The Northstar Line makes it's way over the Mississippi River near downtown Minneapolis. March 2024.

Canadian Pacific Kansas City Holiday Train in Minneapolis on December 11, 2023. The rail company says they’ve raised more than $22.5 million dollars and 5 million pounds of food for local food banks since the tradition began 25 years ago.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) logo is displayed beneath the steel elevated tracks that define the Loop, the city’s central business district. The structure, part of the “L” system first built in the late 19th century, remains one of Chicago’s most enduring symbols of urban mobility. Overhead girders and riveted beams—many still original to the early 1900s—carry trains above streets lined with early skyscrapers and historic facades. The CTA continues to operate one of the largest and oldest public transit networks in the United States, moving more than a million riders daily through Chicago’s interconnected system of rail and bus lines.

Metro Transit light rail bridge over Haiwatha Avenue in South Minneapolis.

Paris Metro Line 6 crosses the Seine on the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, a two-level bridge completed in 1905 that combines roadway, pedestrian walkway, and elevated railway. The steel viaduct, designed to support one of the city’s earliest elevated metro lines, features riveted beams typical of early 20th-century engineering. In the distance is the Passy district in the 16th arrondissement, known for its Haussmann-era architecture and ornate façades. This elevated section of Line 6 was intentionally built above ground to provide air circulation for the early steam-powered trains, making it one of the few Paris metro routes that offer open views of the city’s urban landscape.

This steel swing bridge in Thunder Bay, Ontario, carries the Canadian Pacific Railway line across the Kaministiquia River near the city’s grain terminals. Built in the early 20th century, the structure allowed both rail and maritime traffic to pass through the busy industrial waterfront—pivoting open for ships bound to and from Lake Superior. The bridge remains an important relic of Thunder Bay’s era as one of Canada’s foremost grain-shipping hubs, linking prairie rail lines to Great Lakes freighters and global export routes.

A wooden freight train bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.