Hike #1542; 4/16/23 Philadelphia to Ardmore with Sarah Jones, Violet Chen, Jack Lowry, Kirk Rohn, Beth ?, Sam Chen, Diane Reider, Justin Gurbisz, Serious Sean Dougherty, Professor John DiFiore, Chris Herbig, and Everen
This next hike would be a point to point, and the first in a series to cover one of the most historic railroads in America, but one that I didn't really anticipate I would ever do a series on.
I had a few things I wanted to cover on this one, but the big main theme of this was the former Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, part of the Main Line of Public Works, the combination canal and rail route between Philadelphia and Pittsburg completed in 1834.
Because so much of the route is still active rail, or would be on roads or through urbanized areas, I haven't made it as high on my list to hike it all.
Now, since I've hiked so much of the rest of the Main Line of Public Works (all of the Allegheny Portage Railroad, all of the Juniata Division Canal, most of the Susquehanna Canal south of Duncannon), it makes sense that I walk this segment.
I had heard a little while back from Justin about this abandoned subway in Philadelphia that I also really wanted to see. Justin said it was incredibly easy to walk through, and in fact a stroller could get right through it. This was very enticing. If I got there and it didn't look good, I could always head out and go a different way.
When I started going over the maps, I realized that the subway, actually just a regular subterranean branch line, the City Branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, was built pretty much right on the historic route of the original Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad.
The entire thing became so much more enticing. One more step was that I realized that Philadelphia's "High Line", actually far shorter than the elevated rail line in New York City, was also part of the Reading City Branch. I could add that in to the start of the trip and knock out a whole lot of stuff I'd wanted to do, and make it a really exceptional hike!
There are many plans that have been talked about regarding the City Branch; there are talks of an interurban line using it for connection to the city.
There are other plans to make the rest of it into a park extending from where their elevated park is. There are also certainly some plans to try to cut it off because having an abandoned, underground railway is just asking for problems with crime and homeless population one would think.
I felt like as long as we knew we could go through, I'd better go and do it.
I posted the trip with good interest, but vague description of what it was all about because of some of the details.
In the couple of days before the trip actually happened, I got the devastating news from my brother that our friend Verdon Pensyl had died suddenly.
He had been working with me in state parks but quit suddenly for a different job. He hadn't been doing well lately, but there were no drugs in his system and he had been perfectly healthy not too long before he passed. The autopsy revealed it was a massive heart attack, which at 36 years old should not have happened.
We were goofing on Verdon, who we often called "Bud", because he got the new vaccination in order to go to Italy with his girlfriend. The typical stuff, he's going to grow an extra arm or whatever.
Since the shot first came out, more and more people I know personally are dying of heart attack or stroke, at an alarming rate. There are several I hear of that I do not know, but Verdon was the 13th to die of that means that I actually knew personally.
I found out that Verdon's memorial service was scheduled for the coming Sunday, tlhe same day as this hike.
I wanted to attend, and in most all cases I would have, but lately just about everything is getting scheduled for Sundays.
If I had attended every family or close friend event I was expected to, I would not have hiked a single day the entire month of April and at least part of May.
Of the April days, I made one exception and switched my work scheduled days off, and attended my dad's 60th birthday party on a Sunday. In addition to this, there were a couple more memorial services, my grandfather's 89th birthday party, and more.
The amount of work I'm putting in, and all of the responsibilities to my son leave me with only Sunday to really do something I love. There have been a great many times that the only thing that's kept me going during weeks of trying times was the fellowship and adventure I have on the hikes.
I can be very sensitive, and I feel responsible to exude strength, confidence, and stability when in reality I'm not holding it together well at all. I don't think of this as being ingenuine, but rather being responsible.
I think one of the reasons so many suicides happen is because people lack something regular to look forward to, or a sense of responsibility. People rely on me to be out there, and I have something great to look forward to, which is never really more than six days away. Even six days sometimes seems like an eternity.
I know people end up talking about me. They might say that all I care about is doing the hikes, that I'm selfish, that I'm not prioritizing properly, but I know no one really sees the full picture.
I used to announce it in the past: if you want me to attend something, don't plan it on a Sunday. I won't come. Now, I am working every Saturday, so unless it is in the PM hours, I can't go then either.
It seems the more people I meet, the more memorial services I'm expected to attend. I absolutely want to be there for each and every one of them, but it is getting to the point where sometimes these services are taking place on the same days at the same times too.
Finally, in order to attend these things, I am forced to bring my son with me as well. If I'm not working, he's pretty much with me. Around this time I also tried to attend the memorial service for one of my favorite Gym teachers from school, Stephen Fritz.
