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Broad Street | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Former Pennsylvania Railroad station | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() Broad Street Station in an 1890s-era photograph by William H. Rau | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
General information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Location | Broad and Market Streets Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Owned by | Pennsylvania Railroad | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 1881 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Closed | April 27, 1952 (demolished 1953) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Former services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Broad Street Station at Broad & Market streets was the primary passenger terminal for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in Philadelphia from early December 1881 [1] to the 1950s. Located directly west of Philadelphia City Hall, the site is now occupied by the northwest section of Dilworth Park and the office towers of Penn Center.
The original station was designed by Wilson Brothers & Company under authority of the old Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (established 1836 from merger of four smaller segment lines dating to 1831, running southwest to Baltimore and its President Street Station which had just been purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad assuming control) in the same year of completion in 1881. It was one of the first steel-framed buildings in the United States to use masonry not as structure, but as a curtain wall, as modern-designed skyscrapers do. [2] Initially, trains arrived via elevated tracks built above Filbert Street. By 1885 the land between the station and the Schuylkill River had been purchased and cleared, and a nine-block viaduct constructed.
Broad Street Station was dramatically expanded by renowned Philadelphia architect Frank Furness in 1892–93. Wilson Brothers designed a new train shed (1892) that was constructed high over the existing sheds, which were subsequently demolished. The new shed had the largest single span of any station roof in the world – 306 ft (91 m). In 1894 the PRR moved its headquarters from Fourth Street to the office building above the station. In the 1930s PRR headquarters moved to the newly built Suburban Station Building at 1600 Filbert Street (now John F. Kennedy Boulevard). The train shed suffered a massive 1923 fire, and was demolished. The station itself was demolished in 1953, a year after train service to it had ceased.
Broad Street Station dominated the center of the city. Trains would leave the station two stories above street level on a viaduct known as the "Chinese Wall" and run west to cross the Schuylkill River on tracks that bisected the western half of Center City Philadelphia. Fifteenth Street ran beneath the station's lobby, and the numbered streets up to 24th ran beneath the viaduct. John F. Kennedy Boulevard traces a similar path today.
The station was renowned for its architecture but cursed for inundating the heart of the city with the smoke and noise of the day's steam locomotives. The Chinese Wall also made Center City north of the station unfashionable, as the area was cut off from the rest of downtown. Passengers arriving at Broad Street Station could make connections to the rest of the city on the numerous trolley lines on Market Street and 15th Street, or on Philadelphia's east–west Market-Frankford Subway-Elevated Line (beginning in 1907) or the north–south Broad Street Subway starting in 1928. The latter two were heavy rail lines that crossed under City Hall.
Leaving Broad Street Station, passengers would first arrive at West Philadelphia Station at 32nd and Market Streets on the west side of the Schuylkill, which in 1933 was replaced by 30th Street Station. The lines then split in three directions:
Today all these railroad lines, except for the one between 30th Street Station and Broad Street stations, remain intact, run by SEPTA or NJ Transit.
The architecture of Broad Street Station was typical of Furness's buildings in central Philadelphia in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Furness's structure looked much like a web of Gothic spires and arched windows, with considerable modification from their medieval sources. His work expanded on a similar structure originally constructed by the Wilson Brothers & Company a mere decade before. Furness's windows were often rounded and did not use pointed chancels.
The lower levels of the structure were heavy and rusticated, recalling the work of H. H. Richardson from the previous decade, while the spandrels of the upper stories emphasized the building's verticality. The frame for the stone structure was largely made of iron and steel, and on the interior the structural techniques were often displayed by balustrades and columns that in places revealed the rivets that held them together. The formal style of the building was altogether not unlike that of Furness's building for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which he completed in 1876, or his University of Pennsylvania Library, designed in 1888.
As the station expanded after 1881, additional train sheds were added to cover additional tracks, twelve in all by 1891. They were eventually replaced by a single shed, which, upon its completion in 1892, had the largest single span of any station roof in the world (91 m - 298 feet), and ultimately covered 16 tracks.
PRR later hired Furness, Evans & Company to design the Arcade Building, an office building of the same red brick, stone and terra cotta as the station, that connected to it through a pedestrian bridge over Market Street. This relieved much of the pedestrian traffic at street level, and the City permitted the Arcade Building to be built over the 15th Street sidewalk.
