Texas, had trained at nearby Fort Bliss. This wasn't an abstract tribute.
These were men with connections to the land you were standing on, soldiers who had walked the same dust before they shipped out to a peninsula on the other side of the world and didn't come back. On August 21, 1950, the trainway was officially dedicated. And the first passenger train to operate on the newly completed line was Southern Pacific's Sunset Limited — rolling through the trench that four thousand five hundred gondola cars of dirt had made possible, beneath eight bridges, through a city that could finally move.
Traffic flowed freely and safely through downtown. El Paso grew and prospered. And the name Bataan stayed on that trainway — a concrete and steel memorial to the soldiers who deserved more than a plaque on a wall.
They got a whole passage through a city.
What the marker says
With the arrival of the railroads to El Paso in 1881, the train tracks marked the northern boundary of the city. As El Paso grew, the tracks divided downtown and created a time-consuming barrier for pedestrians and motorists. In the early 20th century, a trainway was proposed to place the city's main railroad tracks below street level. In 1948, eight major contractors and 22 subcontractors began work on the project. Robert E. McKee General Contractor did the largest portion of the work-regrading the railroad lines, digging the entire trench and laying new tracks. A significant work of civil engineering, the trainway cost $5,500,000 and took more than three years to complete. Over 4,500 gondola cars of dirt were excavated and eight bridges were built over the tracks. A 1,700-foot overpass across cotton street, several blocks east of the trainway, completed the project. The trainway was named in honor of prisoners of war who died in enemy camps during World War II. The name Bataan was chosen to honor those soldiers-both Filipino and American-captured by the Japanese army after the fall of the Bataan Peninsula. Many of the American prisoners, including thousands from New Mexico and Texas, had trained at nearby Fort Bliss. The trainway was officially dedicated on August 21, 1950, and Southern Pacific's "Sunset Limited" became the first passenger train to operate on the newly completed trainway. With the completion of the Bataan Memorial Trainway, traffic flowed freely and safely through downtown, aiding the city's growth and prosperity. (2002)