I brought Ev in with me and waited on line to pay my respects, and he was just flipping out too much after a while being on line that I could not go through, never mind the stress of having him near an open casket, which for now I am trying to avoid.
It's hard to enjoy anything with all of these thoughts weighing on me, and trying to articulate and express such feelings is another thing entirely.
I chose the Ardmore Station on the SEPTA line as the meeting point. Not only was this just about the point where the original Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad meets the later Pennsylvania Railroad that is still active, we could also use that passenger line to shuttle to our starting point in Philadelphia.
I tried to get to the meeting point early, just in case. This was going to be an important one to be on time for if we were to get train tickets on time. I thought I had everything all planned out well, but I was certainly not expecting some of the details.
The lot was on the north side of the tracks, and the signage there was a bit confusing.
It looked like we couldn't park in the lot without paying, but then stuff on the SEPTA websites was reading that it was free on Sundays. I wasn't totally sure, so I chose one of the spots that was more out of the way. None of them ended up being problems anyway.
I figured we would just board the train, but when we got up to the platform, it was only accessible to westbound trains, and we had to go down and around.
Fortunately, newcomer Beth was from the area and could tell us how we could get through.
We had to walk down to Anderson Avenue, under the railroad tracks, south to Rt 30, make a right turn, and then another right to get back to the station to get the train to Philly. I felt we were cutting it really close getting up there in time because I wasn't quite prepared for it.
Fortunately, we managed to get to the platform on time and buy tickets. Jack and Sarah were running late, but they still managed to get around and up to the platform with a tiny bit of time to spare.
I noticed that the station platform had one of the old concrete railroad phone booths still standing on the north side, visible from where we were.
The train ride was pretty cool. I had never ridden this SEPTA line before, and I was able to get Ev's stroller on it without a problem really.
We rode in to Philly and saw the enormous yards on the way out there, out the windows. We crossed over the Schuylkill River and went underground into the Philadelphia subway route.
I think we went to Jefferson Station in Philly. From there, we headed up to street level and began walking streets to the north. We took on a route that took us through interesting cityscapes and the entrance to Chinatown. Beth knew where to go through this area, and I was really glad she came for her directional abilities there.
Our destination was to connect to the Reading Railroad's City Branch, which ended at the Reading Terminal Market, which opened its 800 space, 78,000 square foot space in 1893.
The market prospered with connections to both the Reading Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad into the 1900s, but saw a decline. Today, the Pennsylvania Convention Center is there, and other businesses occupy the market today. I need to do a hike into that one of these days.
The Reading City Branch once stretched down to it, but is now severed at points below Rt 676. We crossed that highway on I think 11th Street heading north.
We saw disused trolley rails still in the streets on some of our route, which was pretty cool to see. Trolleys have really only fallen out of favor in Philadelphia rather recently, and its sad that the interurban transportation has been allowed to die, because it could have been another tourist draw similar to San Fransisco.
We continued north and checked out some of the stone overpasses once associated with the City Branch, and made our way to where there was an elevated junction at Carlton Street. To the right, a branch went north to a junction with a still active branch in the Poplar section.
We continued to Callowhill Street, turned left, and passed beneath the first branch, then climbed a set of stairs up to the City Branch, which is now the Rail Park.
The park area reminded me much of the High Line in New York City. It was very much changed from what it looked like as a railroad. There were vertical steel fixtures upon which chairs were suspended. There were triple level wooden seats on edges, and wooden walkway on the southwest side overlooking parts of the city. In the middle, there were planters which contained Staghorn Sumac followed by other native tree species.
There were good historic markers as we continued to the end of the park, including one calling Philadelphia the "Workshop of the World" noting the existence of Baldwin Locomotive Works and other businesses.
Along this trail bit was an amazing flat piece of metal situated vertically, upon which was carved out a sort of map of both the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad as well as the Pennsylvania Railroad, and then the names of all of the prominent old businesses that used to be around them.
The elevated raiload line reached the same grade as the road as we moved ahead down Noble Street. Just ahead, there was an old rail car parked behind a chain link fence. Based on the comments I got from my postings on this, it was once used as a restaurant or something, but then was defunct.
As we reached the intersection with Broad Street, there was a nice view to the south, directly toward City Hall. I think Serious Sean met us in this area somewhere, having met up a bit late and parked nearby.
We turned left on Broad just a little bit, and then turned to the right on Callowhill Street.
This was pretty near the eastern terminus of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, which was the eastern terminus of the Main Line of Public Works.
This railroad was completed in 1834 from Philadelphia to Columbia to connect with the first Pennsylvania Canal section along the Susquehanna in Columbia.
This area as I understand was almost an afterthought by the Commonwealth, because the original Pennsylvania Canal route was planned to utilize the Union Canal to the Schuylkill Navigation out of Middletown PA. It was a later decision that the Susquehanna Division would be extended farther south from Middletown to Columbia, and rail would be utilized over the hills to Philadelphia.
