Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman supports saving Boonville RR bridge for Katy Trail

A Columbia Daily Tribune article discusses the controversy over a railroad bridge over the Missouri River in Boonville. Union Pacific, the bridge's owner, has slated it for demolition. A group of trail supporters, led by Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman, wants to save the bridge for use as a bicycle/pedestrian link:

The Katy Trail crosses the Missouri River on a bicycle and walking lane of the Boonville highway bridge. Restoring the lift bridge - formerly part of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad - would allow trail users to cross directly from Old Franklin to Boonville on a bridge free of motor vehicles. . . .

Hindman said rehabilitating the bridge would provide another attraction for Katy Trail users, as well as for Boonville, which has been trying to develop its tourism industry in connection with its designation as a stopover on the trail. Hindman cited the Chain of Rocks Bridge in northern St. Louis and the Aerial Bridge in Duluth, Minn., as examples of bridges rehabilitated into city icons.