Today’s posting is about building streets and ripping out the passenger tunnel. And there is a special treat at the end for history buffs.

First, the streets. The following photo shows progress over the past week and a half of the new section of 16th Street from the base of the Millennium Bridge to Wewatta Street and the mall shuttle turnaround at the new shuttle station. You can see gutters and curbs for the turnaround on the left and paving for 16th Street in the upper right quadrant of the photo. Chestnut Place will enter in the blank space between the two streets.

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Now for the demolition. Looking closely at this photo, you can see the top of an excavator in the hole where much of the passenger tunnel existed a few days ago. Part of the tunnel itself is visible to the right of the excavator’s boom. The top of the ramp that led into the tunnel is clearly recognizable as a hole in the back of the station.

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So far this week, I have uploaded eight photos to our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com. There are several close-ups of the streets and the tunnel. I try to find a historic train station whenever we travel. Last week’s trip yielded this one from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. President Abraham Lincoln arrived at this station the day before he delivered one of the greatest speeches in American history.

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The battlefield is worth a visit as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Over 170,000 Americans engaged in a bitter three-day battle that resulted in 51,000 casualties.

We traveled with friends, Frank and Eileen, from Portland, Maine. Frank learned a few weeks before our trip that his great grandfather fought for the Confederates in the battle… he survived.