This was probably because the Union Canal had its own problems and it probably would have been costly to either utilize or purchase its existing infrastructure.
The Philadelphia and Columbia went down Broad Street and terminated near present day Rt 676 crossing, and curved to follow the later route of the City Branch.
The line was used from 1834 until 1847 when all of the line on the east side of the Schuylkill River was sold to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. Most of the rest of it to the west of the Schuylkill went to the Pennyslvania Railroad, and I understand other sections of it were abandoned in 1850.
In order to do the next portion of the hike, I turned it all over to Justin, as he was the only one who had been through here to direct us any better.
We followed Callowhill for just a bit, and the City Branch was at this point under buildings. It came out from under them at 16th Street.
The original early rail line would likely have been more at grade, but when the Reading took over the line, they decided to go subterranean.
We turned right onto 17th Street just to the bridge over the right of way so I could get some photos of it. Justin said a lot of historic photos were taken of the line in service from these bridges, and so I tried to get a lot of photos at different angles in case I found a historic one that matched, but when I looked, I ended up finding literally no photos of the line at all. Maybe one day I'll find something.
There was a girder bridge over the right of way, which was part of an old rail spur that served a business, and a ramp up from the lower level line that once reached it.
In the next couple of blocks, there are parking areas built into the old railroad bed. We continued parallel with it to 20th Street and went north again. There was a really nice mural of a steam locomotive on one of the buildings to the right as we continued.
We headed along the road and then left into a parking garage. It was just really very odd, one would never think this would lead to any kind of amazing entrance anywhere. We got to the lower level, and Justin pointed out a section of the garage with a slight curve, and identified it as the railroad bed.
We turned to the right, and pretty soon, there was a fine cut stone archway, with no blockages whatsoever, that led into the "subway". Nothing barred the entry to this amazing route.
We simply walked right in, and it was so clear and easy that the stroller rolled over it with no problem. There was plenty of ambient light, so flashlights were never necessary at all.
The first part of this tunnel had a whole lot of shit that looked as though it had been bulldozed up along the sides. Mostly stony debris and such, probably from the area where the parking garage now occupies.
I was just amazed to be walking through this very long tunnel, that stretches for just under a mile directly beneath Pennsylvania Avenue.
There were a couple of spots that were holes in the floor that Justin warned us about, but as long as we were watching for them, it was no problem. Our friend Craig apparently put his foot into one when he did it with Justin.
When we got to one of the holes, we paused to check it out for some reason.
There was also one of those recesses in one of the left walls that would have been used for workers to stand in to avoid passing trains.
This tunnel was extremely wide, probably enough to have accommodated four tracks side by side at one time. Certainly at least three.
Another shock for me was the lack of homeless people living in this tunnel. There was really nothing to stop us from going through, and it was totally clear. There was barely even any broken glass.
I kept asking myself in my mind, how could this be Philadelphia and have not even broken glass?
We did come across a couple of homeless tents together when we got closer to the west side of the tunnel. The tent had an enormous pile of cans next to it that were just about as tall as the tent itself, but it also looked like it might not have been occupied in some time.
There was also a surprising lack of graffiti on the walls. When we got to the second recess in the wall for workers, there was some on and around that, but the artists have been surprisingly off of it.
Closer to the very end of the tunnel, it opened up from a wide archway to a wider supported concrete box structure. That structure opened up more to the left, and active tracks emerged there.
The other tracks go underground to this point from near Paine's Park and River Field to the south. They were separated from us by large supports, so we didn't even have to go over by them.
We continued through the tunnel and emerged west of the art museum near 27th Street, still down in a cut. We continued ahead and crossed beneath a handsome pedestrian bridge that connects the Pip's Park area of Lemon Hill with Pennsylvania Avenue.
We had to go just a little further beyond that to where a trail crossed the tracks at grade, between Pennsylvania Ave and Poplar Drive. There was a good out of the way place to walk around the backs of piles of stone used on stuff along the right of way.
We made our way to the left from the tracks out to Poplar Drive, and then turned right to continue to parallel the tracks.
I remember feeling great temptation to meander further into the expansive park from this point, but that would have added a lot of mileage, and I wanted to try to keep pretty close to the theme of following the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. That would be enough for certain to take some time.
We continued north to Girard Avenue, where there were still trolley tracks in the road. I think these ones might still be active but I'm not sure. I know a couple of the Philly trolleys are still running.
At the corner, there were giant metal butterfly sculptures standing. We crossed over the road directly here to the Girard Avenue Booster Station, which I think is a power house associated with the trolleys.
