Thirty Years Gone

Thirty years ago this week, the Milwaukee Road abandoned its Pacific Coast Extension and limped home from the West, the last train crawling out of Tacoma early in the morning of March 15, 1980. Service actually ended on March 7th, with a few employees retained to salvage what they could and load it on boxcars bound for the shops in Milwaukee.

The transcontinental no one knew was gone.

I never knew it, but I wish I had.