Jeff, I think you're right. I moved from that area in 1961 and came back for a visit in the late 60's and Fyler was gone. Sort of a bitter-sweet right of passage.
It used to be a deadly bridge. It was downhill going west with a dogleg left that drivers would misread and shoot through the guard rails...many times with fatal results. It exited onto Picadilly Avenue but wasn't even close on alignment.
I lived in my grandparents home on Commonwealth Ave in Maplewood for about 4-5 years in the late 50's and had a great view of Fyler bridge and Lindenwood Yards south end from their back yard and an upper back bedroom. I went back to St. Louis on business a few years ago and amazingly the old neighborhood had changed very little in the 50 years since I left.
Besides the Lindenwood Yard I was only a few blocks east of the MP mainline that passed through Maplewood. It was a very busy stop when Maplewood was a bedroom suburb in the 20's, 30's 40' and 50's, but by the time I was around train stops were rare. I spent a lot of time train watching at the old Greenwood station on Greewood Blvd. Don't ask me how I'm remembering all these names because I don't know.
Ted Drewes, now that is a St. Louis tradition.
Butch
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