Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad

Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad
PW&B flatcars sit outside the old Grays Ferry Tavern ca. 1870s
Locale	Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland
Dates of operation	1836–1902
Successor	Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge)
Length	669 mi (1,077 km)
Headquarters	Philadelphia

The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) was the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, southwest to Baltimore, Maryland, in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1895, a history of the Pennsylvania Railroad said of the PB&W line:

"An important constituent of a great North and South line of transportation, it challenges ocean competition and carries on its rails not only statesmen and tourists but a valuable interchange of products between different lines of latitude. As a military highway, it is of the greatest strategic importance to the national, industrial, and commercial capitals — Washington, Philadelphia and New York. It presents some of the very best transportation facilities to the commerce of the cities after which it is named and could not be obliterated from the railroad map of the United States without materially disturbing its harmony."

The line is still in use as part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor; freight is handled by Norfolk Southern.

History

Origins

Around 1830, the Pennsylvania state legislature sought to improve transportation between Philadelphia and points south. On April 2, 1831, it chartered the Philadelphia and Delaware County Rail-Road Company, allotting $200,000 to build a rail line from America's largest city to the Delaware state line. In July 1835, surveyors began to look at possible routes, and in October they reported that the best option, a 17-mile line, would cost $233,000 to build.

Meanwhile, the Delaware and Maryland legislatures were doing their part to create a rail link to Wilmington and Baltimore. On January 18, 1832, Delaware chartered the Wilmington and Susquehanna Rail Road Company (W&SRRC; $400,000) to build from Wilmington to the Maryland state line. On March 5, Maryland chartered the Baltimore and Port Deposite Rail Road Company (B&PD) (with $1,000,000) to build from Baltimore to the western bank of the Susquehanna River. On March 12, the Delaware and Maryland Rail Road Company (D&MRRC) was chartered for $3,000,000 to build from Port Deposit or any other point on the Susquehanna's eastern bank to the Delaware line.

The B&PD began operating trains in 1835, in Baltimore between the Basin (Inner Harbor) waterfront and the Canton area.

The year 1836 saw several milestones. The PW&B opened its first segment of track; the state upped the railroad's allowable expenditures to $400,000; and the company changed its name, on March 14, to The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company. On July 4, the PW&B began building its bridge over the Schuylkill River, the most significant obstacle on its route. The bridge would cross at Gray's Ferry, south of the city.

Work proceeded in Delaware and Maryland as well, and by July 1837, there was continuous track from Baltimore to Wilmington, broken only by the wide Susquehanna River, which trains crossed by ferry at Havre de Grace.

On January 15, 1838, the PW&B opened service from Gray's Ferry to Wilmington. In December, the Schuylkill bridge was completed. Named the Newkirk Viaduct after PW&B president Matthew Newkirk, it allowed trains to run from downtown Philadelphia to downtown Baltimore, with only the Susquehanna ferry interrupting the ride.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) began using the tracks that same year to offer service to Philadelphia.

The disadvantages of tripartite ownership of the Philadelphia-Baltimore line had become obvious. The D&MRRC and the W&SRRC had already merged to form the Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad Company on April 18, 1836. On February 12, 1838, the four state-chartered railroads were merged to form the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company. (The new company's name differed from its predecessor's in that "The" was not part of its formal name.)

Operation and expansion

PW&B freight shed at 1001 South 15th Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Listed on the NRHP since September 8, 2011. (Now A&A International Foods.)

In Philadelphia, the line ended at Broad Street and Prime Avenue (today Washington Avenue}, where it connected with the Southwark Rail-Road (built in 1835) to reach the Delaware River.

President Street Station, Baltimore. Built 1850. A portion of the station is still standing and is home to the Baltimore Civil War Museum.