Even in its early years, there were flaws in the operation of Broad Street Station. The station could not accommodate passenger trains passing through the city without time-consuming back-up moves. The other major problem was that it took a number of engine moves to turn around commuter trains, which had become the station's main business because of its proximity to the downtown area.
The first problem would remain unsolved despite a proposal for a tunnel in North Philadelphia that was to run to the Broad Street Station area and then emerge above ground to meet the lines coming out of the station.[ citation needed ] The other problem began to be alleviated with electrification of the rail lines, starting with the Paoli service to the railroad's "Main Line", starting on September 11, 1915. [3] In 1918 service to Chestnut Hill (today's Chestnut Hill West) was opened, and the two busiest commuter services were dealt with.[ citation needed ]
In 1928 two more lines, West Chester/Media and Chester/Wilmington, would go under wire, and in 1930 Norristown and Trenton would be electrified, the latter being the first segment of electrification of today's Northeast Corridor, which was completed to Penn Station, New York, in 1933.
The train shed was destroyed by a fire on June 11, 1923. The fire began about 1:00 a.m. and burned for two days. Work on clearing the debris began even while the fire was still smoldering. The steel skeleton that remained was removed; thereafter, the train platforms operated while covered by small, "umbrella" shelters. These replacements were destroyed by another fire that began at 9:38 a.m. on September 12, 1943, and were replaced by a similar structure that remained for the last ten years of the station's existence.
In the 1920s and 1930s the Pennsylvania Railroad built two new stations: 30th Street Station, which is now the main intercity hub for Philadelphia rail travel, and Suburban Station, which is now the main community regional rail hub for Philadelphia. Originally a PRR stub line from 30th Street Station to a tunnel ending northwest of City Hall, just north of Broad Street Station, it was extended east as part of the Center City Commuter Connection tunnel tying the PRR rail network with the Reading Railroad.) In July 1947 Broad St scheduled 55 weekday departures: 9 to the south, 8 that would head west from Zoo, and 38 that would turn east from Zoo (14 of which would cross the Delair bridge).
Broad Street ultimately suffered the fate of many of Furness's institutional buildings, as it was closed in 1952 and razed in 1953. The last departure of a scheduled train was train 431 to Washington at 0110 on 27 April 1952; the last train was the farewell special that evening. The land once occupied by the station and its access tracks is now the commercial heart of the city, known as Penn Center, including buildings such as the 54-story Mellon Bank Center. Today all that remains of the building is a historic marker on 15th Street commemorating the site.
A bas-relief mural by Karl Bitter, The Spirit of Transportation, [4] located in the northwest corner of the main waiting area at 30th Street Station, was originally located in Broad Street Station.
The Junction Railroad was a railroad created in 1860 to connect lines west of downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and allow north-south traffic through the metropolitan area for the first time. The railroad consisted of 3.56 miles of double track and 5.3 miles of sidings. It owned no locomotives or rolling stock. The line connected the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road line at the west end of the Columbia Bridge over the Schuylkill River, crossed the Pennsylvania Railroad line, ran parallel to Market Street, and turned south to connect with the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad at Gray's Ferry.
The SEPTA Regional Rail system is a commuter rail network owned by SEPTA and serving the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The system has 13 branches and more than 150 active stations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, its suburbs and satellite towns and cities. It is the sixth-busiest commuter railroad in the United States, and the busiest outside of the New York, Chicago, and Boston metropolitan areas. In 2016, the Regional Rail system had an average of 132,000 daily riders and 118,800 daily riders as of 2019.
Suburban Station is an art deco office building and underground commuter rail station in Penn Center in Philadelphia. Its official SEPTA address is 16th Street and JFK Boulevard. The station is owned and operated by SEPTA and is one of the three core Center City stations on the SEPTA Regional Rail and one of the busiest stations in the Regional Rail System.
The Center City Commuter Connection (CCCC), commonly referred to as "the commuter tunnel", is a passenger railroad tunnel in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, built to connect the stub ends of the two separate regional commuter rail systems, originally operated by two rival railroad companies: the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Company. All of the SEPTA Regional Rail lines except for the Cynwyd Line pass completely through the four-track tunnel, which contains two underground stations, Suburban Station and Jefferson Station, and the above-ground upper-level concourse for the east–west commuter lines serving 30th Street Station.
