The Ridley Creek Railroad Bridge is an abandoned truss bridge over Ridley Creek in Chester, Pennsylvania.
The Ridley Creek Railroad Bridge is an abandoned truss bridge over Ridley Creek in Chester, Pennsylvania.
In 1873, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad (P&R) extended its reach southward by leasing 10.2 miles of track from the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad (PW&B), which became its Philadelphia & Chester Branch. 2 It extended from the Gray’s Ferry Bridge across the Schuylkill River in West Philadelphia to Ridley Creek in Ridley Park in Delaware County. 3
The segment was part of the PW&B’s original 1838 line. In 1872, the company opened a new stretch of track further inland to serve more populated areas and reduce flooding incidents. On July 1, 1873, the PW&B agreed to lease the freight rights to the P&R for $350,000 at the time of the lease arrangement and $1 per year after that, stipulating that no passenger trains would use it. 4
In a bid to simplify the corporate structure, the P&R ceased operations in 1924, with the Reading Company taking over operations. 5
In 1971, the Reading Company filed for bankruptcy. 6 It sold its railroad assets to the Consolidated Railroad Corporation (Conrail) under the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act. Most of the former P&R right-of-way, which generally paralleled the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington Railroad (PB&W) that later became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad and then Contrail, was abandoned and its tracks removed.
Details
- State: Pennsylvania
- Route: Reading Railroad Philadelphia & Chester Branch
- Status: Abandoned or Closed
- Type: Pratt Through Truss
- Total Length: 140'
- Main Span Length: 0
- Spans: 0
- Deck Width: 0
- Roadway Width: 0
- Height of Structure: 0
- Above Vertical Clearance: 0
- Navigational Clearance: 0
Sources
- x
- “The Railway World.” United States Railroad and Mining Register Company, Jan. 1880, pp. 266-267.
- Basalik, Kenneth J., and Philip Ruth. “Philadelphia & Reading Railroad: Chester Branch.” Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2 Mar. 2015.
- Morlok, Edward K. “First Permanent Railroad in the U.S. and Its Connection to the University of Pennsylvania.” Transportation Data, 2005.
- Alecknavage II, Albert. “Reading Company History.” Philadelphia Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, 12 Jun. 2002.
- Treese, Lorett. Railroads of Pennsylvania: fragments of the past in the Keystone landscape. Stackpole Books, 2003, p. 114.