The George S. Walker train ferry transports a train across the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to the Anchorage railroad site in West Baton Rouge Parish in 1937. At this time, an engine on one side of the river put the train on the ferry. The train then connected with an engine on the opposite side and continued its trek either east or west.
After reading the Feb. 2 Curious Louisiana story about the Southern Pacific Railroad line connecting Baton Rouge and Lafayette in the early 20th century, Craig Bridges' interest was piqued.
"The story said there was no train track crossing the Mississippi River at that time, so the train was carried across to West Baton Rouge Parish on a ferry, where it connected with the railroad track at a place called Anchorage," the Baker resident said. "Where was Anchorage located in West Baton Rouge?"
The Anchorage railroad landing on the levee along La. 415, the River Road, in West Baton Rouge Parish, to which trains were once ferried across the Mississippi River to continue their journeys westward.
Two stories coincide
Port Allen resident Debbie Martin knew its exact location from her genealogy work of identifying and documenting lost African American cemeteries in West Baton Rouge.
Her research has given her vast knowledge of current and lost communities throughout the parish, and she'd been receiving emails about the community that grew around the Anchorage railroad stop.
But she and husband, David, did more than pinpoint the train stop — they took a break from their cemetery search on a Saturday morning and led the way to the point where the train line's east met west.
Remnants of the train track are still embedded in the levee along La. 415, commonly known as River Road.
A train crosses the Mississippi River by way of the George H. Walker train ferry from Baton Rouge to the Anchorage railroad site in West Baton Rouge Parish.
The Martins drove the few miles from their Port Allen home and stopped alongside the levee, only a few yards from a state historical marker commemorating the former Sunrise community.
The real thing
No such marker has been designated for Anchorage, but what's there is the real thing. Wooden pilings stand on either side of the last vestiges of a track at the top of the levee. Below, more pilings surround crumbling wooden reinforcements that supported the track.
"This was where teenagers used to come and party when I was in high school," David Martin said.
A closer look at the Anchorage railroad landing on the levee along La. 415, the River Road, in West Baton Rouge Parish, to which trains were once ferried across the Mississippi River to continue their journeys westward.
"Did you ever come here?" Debbie Martin asks.
Her husband smiles. Maybe a time or two.
East meets west
Between 1906 and 1947, this was the spot where a steam-powered rail ferry transported trains to the west. According to the West Baton Rouge Parish Historical Association's archives, the railroad ferry George H. Walker was the line's final and best known ferry, operating between 1923 and 1947.
Therefore, the Southern Pacific Railroad's line used the George H. Walker for 11 years between 1923 and the abandonment of its southwest Louisiana railway in 1934.
The tank farm at the Anchorage railroad site during Great Flood of 1927.
Southern Pacific wasn't the only railway serviced by the ferry system. It was put out of business a few years after the Kansas City Railroad line opened in 1945. The Kansas City Railroad line still runs through the center of Baton Rouge's Huey P. Long Bridge.
Traveling diagonally
As for the train ferry's route, trains on the east side would pull up in the Kansas City Southern railroad depot, which now houses the Louisiana Art & Science Museum at 100 S. River Road downtown.
The Waterways Journal, waterwaysjournal.net, in a 2019 article, states that the landing was "near the Louisiana State Capitol," which makes sense, since Louisiana's Old State Capitol across from the station was operating as the seat of state government at the time.
The south side of the Anchorage railroad landing on the levee along La. 415, the River Road, in West Baton Rouge Parish, to which trains were once ferried across the Mississippi River to continue their journeys westward.
"The east bank landing was near the Louisiana State Capitol building, and the west bank landing was just a bit farther upriver at Anchorage, making for an angled crossing distance of about a mile and a quarter," the Waterways Journal article states.
The ferry was operated by Gulf Coast Lines and the Missouri Pacific Railroad with the Willard V. King ferry preceding the George H. Walker at the crossing.
The earlier ferry was a two-track transfer boat with a capacity of 16 freight cars or eight passenger cars.
Biggest steel-hull boat
The depot that once stood at the Anchorage railroad site in West Baton Rouge Parish.
"In May 1922, the railroad contracted with the Dravo company of Pittsburgh to design and build a replacement, a steel-hulled boat large enough to carry entire passenger trains," the Waterways Journal states. "Dravo came up with a design for a 340-foot sidewheeler with three train tracks. The price tag was $250,000, the equivalent of about $3.5 million today."
The resulting ferry was, of course, the George H. Walker, which was the largest steel-hull boat on the Mississippi River at the time.
"The finished boat had a length overall of 346 feet and a hull depth of 11 feet," the Waterways Journal states. "The beam was 56 feet, but with the sponsons and paddlewheels, the boat's width was about 91 feet over the guards. The hull was divided into 26 airtight and two oil-tight compartments. Longitudinal members in the frame were designed to transmit the jar of loading to transverse members, to minimize stress on the hull."
The boat was powered by four 72-by-18-inch Bronson-type boilers, two on each side.
Approaching the Anchorage railroad landing on the levee along La. 415, the River Road, in West Baton Rouge Parish, to which trains were once ferried across the Mississippi River to continue their journeys westward.
"The boilers were adapted for oil but could be fired by coal if necessary," the Waterways Journal states.
Not a pretty boat
The Waterways Journal points out that the George H. Walker wasn't exactly a pretty boat.
"As steamboats go, the Walker was not going to win any beauty contests," the article states. "It was basically a big flat deck with an unadorned, short, squat block-shaped deckhouse on each side, paddlewheel housings looming a little higher, and a simple structural bridge straddling the three tracks to hold the pilothouse above it all."
But that didn't matter as long as the ferry did its job. And it did just that for quite a while, enabling transportation from Baton Rouge to Anchorage, where, according to the West Baton Rouge Historical Society, also was home to a small train depot.
Now the site is marked only by the ruin of a trestle unnoticed by most drivers along the River Road. But not Debbie and David Martin.
They know it's history and location, and they're happy to keep its story alive.