History of rail transport in Philadelphia
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The Northern Liberties and Penn Township Railroad opened in 1834, connecting the Philadelphia and Columbia to the
In 1837, an eastern extension of the Philadelphia City Railroad opened along
A relocation of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad to bypass the
In 1853, the
In 1863 and 1866 the Junction Railroad opened, connecting the lines west of downtown. The Connecting Railway opened in 1867, connecting the lines north of downtown, and finally giving the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad a route into downtown. Eventually all the lines into Philadelphia, except for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad, were owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad or Philadelphia and Reading Railway.
The Schuylkill River starts in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania near Pottsville, Pennsylvania and was used in the early days to ship anthracite coal by mule on the Schuylkill Canal to Philadelphia for burning fuel. Later anthracite coal from the hard Coal Region was shipped on the Reading railroad/ Reading Company. The Reading Railroad competed with the Pennsylvania railroad and built tracks along the Schuylkill River for the coal. Today,[when?] the anthracite coal is still shipped on coal cars down to the ports of Philadelphia from Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, by rail. The city of Reading, Pennsylvania, became a rich middleman town during the Industrial revolution from the Coal Region Pottsville, Pennsylvania, 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Philadelphia.
References
Further reading
- Cheape, Charles W., Moving the masses: urban public transit in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, 1880-1912, Harvard University Press, 1980. ISBN 0-674-58827-4