The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) was an American railroad that operated independently from 1836 to 1881. Headquartered in Philadelphia, it was greatly enlarged in 1838 by the merger of four state-chartered railroads in three Mid-Atlantic states to create a single line between Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Philadelphia was an early railroad hub, with lines from all over meeting in Philadelphia. The first railroad in Philadelphia was the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad, opened in 1832 north to Germantown. At the end of 1833, the state-built Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, part of the Main Line of Public Works, opened for travel to the west, built to avoid loss of travel through Pennsylvania due to projects such as the Erie Canal. At the same time, the north-south leg of the Philadelphia City Railroad opened, running south along Broad Street from the Philadelphia and Columbia.
Schuylkill River Passenger Rail is a proposed passenger train service along the Schuylkill River between Philadelphia and Reading, Pennsylvania, with intermediate stops in Norristown, King of Prussia, Phoenixville, and Pottstown.
The Reading Terminal is a complex of buildings that includes the former Reading Company main station located in the Market East section of Center City in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It comprises the Reading Terminal Headhouse, Trainshed, and Market.
The Harrisburg Transportation Center is a railway station and transportation hub in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is located on the eastern edge of Downtown Harrisburg between the intersections of Aberdeen and Market Streets and 4th and Chestnut Streets.
Pennsylvania Route 3 is a 24.3-mile (39.1 km) state highway located in the southeastern portion of Pennsylvania. The route runs from U.S. Route 322 Business in West Chester east to PA 611 in Philadelphia.
Market Street, originally known as High Street, is a major east–west highway and street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The street is signed as Pennsylvania Route 3 between 38th Street and 15th Street. A short portion of the road continues west from Cobbs Creek Parkway to Delaware County, adjacent to Philadelphia. The street also serves as the dividing line for the "north" and "south" sides of the city. All north-south addresses in the city start at zero at Market Street.
Penn Center is the heart of Philadelphia's central business district. It takes its name from the nearly five million square foot office and retail complex it contains. It lies between 15th and 19th Streets, and between John F. Kennedy Boulevard and Market Street. It is credited with bringing Philadelphia into the era of modern office buildings.
The West Philadelphia Elevated, also known as the High Line or Philadelphia High Line, is a railroad viaduct in the western part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Now part of the Harrisburg Subdivision of CSX Transportation, the viaduct was built in 1903 by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to allow through freight trains to bypass rail yard, industrial sidings, and a passenger station.
The Schuylkill Branch was a rail line owned and operated by the former Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in Pennsylvania. The line ran from the Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line at 52nd Street in Philadelphia north via Norristown, Reading, and Pottsville to Delano Junction, about 2.5 mi (4.0 km) northeast of Delano. From Delano Junction, the PRR had trackage rights over the Lehigh Valley Railroad's Hazleton Branch and Tomhicken Branch to Tomhicken, where the PRR's Catawissa Branch began.
North Philadelphia station is an intercity rail and regional rail station on the Northeast Corridor, located on North Broad Street in the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. SEPTA Regional Rail's Trenton Line and Chestnut Hill West Line account for most of the station's service. Three Amtrak trains, two southbound and one northbound, stop on weekdays only.
52nd Street is a closed train station that was located at the intersection of North 52nd Street & Merion Avenue in the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) at the junction of its Main Line and its Schuylkill Branch. Today, these lines are the SEPTA Regional Rail Paoli/Thorndale Line and Cynwyd Line, respectively.
The Wilmington Rail Viaduct is a series of fills and bridges, about 4 miles (6.4 km) long, that carries the Northeast Corridor through the city of Wilmington, Delaware, above street level. Constructed between 1902 and 1908, the structure consists principally of fills supported by heavy stone retaining walls, punctuated with plate girder bridges over streets, and augmented by a few sections of brick arch viaduct. Its construction is typical of the Pennsylvania Railroad's architectural practices at the time, and the viaduct has been documented by the Historic American Engineering Record and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) as part of a series of grade crossing eliminations along the Northeast Corridor, the elevation of the rail line necessitated several other changes to rail infrastructure in Wilmington, including the construction of the Wilmington Shops at the east end of the viaduct, and the construction of the Wilmington Station and adjacent Pennsylvania Railroad Office Building along the elevated right-of-way.
George Brooke Roberts was a civil engineer and the fifth president of the Pennsylvania Railroad (1880–96).
30th Street Station, officially William H. Gray III 30th Street Station, is a major intermodal transit station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is metropolitan Philadelphia's main railroad station and a major stop on Amtrak's Northeast and Keystone corridors.
Zoo Junction is a junction on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the Northeast Corridor meets the Keystone Corridor, previously known as the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line.