I was enjoying a beer I'd found called 50W by the Industrial Arts Brewing Company, which was a delicious imperial stout. Fortunately, this one looked like a soda can sort of.
We headed uphill to the right of this on an access road to the historic Hatfield Mansion, one of the many Fairmount Park mansion houses that are now homes to non profits and such. I'd visited several of them in the past, but never this one, so it was cool to finally see another.
The Hatfield House was built as a suburban villa in 1760, originally located in the Nicetown section of northern Philadelphia (now recognized as Nicetown-Tioga).
The home served as Catherine Mallon's Boarding School for Girls from 1806 to 1824.
Then, it was taken over by William J. Hay, who made extensive Greek-Revival style alterations. This included the five column temple portico added in 1838.
Dr. Nathan L. Hatfield of the University of Pennsylvania purchased the home in 1854, and it remained in his family for the next seventy five years.
The house was donated to the Fairmount Park Commission by Major Henry Reed Hatfield in 1929, and the next year it was dismantled and moved one story at a time to its present location.
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| Pre 1930 original location |
It was operated as a historic house museum in the 1950s and 60s, was refurbished in 1976, and operated through 1978 as a museum again, furnished by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
From 1978 to 2017, the house was used similarly to other Fairmount Park mansions, as office space for non profit organizations, with live in caretaker quarters.
A one year Community Catalyst Artist residency began in 2017, and Fairmount Park Conservancy has continued to support the house as a community hub for interpreting the neighborhood's black culture and history through art exhibitions, community events, teachers, and entrepreneurs.
Neon lights in the front window read "Create", "Gather", "Learn", and "Inspire".
I was able to make a few then and now compilations by taking photos of the building at different angles before we continued on.
We came off of the tract of land onto 33rd Street in front of the building, and then followed the road north, to the right. This soon brought us over the bridge across the former Philadelphia and Columbia, later Reading Railroad.
There was a junction almost below us which was originally part of the Engleside Railroad built in 1892. Controlled by Pennsylvania Railroad, it went to Connecting Railway in 1902.
We soon crossed another bridge over a railroad that was also part of the Connecting Railroad, also controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad, built in 1864-65. Both of these were still very active.
We continued to the other side, into the Brewerytown section, and there was immediately a frame of an old brick building on the right. The walls of the bridge were adorned with art featuring Fairmount Park mansions, buses, trolleys, cyclists, and musicians.
Soon, we headed into the downtown area briefly. In doing so, we visited the former home of famous musician John Coltrane, when he lived in Philadelpia from 1952 to 58.
Coltrane was a pioneer Jazz musician, saxophonist, and composer that utilized African and Indian elements to achieve a distinctive style. He initially shocked audiences, but eventually gained widespread acceptance.
We crossed 13th Street here, and continued west on Reservoir Drive briefly, past a driving range property. When we got to the next parking area, we headed into the woods on a trail that used to be a more main road, with old paver street surfacing.
This area was known as Sedgley Woods, and I had hiked it once before when I turned a weekend over to Jason and Amanda Kumpas, and they came up with a real winner of a hike.
The Boxers Trail is a great trail that passes along the slopes above the Schuylkill River, and I wanted to follow much of that, but first visit the mansion ruin known as The Cliffs.
I remembered pretty well how to get there, but what I didn't remember was that Sedgley Woods was a disc golf course. I was pushing the stroller through, which probably alarmed some of them, but these little plastic discs, which looked flimsier than the frisbees I grew up with, were clearly nothing to worry about.
We made our way along the larger path to a more vague side path that led us to the ruins of the historic mansion building.
We exited the ruin, and headed out to the more prominent trail just outside the former front of the house.
As we turned right to head generally northwest, there were a lot of people on the trail playing frisbee golf. The ones we met initially were alright to deal with, and overall polite about the fact that they were playing up ahead.
These people we came upon next were quite different. Our group was walking through, and the first couple of people were saying we should head out of the area because there were projectiles and it was unsafe.
Then, the next ones were more assertive; one came up to me and said that we needed to head back up a trail that went to the right.
We were headed for the Smith Memorial Playground, but the direction this guy was insisting I go would be more than three times the distance than the several hundred feet remaining we needed to go to get to Smith.
When the guy was more forceful about it, and I was looking at my phone, I tried to explain it to him that he was telling us to go triple the distance just to get us away from where he was playing. Note that this would keep us in the frisbee golf park section for three times as long.
He just started being a jerk, and apparently they started saying stuff to the rest of the group behind me. I just pushed Ev onward and carefully over tree roots and such to get out of this area.
The rudeness apparently took its toll on Sarah, who laid into the jerk behind me, yelling "I see how it is, you want the trail all for yourself...", and she wasn't wrong. We were barely in anyone's way, and we were out of there and away from anywhere they were playing within probably a minute. These people were just complete jerks.
