Fate of the Beer Line

By the mid-1980s many of Milwaukee’s industrial and manufacturing businesses had moved their productions to Mexico or China. Dozens of factories along the Beer Line fell silent, and the railroad gradually retrenched. Today, less than a mile of the route remains in service. Vacant lots, new buildings, and even a bike trail occupy parts of the former right-of-way.

Though few physical traces of the Beer Line remain, at least one tradition linking Milwaukee and beer endures: railroads. MillerCoors, the one large brewer remaining in Milwaukee, still receives grain by the Milwaukee Road’s successor, Canadian Pacific Railway. These days, trucks typically deliver the final shipments of beer to retailers, but rail still brings in some of the raw materials—as it has for well more than a century.

Exposé par :

CRP&A

Plus de CRP&A

Ferrytrain , 1961
B&W silver gelatin photograph
CRP&A
Afternoon Mixed , 1958
B&W silver gelatin photograph
CRP&A
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, Galesburg, Illinois , 1956
h = 50 in
archival pigment print
CRP&A
The Call of Trains: Railroad Photographs by Jim Shaughnessy
h = 80 in
CRP&A
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, Chama, New Mexico , 1958
h = 50 in
archival pigment print
CRP&A