LCP Collections Featured in Hidden City Philadelphia

This image drawn by Frank H. Taylor shows a canal boat packed with passengers upon a horse-drawn railcar that was making its way through Philadelphia to points west. The scene was at Dock Street, by the Merchant’s Exchange Building.

This image drawn by Frank H. Taylor shows a canal boat packed with passengers upon a horse-drawn railcar that was making its way through Philadelphia to points west. The scene was at Dock Street, by the Merchant’s Exchange Building.

Riding The Rails On Pennsylvania’s Original Turnpike

From Hidden City Philadelphia:

As the opening of Phase One of the Viaduct Rail Park approaches this spring, an important and related predecessor railroad should be remembered. Aside from being one of the earliest railroads in America, the Pennsylvania-owned Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad was the first railroad in the world built by a government, rather than by private enterprise. Extending westwards 82 miles from Philadelphia to a canal basin in Columbia, Pennsylvania, the double-track line was conceived as a way to compete with the Erie Canal and the ascent of Baltimore as a trade rival to Philadelphia.
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