The Allegheny Portage Railroad was the first railroad constructed through the Allegheny Mountains in central Pennsylvania. It operated from 1834 to 1854 as the first transportation infrastructure through the gaps of the Allegheny that connected the midwest to the eastern seaboard across the barrier range of the Allegheny Front. Approximately 36 miles (58 km) long overall, both ends connected to the Pennsylvania Canal, and the system was primarily used as a portage railway, hauling river boats and barges over the divide between the Ohio and the Susquehanna Rivers. Today, the remains of the railroad are preserved within the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service.
The Rockville Bridge is the longest stone masonry arch railroad viaduct ever built, at 3,820 feet (1,160 m). It has 48 70-foot spans.
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 Morrisville–Trenton Railroad Bridge is a rail bridge across the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, United States.
The West Trenton Railroad Bridge is a concrete arch bridge carrying CSX's Trenton Subdivision and SEPTA's West Trenton Line across the Delaware River between Lower Makefield Township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and the West Trenton section of Ewing Township in Mercer County, New Jersey. It was originally designed by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and was constructed from 1911 to 1913 by the F. W. Talbot Construction Company.
The McKees Rocks Bridge is a steel trussed through arch bridge which carries the Blue Belt, Pittsburgh's innermost beltline, across the Ohio River at Brighton Heights and McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, west of the city.
Starrucca Viaduct is a stone arch bridge that spans Starrucca Creek near Lanesboro, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Completed in 1848 at a cost of $320,000, it was at the time the world's largest stone railway viaduct and was thought to be the most expensive railway bridge as well. Still in use, the viaduct is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
Tunkhannock Creek Viaduct is a concrete deck arch bridge on the Nicholson Cutoff rail segment of the Norfolk Southern Railway Sunbury Line that spans Tunkhannock Creek in Nicholson, Pennsylvania. Measuring 2,375 feet (724 m) long and towering 240 feet (73.15 m) when measured from the creek bed, it was the largest concrete structure in the world when completed in 1915 and still merited "the title of largest concrete bridge in America, if not the world" 50 years later.
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. The 8,140-foot (2,480 m) structure spans the railway lines of 30th Street Station, parallel to the main track of the station, in a north-south direction. The 1,045-foot (319 m) approach made of brick arches is the longest brick bridge and probably the longest brick building in the United States.
The State Street Bridge, also known as the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Bridge, is a 1,312-foot (400 m) concrete, deck arch bridge that spans Pennsylvania Route 230 and Paxton Creek in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The bridge was completed in 1930 and was intended to be the principal entrance into downtown Harrisburg and the Pennsylvania State Capitol Complex from the east.
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 Walnut Lane Bridge is a concrete arch bridge located in Northwest Philadelphia that connects the Germantown and Roxborough neighborhoods across the Wissahickon Creek in Fairmount Park. While drivers may cross the bridge too quickly to notice, the view from underneath the bridge has inspired many artists and writers, such as Christopher Morley. The design was copied from Pont Adolphe in Luxembourg.
A skew arch is a method of construction that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular to its abutments and its plan view being a parallelogram, rather than the rectangle that is the plan view of a regular, or "square" arch.
Wilson Brothers & Company was a prominent Victorian-era architecture and engineering firm established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company was regarded for its structural expertise. The brothers designed or contributed engineering work to hundreds of bridges, railroad stations and industrial buildings, including the principal buildings at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. They also designed churches, hospitals, schools, hotels and private residences. Among their surviving major works are the Pennsylvania Railroad, Connecting Railway Bridge over the Schuylkill River (1866–67), the main building of Drexel University (1888–91), and the train shed of Reading Terminal (1891–93), all in Philadelphia.
The Bridge between Monroe and Penn Townships, also known as the Penns Creek Bridge, Camelback Bridge, or Camelback, was a historic bridge located at Monroe Township and Penn Township near Selinsgrove in Snyder County, Pennsylvania. It was a 194-foot-long (59 m) barrel arch bridge built in 1919. It spanned Penns Creek. It was removed in 1994.
The Manayunk Bridge is an S-shaped former railroad bridge over the Schuylkill River, Schuylkill Canal and Schuylkill Expressway, that connects Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County and the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Closed to rail traffic in 1986, it is now an extension of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail and connects to the Schuylkill River Trail.
The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, Schuylkill River Viaduct, also called the Reading Railroad Bridge and the Falls Rail Bridge, is a stone arch bridge that carries rail traffic over the Schuylkill River at Falls of Schuylkill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Located in Fairmount Park, the bridge also spans Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive, and Kelly Drive. The name Philadelphia & Reading Railroad (P&R) was later shortened to Reading Company.
The Thirty-third Street Bridge in Philadelphia carries Thirty-third Street over the former course of Master Street in the Brewerytown section of North Philadelphia, near Fairmount Park. The bridge was built in 1901 with an unusual skewed arch, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. Ashlar, or dressed stone, covers the exterior of the arch, but the unusual skewed ribs are made of brick. The underpass is now inside an industrial area and normally closed even to foot traffic. The tracks of the former Pennsylvania Railroad are located just to the north and pass under a large modern bridge on Thirty-third Street.
30th Street Station, officially William H. Gray III 30th Street Station, is a major intermodal transit station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is metropolitan Philadelphia's main railroad station and a major stop on Amtrak's Northeast and Keystone corridors. It was named in memory of U.S. representative William H. Gray III in 2020.
The Perkiomen Bridge, originally built 1798-99 and widened in 1928, is one of the oldest stone arch bridges in the United States still in use. It crosses Perkiomen Creek near Collegeville, Pennsylvania. The bridge's six semi-circular arches cover a total of over 300 feet (91 m). The longest arch spans 76 feet (23 m). Its decorative piers and belts courses are unusual for a bridge this old. A lottery financed $20,000 of the original construction. The bridge carried the main road from Philadelphia to Reading, known at various times as the Manatawny Pike, Germantown Pike, the Philadelphia-Reading Pike, and US 422. Since the construction of the US 422 bypass, the road has been known as Ridge Pike or Old US 422.