Soon, we emerged at the Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse. This place looked even more prestigious than the mansion houses of Fairmount Park, and it was intended as a children's mecca.
This place was established in 1899 through the wills of Richard and Sarah Smith, and designed by James H. Windrim. The site is considered one of the greatest children themed grounds in the world.
When Ev gets a little older, I need to take him back to this place to play.
The place was pretty busy, and we took a break out front. Pretty soon, we moved onward, and I didn't find my way to exactly where I wanted to be on the Boxers Trail. It apparently goes behind the place, but we stayed in the front, and went almost all the way back out to Reservoir Drive, then turned left on another path that leads downhill toward Fountain Green Drive.
We headed down Fountain Green, and reached where Boxer's Trail crosses, and then turned right.
Boxers Trail is really pretty great, and not so hard to follow. It was pretty much fine with the stroller. I was able to get up the hill with a little help, and then along the slopes it was just quite pleasant.
We continued on along the base of Mt Pleasant, below another one of the mansions, once known as the "most elegant seat in Pennsylvania". Like the previous mansions, it dates back to the late colonial days, constructed in Georgian Style in 1761.
We continued below this on a nice shelf, and through the trees we got some views of the Schuylkill River.
We continued to the north, and most of this time we were not all that far above the former Reading Railroad and previous Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad route. As we made a corner, through the trees, we could see where these lines crossed the Schuylkill River.
Today, it is a quadruple tracked, closed spandrel arch structure, completed as a two track bridge for the Reading Railroad in 1920, and widened to four tracks in 1921. It is aptly named the Columbia Bridge.
The original bridge that carried the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad across at just about the same spot was a covered structure with seven spans.
Immediately after crossing, the line ascended one of the two inclined planes utilized between the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Rivers, known as the Belmont Plane.
This section of the Philadelphia and Columbia was apparently purchased by the Philadelphia and Reading in 1851, and they continued to use the covered bridge spans until replacement with a double track, wrought iron Pratt through truss bridge in 1886. The current bridge is still active and maintained today.
Before becoming a father and bringing Ev out on all of these things, I might have considered scurrying down and trespassing across the bridge quickly, but I wasn't going to consider anything of that sort with him and the stroller these days.
Plus, it was better to walk along the Boxers Trail for a bit longer for a better woods experience, since we would be along the roads for much longer as we continued.
Boxers Trail has long been a jogging route for training boxers. When Muhammed Ali wanted to challenge Joe Frazier, he went to the Boxers Trail because he knew he would find him there. It used to be just a simple foot path, but under Fairmount Park Conservancy, it has been upgraded a bit and it was really great for the stroller.
The trail remained on the shelf above the river for a while, and we continued to the northeast to pass the Rockland Mansion.
This was a rubble stone and scored stucco Federal Style mansion completed in 1810 as a country home for Philadelphia Merchant George Thomson. Another merchant, Isaac Jones, purchased the property in 1815, and his son sold it to the city in 1870.
This building is now leased to the Psychoanalytical Center of Philadelphia.
We passed among some very nice old beech trees along Boxers Trail, and eventually took to an unmarked side trail to the left that led us down to the Schuylkill River Trail along Kelly Drive.
I figured this easier route would be better for us as we continued to the Strawberry Mansion Bridge to get to the other side of the Schuylkill.
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| Fairmount Park Collection |
There was some sort of thing going on at the East Park Canoe house in this area, and we walked right though a large group of people along and near the trail heading upstream along the Schuylkill toward the Strawberry Mansion Bridge.
I had not really scouted ahead on what we were going to do to get back on the bridge, and didn't realize that we would have been better off staying up on the Boxers Trail, because we'd have to go all the way back uphill.
Near an old stone fountain structure along Kelly Drive to the right, we turned right uphill on a footpath before passing under the Strawberry Mansion Bridge. This would bring us up to Reservoir Drive again.
This area was so busy that there were cars parked all alongside Reservoir Drive though this area.
There was a bit of a beat up path parallel with Reservoir Road to our right, and pretty soon some sort of ruins with steps that hadn't been cared for in some time. We checked out some of this, but basically continued along Reservoir Drive because we had to get to Woodford Drive to get to the bridge.
We continued up the road, and when it widened out, we reached the statue of the "The Medicine Man", a native American mounted on a horse with his right hand drawn in the air, which I understand is to mean "no payment is necessary", as real medicine men would accept no payment.
The sculpture, mounted on a concrete pedestal, was the work of artist Syrus Edwin Dallin in 1899. It was installed in Fairmount Park in 1903.
