Crossing of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway and the San Antonio & Aransas Pass (SA&AP) Railway
The location of Tower 2 is easily identified in the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
of San Antonio from 1904 (below) as the crossing of the San Antonio and Aransas
Pass Railway (SA&AP) and the
Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway. At the time the
interlocking was planned, both railroads were owned by Southern Pacific (SP),
but SP was forced to divest its ownership of the SA&AP in 1903 due to a court
case where SP's ownership was found to be anti-competitive. It was not until
1925 that SP regained control of the SA&AP and merged it into the GH&SA.
Detailed Sanborn maps from 1912 show that the SA&AP had a yard and roundhouse immediately south of this junction. The crossing was revised significantly in the 1920s by removal of the SA&AP track that crossed the SP. In its place, a curved connection from the SA&AP yard to the SP main line was built, a track that remains in place today, visible in the lower left quadrant of the satellite photo (second below). Removing the crossing would have severed the northern extension of the SA&AP track into downtown and beyond but a new connection to these tracks had been built by the San Antonio Belt and Terminal (SAB&T) Railway from a junction with the SP main at Tower 112, immediately east of Tower 2 (see Location Map below).

Index to the 1904 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of San Antonio showing the
crossing of the SP and SA&AP railroads
in south San Antonio, site of Tower 2

Google Earth satellite map of the area formerly occupied by Tower 2. The long
diagonal line of railcars
is on the SAB&T right of way. The smaller strand of railcars in the upper left
quadrant of the photo
running almost due north/south is probably on the original SAAP right of way.
This ROW connected
with the curved track in the lower quadrant. Tower 2 was located where this ROW
crossed the east/west
SP main line which is visible across and just below the center of the photo.