In Baltimore, the PW&B ended at President Street. The railroad opened a new station, with a 208 feet (63 m) long, barrel-vaulted train shed, in 1850. Service onward to Washington, D.C. was facilitated by drawing the coaches by horse down Pratt Street to the B&O terminal. (In 1861, one week after the American Civil War began, an angry mob attacked a trainload of Union soldiers during their transfer: the bloodshed of this Pratt Street Riot set the nation irrevocably on the path to war.) Unwieldy as it was, the arrangement allowed the railroads to compete with the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad (Pennsylvania Railroad after 1857) on routes west from Philadelphia. By 1853, the Camden and Amboy Railroad and New Jersey Railroad were also part of this agreement, providing through service from New York City to the west.

The PW&B also extended its reach into Delaware — on March 15, 1839, it bought the New Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike and Rail Road running from New Castle, Delaware, to Frenchtown, Maryland— but it took 13 years to connect the line to the rest of the PW&B. The New Castle and Wilmington Railroad was chartered to do so, and opened in 1852. The line also provided a connection with the Delaware Railroad, which the PW&B took over and began to operate on January 1, 1857. In 1859, the NC&F was abandoned west of Rodney, the junction with the Delaware Railroad. By 1866, these moves and others allowed the PW&B to dominate the Delmarva Peninsula rail market.

In November 1866, the Susquehanna was bridged at last by the PW&B Bridge, a 3,269-foot (996 m) wooden truss, creating a continuous rail connection between Philadelphia and Baltimore.

To avoid swampy areas and serve more populated ones, the PB&W built the Darby Improvement, which diverged from its existing main line just south of the Grays Ferry Bridge, passed through Derby, and rejoined it at Eddystone, just upriver from Chester. The new inland track opened on November 18, 1872. The PW&B dispensed with the old alignment less than a year later, leasing it on July 1, 1873, to the Philadelphia and Reading Railway for 999 years with the stipulation that it would be used solely for freight. (The Reading dubbed the line, along with some connecting track, its Philadelphia and Chester Branch; southbound trains reached it via the Junction Railroad (jointly controlled by PW&B, Reading, and PRR) and continued on to the connecting Chester and Delaware River Railroad.)

The PW&B, which had competed so fiercely with the PRR, began to see their interests align. In 1873, the PRR opened the Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road from Baltimore to Washington. The PW&B agreed to allow the PRR to use its track between Philadelphia and Baltimore, helping the PRR to offer a shorter and more direct trip to Washington.

On May 15, 1877, the PW&B formally absorbed the New Castle & Frenchtown and New Castle & Wilmington railroads, forming a branch line from Wilmington to Rodney. On May 21, 1877, it absorbed the Southwark railroad, extending its main line to the Delaware River waterfront.

Fight for control

In 1880, a conflict began between the PRR and the B&O, both of which operated over the PW&B. The B&O was working to reduce its reliance on PRR tracks; it had recently arranged to switch its Philadelphia-New York trains to the new Reading-controlled "Bound Brook Route," which had recently broken the PRR's monopoly on travel to New York via New Jersey. At the time, northbound B&O trains left the PW&B at Gray's Ferry Bridge in southwest Philadelphia and traveled over the Junction Railroad to Belmont, where they reached Reading rails and continued north. However, a mile of the Junction Railroad's track through Philadelphia was owned and used by the PRR, which showed great ingenuity in arranging delays to B&O trains.

The irate John W. Garrett, President of the B&O, decided to counter-attack by quietly buying out the PW&B, which would have cut off the PRR from its Baltimore & Potomac subsidiary. However, his agent encountered unexpected difficulties in buying up a majority of the stock at the price specified. Meanwhile, Garrett's maneuver became known to the PRR, which quickly bought out a majority of the stock at a somewhat higher price and took control of the PW&B instead. Garrett was forced to construct an independent line to Philadelphia, the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad, while paying the PRR substantial fees to continue New York service over their lines. The new line opened in 1886; the Reading also used it to avoid the Junction Railroad.

PRR subsidiaries

A number of branches were built, bought and sold from 1881 to 1891, as described below. In 1895, the main line was realigned and straightened at Naaman's Creek in Delaware. The old line would become sidings for Claymont Steel.