We turned left here on Dauphin Street and followed the parallel paved pathway to the entrance gateway to the Boxers Trail. I guess this is the official start of it or something.
We turned left at this point, and soon passed within view of the Woodford Mansion, also part of the Fairmount Park Commission mansions, set back from the road somewhat.
The Mansion was built about 1756, and was the first of Philadelphia's colonial Georgian style mansion houses to be built.
The home was built as a country estate for Supreme Court Justice and merchant William Coleman.
Coleman died in 1769, and the property was purchased by Alexander Barclay, who held the title of His Majesty's Comptroller for the Port of Philadelphia.
Coleman died in 1772, and the property was taken over by his brother in law, David Franks, who added upon the building.
Frank was a loyalist and was ordered to leave in 1778. The home was sold to Thomas Pascell in settlement of debt, and it was sold to Isaac Wharton in 1793.
The park purchased the property in 1869.
The home serves as a museum run by the Naomi Wood Trust, with a collection of historic furniture and decor.
We continued to the west along Woodford Drive, and soon reached the Strawberry Mansion Bridge, which is named for the Strawberry Mansion itself, built by Judge William Lewis between 1783 and 1789, and more wings were added later.
The bridge was built in 1896-97 by the Phoenix Iron Bridge Company of Phoenixville PA. It was constructed to accomodate pedestrians and carriages on the north side, and the south side carried trolleys until 1946.
The latest rehabilitation of this bridge was made to showcase what it looked like when trolleys were still in service. There is now a walkway on the south side, with open areas and track placed back on the bridge. There are sections of track back in place on either end of the bridge.
We had great views of the bridge down the Schuylkill River.
At the other side, we made the first left turn we could make down to Martin Luther King Drive, which I found out was closed to vehicle traffic on Sundays. It made it the perfect time to actually walk out in the road rather than on the parallel paved trail. It was a good distance, but went by fast because it was so easy.
We continued along this route until we got to the Columbia Bridge, where the railroad crosses, and checked out some closer views of it.
The stone abutment from the predecessor bridge was still standing on this side.
It was here that trains began their ascent of the Belmont Plane, which gained one foot of elevation for every fifteen feet of travel.
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| - Views of Philadelphia, And its Vicinity, Pennsylvania State Archives, 1838 |
The total rise in elevation was 187 feet. Beyond the plane, the track bed was more level until reaching the Susquehanna River where it would descend near Plane Street in Columbia.
The total length of the plane was 2,805.
Initially, a sixty horse-power steam engine and cables would pull rail cars to the top of the plane.
Similar to what was done on the Allegheny Portage Railroad, boats were carried on top of the railroad cars. After all, most of the Main Line of Public Works was canal, and rail was not something that was well supported yet. Of the entire system, the rail sections were only the 89 miles of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, and 36 of the Allegheny Portage Railroad.
Boats on the Main Line of Public Works were made in sections so that they could come apart when traveling by rail cars that were specifically made to carry them. Otherwise, they'd be too long for the rail travel to be practical.
Having the rail cars loaded into the boats was more convenient and less a liability than loading from boat to rail car and back to boat again.
In 1836, Norris Locomotive Works of Philadelphia ran a test, and put a 14,400 lb locomotive they named "George Washington", hauling 19,200 lbs of weight behind it at 15 miles per hour.
So unbelievable was this that many scientific journals doubted it, so the trial was run again with even greater weight, and same success. This event is said to have secured the acceptance of effective use of locomotive travel in America.
Still, the Belmont Plane was a bottleneck, and it needed to be eliminated with the increase in traffic.
Some have told me that in the years following the closure of the plane that it was used as part of the Fairmount Park Trolley system, which was in service from 1896 to 1946, but I had some doubts about it based on some things I saw.
As it turns out, the plane was partially used by that trolley, from a point midway up.
From here, we had to turn right on Montgomery Drive uphill. There was a trolley power house on the right at the base, and the old Belmont Plane was behind it. We wouldn't be able to follow it from the bottom, because Interstate 76 was built across it, and beyond, the city Department of Fleet Services seems to have been built directly on some of it.
The tracks of the former Junction Railroad built in 1863 passed beneath us, still active. At one time, it was jointly operated by Pennsylvania Railroad, Philadelphia and Reading, and one or two more, but was totally Pennsylvania Railroad I think by 1903.
We continued up Montgomery Drive beneath the highway, and then turned right into the Belmont Plateau area.
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We turned into the parking area, and there was a burned out car parked sideways across several parking spaces. It looked like it might have been a new model charger, but hard to say. It was a complete wreck, and I'm surprised that it was left out in the open the way it was.
We continued walking along the east side of the mowed area in the Belmont Plateau, and reached the tree line. A path led into the woods there, which was in the area of where the car barn station was for the trolley. I think the actual car barn buildings are now what is being used as the city fleet buildings.
Just after getting into the woods, to the left we could see a slight cut that must have been the plane. It was pretty obvious we had taken the correct route as soon as we started walking up it. It went uphill and into a bit of a cut, and there was a utility pole line going up it.
I guess this area was all used by the Fairmount Park trolley until 1946, but there was little to no evidence that it ran through here.
I was rather surprised as we walked up to find what appeared to be an old sleeper stone exposed in the middle of the cut.
At the time of the completion of this railroad, wooden railroad ties were not yet used. Rather, stone "sleepers" were used, and rails were placed on them, secured with metal. It is not often stone sleepers are still visible anywhere, so this was pretty cool.
We continued up the plane, and passed beneath a disused old, slightly arched metal bridge over the right of way.
Closer to the top, we approached Chamounix Drive, and had to make our way out of the cut. I used a way to the left, because it was getting too overgrown ahead. In these woods, there were some old ruins including some brick work.
This area might have been associated with the site of the Belmont Mansion Station on the trolley line from later years. The mansion reference was built in the early 1700s and is considered one of the finest examples of Palladian architecture in America, but we didn't really see it this time except maybe at a distance.
The bridge we went under might have had a relation to the station perhaps, but I don't know enough about the trolley to say. That's a rabbit hole of history I haven't gone too far down yet, save for hiking some of the other sections of the old trolley bed.
There was a little community garden area near the top, and we turned to the right where this spur of Chamounix Drive connected with the main one. The old rail bed remained down in a cut, rather overgrown, and we turned left on Chamounix on the other side, at this point immediately parallel with the old railroad bed.
As we continued down this road, the rail bed came in closer and closer to it to our left.
In this area, the route of the trolley and earlier route of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad diverge.
The P&C continued gradually uphill into woods and was inaccessible, while the trolley route continued to follow Chamounix Drive, and another wye to the right went to connect with the Junction Station area on the line.
We continued down the road and turned right on Belmont Drive to continue toward the very top of the plateau.
The railroad bed was off to the right in this area, and entered the property of the Simpson House.
As we walked up the road, we could see West Philadelphia's historic Simpson House Olde Main Building, which was constructed in 1899 of granite from Port Deposit Maryland in English Gothic style. It is part of the oldest continuing care retirement community established in 1865, originally associated with the Methodist church. It is named for Bishop and Mrs. Matthew Simpson.
We passed by an entrance road to the Bala Golf Club, which is just about on the right of way of the Philadelphia and Columbia, but we couldn't go through there. We continued north on past the Hayes House, and then the Inglis House, another handsome manor building for continued care, another of the earliest nursing home type of communities in America, established in 1877.
We turned left ahead on Conshohocken Avenue, and continued out to the intersection with US Rt 1, formerly the Lincoln Highway (first transcontinental highway). There was a Taco Bell across the street, which was a great opportunity to stop for a late lunch. The fast food establishments were always something I liked more than average, but since Ev has been coming out, it gives him the opportunity to run around like a lunatic and not cause too much a disturbance.
Adjacent to the Taco Bell was the bridge over the SEPTA commuter railroad and the Bala Station.
The Philadelphia and Columbia joins this route just on the other side of the Bala golf course we had passed just earlier.
Aside from the 1834 line, the one that is still active today was established as the Philadelphia, Norristown, and Phoenixville Railroad in 1882, completed by the Pennsylvania and Schuylkill Valley Railroad in 1884. Like many others, it was soon controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad.
We had some food, and I got Ev to eat at least a little steak taco while we were there. Some of the group that didn't want Taco Bell went to other close by establishments.
After eating, we continued north on the Conshohocken State Road, several blocks, which was sort of parallel with the active railroad, and then went left on Montgomery Place. Behind Park Place Cleaners there was a walkway down to the Cynwyd Station on this rail line.
The Cynwyd Station was established on the line in 1890, and I don't think there was one on the original Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, which turned away from this line in this area to the northwest.
Cynwyd is the last station on this line today; it was cut off north of here in 1989 citing concerns about the safety of the Manayunk Bridge over the Schuylkill.
Studies were done, and the bridge was deemed safe in 1999, but the rail line was never re-established. It sat in limbo for many years, and the first time I hiked any of it was in 2008.
It has since been established as the Cynwyd Heritage Trail from the station across the Manyunk Viaduct.
We went up the lane from Cynwyd Station, and then continued on Bala Avenue through developed area. Bala Avenue is the historic route of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. I was chatting about this with John as we were walking through, how this was certainly an early abandoment because so many of the houses we were going by were not by any means new. They were certainly 1800s, at least some of them, and over a century old themselves. It is hard to imagine that even a century ago, this line had been gone over a century and a half.