The PRR's Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road was formally leased to the PW&B on November 1, 1891.

The Elkton and Middletown Railroad, opened in 1895, was originally intended as a cutoff between the main line at Elkton, Maryland and the Delaware Railroad at Middletown, Delaware. However, only a short piece of track serving industries in Elkton was ever constructed. It was consolidated into the PB&W on September 15, 1916.

Merger

The PW&B merged with the Baltimore and Potomac on November 1, 1902, to form the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad.

Branches

• Southwark
• 60th Street/Chester
• South Chester
• Edgemoor
• Augustine Mill: Also called the Brandywine Branch, it was built in 1882 from Landlith north along the Brandywine Creek to reach the Augustine Mills of the Jessup & Moore Paper Company, and was later extended further north to serve the Kentmere and Rockford Mills of Joseph Bancroft & Sons.
• Shellpot: Also called the Shellpot Cutoff, it was built in 1888 from Edgemoor (near the crossing of the Shellpot Creek) around the south side of Wilmington to a point on the main line between Wilmington and Newport. It served as a freight bypass, to avoid what was then street running on the main line through Wilmington.
• Delaware Branch: Formed from the old New Castle & Frenchtown and New Castle & Wilmington trackage between Wilmington and Rodney, via New Castle. It was sold to the Delaware Railroad in 1891.
• New Castle Cut-off: Built in 1888 from a point on the Shellpot Branch just across the Christina River from Cherry Island, south to New Castle and a connection with the Delaware Branch. It was sold with the Delaware Branch to the Delaware Railroad in 1891.
• Delaware City: Sold by the Newark and Delaware City Railroad to the PW&B in 1881. It ran south and east from the main line at Newark to Delaware City.
• Port Deposit: Built in 1866 up the Susquehanna River from Perryville to the river town of Port Deposit. In 1893, it was sold to the Columbia and Port Deposit Railway, also PRR-controlled, which connected with it at Port Deposit.
• Baltimore Union

See also

• Newkirk Viaduct Monument
• Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Freight Shed
• History of rail transport in Philadelphia

External links

• Railroad History Database
• PRR Corporate History
• Data visualization of 1857 passenger traffic from various PW&B stations
• Map of PB&W lines in 1881 (1949)

Annual reports

• First Annual Report of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail Road Company ...: 1838-1840
• The Sixth Annual Report of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company (1844)
• 35th through 48th Annual Report of the President and Directors of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail Road Company (1872-85)
• Fifty-Sixth Annual Report Of The Philadelphia Wilmington And Baltimore Railroad Company (1893)

Preceded by The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company Baltimore and Port Deposite Rail Road Company The Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad Company The New Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike and Rail Road Company (merged May 15, 1877) The New Castle and Wilmington Rail Road Company (merged May 15, 1877) Southwark Rail-Road Company (merged May 21, 1877)	Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company formed by merger February 12, 1838 merged November 1, 1902	Succeeded by Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad
Preceded by	The Philadelphia and Delaware County Rail-Road Company chartered April 2, 1831 organized May 23, 1831 name changed March 14, 1836	Succeeded by Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company
Preceded by The Philadelphia and Delaware County Rail-Road Company	The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company name changed March 14, 1836 merged February 12, 1838	Succeeded by Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company
Preceded by	Baltimore and Port Deposite Rail Road Company chartered March 5, 1832 merged February 12, 1838	Succeeded by Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company
Preceded by	The Wilmington and Susquehanna Rail Road Company chartered January 18, 1832 merged April 18, 1836	Succeeded by The Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad Company
Preceded by	Delaware and Maryland Rail Road Company chartered March 14, 1832 merged April 18, 1836	Succeeded by The Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad Company
Preceded by The Wilmington and Susquehanna Rail Road Company Delaware and Maryland Rail Road Company	The Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad Company formed by merger April 18, 1836 merged February 12, 1838	Succeeded by Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company