My understanding was that some of the line remained in service a little later as a sort of backup route to the newer alignments, but that this original alignment was out of service by 1857.
The Pennsylvania Railroad originally intended only to connect a line from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, but the acquisition of the Philadelphia and Columbia gave them connection pretty much all the way across the state.
We continued on Bala Ave, which was very pleasant sidewalks and nicely manicured homes and properties with blooming flowers.
I had done enough research prior to this hike to know generally where the Philadelphia and Columbia went, but not quite enough. Usually, these types of things are pretty easy for me to figure out, but in this case I missed the mark quite a bit in a few areas.
We were good most of the way on Bala Ave, because that was in fact the right of way, but it started turning away from that road alignment just after the intersection with Kent Road.
We should have turned left at the next intersection from that, Pembroke Road, and then turned right on Bentley Ave, because that was the railroad right of way.
We continued along Bala Avenue, which I figured was accurate, but then we got to Levering Mill Road and the roadway was just going uphill too much. It seemed like it was steeper than Belmont Plane, so I knew something couldn't be right.
We continued on, and passed the Mesivta, an Orthodox religious institution in a nice church building on the left, and then reached the intersection with Parsons Avenue. To the right at this intersection was the picturesque Lady Chapel of the Church of St. John, built in 1906. The awesome structure looked like a castle. I was surprised that this and the handsome Mesivta buildings were not anywhere on Google maps.
We headed down Parsons to Montgomery Ave and turned right. This road was much wider, and I didn't think we would see anything of the railroad left to speak of.
At some point here, there was a spot where the railroad crossed a road at Bowman Bridge, which is now Bowman Bridge Road nearby, so named for this crossing. Based on the lay of the land, I think the road went over the railroad.
On the right was the Waldron Mercy Academy, and then grounds of larger estates and religious institution buildings.
As we neared the intersection with Meeting House Road, the Merion Friends Meeting House was on the slope to the right.
This site has been utilized by the Quaker congregation since 1695, and the oldest structure on the site was erected in 1715. This early construction makes this the second oldest Quaker Friends Meeting House in America (the oldest one is in Maryland. Note this is the second oldest building, not oldest site.).
Also located along the road at this property was the historic John Dickinson homestead. Dickinson was a statesman and a member of the Continental Congress, as well as several other different titles. He donated his home and property to the adjacent Friends Meeting prior to his death in 1808.
Everything was smooth and easy along Montgomery Ave for a while. There were no deviations from the rail bed really on it for a while. I chatted with Beth for most of this time heading back toward Ardmore, which at the time of this railroad was known as Athensville I think it was.
I missed it as we walked by the Lower Merion High School, but John caught it, that there was a remaining sleeper stone from the railroad set in a block in the yard of the school, with a memorial plaque erected in 1949.
The railroad made its way through area now developed, and to Montgomery Avenue. It apparently crossed to the south side of the road, then back to the north.
We just continued on Montgomery Ave to Anderson Ave, where we were parked, but I made another mistake here and missed a little bit of the railroad alingment again.
Just after the high school property, the historic route of the rail was down Church Road, then it is developed over and Coulter Ave is built over it.
I'm going to have to go back and walk these routes, and there are enough preserves and other points of interest I want to see out there to justify doing it, with those things added to the front of the hikes.
Another interesting point on all of these back roads, despite it being nearly forgotten that this was the old line, there are several businesses that are called "Main Line" followed by whatever type of business it is. Even though it's been gone since 1857, some certainly have not forgotten.
This whole area seemed sort of cloudy to me, but researching beforehand, experiencing, and then researching further afterward makes for quite a great understanding and appreciation beyond what I could have fathomed before.
The research before and after this hike led to more for the next one in the series, which will include some really great stuff, as ahead we have Railroad Avenue, Glenbrook Avenue, and others built on the right of way, and even the old station still standing in Bryn Mawr.
When I first planned doing this route, it was just a sort of timely thing that I wanted to see before it got too hot out, the vegetation grew in, and before the opportunity to see any of it was lost to whatever the first part becomes, be it park extension or light rail, or just closed off.
It was something that had me facing judgement from family and friends, but also myself, and having to come to terms with the decisions I've made regarding all of it.
I figured this would be a one off for a while, that hiking the entire Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad would be a boring and rather fruitless endeavor that was just something to scratch off of my "to do" list, but I finished the hike feeling much better about it, and after researching, very much looking forward to continuing the series very actively.
I'm not trying to do too much extra Pennsylvania stuff in this vicinity while I'm still working on the Pennsylvania Highlands series, but this is definitely something to throw onto the list because it is so much more fascinating, with so many more connecting opportunities than I'd imagined.
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