New Sweden was a colony of the Swedish Empire between 1638 and 1655 along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great power, New Sweden formed part of the Swedish efforts to colonize the Americas.
Newport is a town in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. It is on the Christina River. It is best known for being the home of colonial inventor Oliver Evans. The population was 1,055 at the 2010 census. Four limited access highways, I-95, I-295, I-495, and Delaware Route 141 intersect within one mile (1.6 km) of the town.
Wilmington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area. Wilmington was named by Proprietor Thomas Penn after his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, who was prime minister during the reign of George II of Great Britain.
Bristol is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located 23 miles (37 km) northeast of Center City in Philadelphia opposite Burlington, New Jersey, on the Delaware River.
Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area on the western bank of the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. The population of Chester was 32,605 at the 2020 census.
The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal is a 14-mile (22.5 km)-long, 450-foot (137.2 m)-wide and 35-foot (10.7 m)-deep ship canal that connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay in the states of Delaware and Maryland in the United States.
The Delaware Valley, sometimes referred to as Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia metropolitan area, or Philadelphia tri-state area, and locally and colloquially referred to as Philly-Jersey-Delaware, is a major metropolitan area in Northeast United States that centers on Philadelphia, the 6th-most populous city in the United States, and spans part of four states: Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, Northern Delaware, and the northern Eastern Shore of Maryland, though it is sometimes considered a tri-state region if northeast Maryland is excluded from the definition. With a core of metropolitan statistical area population of 6.288 million residents and a combined statistical area population of 7.366 million, Delaware Valley is the eighth-largest metropolitan region in the United States and the 68th-largest metropolitan region in the world.
Brandywine Creek is a tributary of the Christina River in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware in the United States. The Lower Brandywine is 20.4 miles (32.8 km) long and is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River with several tributary streams. The East Branch and West Branch of the creek originate within 2 miles (3 km) of each other on the slopes of Welsh Mountain in Honey Brook Township, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of their confluence.
Interstate 495 (I-495) is an 11.47-mile-long (18.46 km) auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US state of Delaware. The highway, named the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway, serves as a six-lane bypass of I-95 around the city of Wilmington. I-495 begins at an interchange with I-95 and I-295 near Newport to the southwest of Wilmington. From here, the road heads east to the Port of Wilmington, where it turns northeast and crosses the Christina River as it heads to the east of downtown Wilmington. Upon reaching Edgemoor, I-495 runs between the Delaware River to the east and U.S. Route 13 (US 13) to the west, continuing to Claymont. In Claymont, I-495 turns north and merges into northbound I-95 at an interchange with Delaware Route 92 (DE 92) just south of the Pennsylvania state line.
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.
The Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad was a railroad line built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Maryland-Delaware state line, where it connected with the B&O's Philadelphia Branch to reach Baltimore, Maryland. It was built in the 1880s after the B&O lost access to its previous route to Philadelphia, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B). The cost of building the new route, especially the Howard Street Tunnel on the connecting Baltimore Belt Line, led to the B&O's first bankruptcy. Today, the line is used by CSX Transportation for freight trains.
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.
Brandywine Hundred is an unincorporated subdivision of New Castle County, Delaware, United States. It is located to the north and northeast of the city of Wilmington. Hundreds were once used as a basis for representation in the Delaware General Assembly. Brandywine Hundred and North Wilmington are commonly used colloquial names for this area. However, while their names still appear on all real estate transactions, all other hundreds in Delaware presently have no meaningful use or purpose except as a geographical point of reference. In the 2010 census, Brandywine had 77,182 people.
Interstate 95 (I-95) is an Interstate Highway running along the East Coast of the United States from Miami, Florida, north to the Canadian border in Houlton, Maine. In the state of Delaware, the route runs for 23.43 miles (37.71 km) across the Wilmington area in northern New Castle County from the Maryland state line near Newark northeast to the Pennsylvania state line in Claymont. I-95 is the only primary Interstate Highway that enters Delaware, although it also has two auxiliary routes within the state. Between the Maryland state line and Newport, I-95 follows the Delaware Turnpike, a toll road with a mainline toll plaza near the state line. Near Newport, the Interstate has a large interchange with Delaware Route 141 (DE 141) and the southern termini of I-295 and I-495. I-95 becomes the Wilmington Expressway from here to the Pennsylvania state line and heads north through Wilmington concurrently with U.S. Route 202 (US 202). Past Wilmington, I-95 continues northeast to Claymont, where I-495 rejoins the route right before the Pennsylvania state line.
The Disney riverboats are paddle steamer watercraft attraction ride vehicles operating on a track on a series of attractions located at Disney theme parks around the world.
The Pennsylvania Canal, sometimes known as the Pennsylvania Canal system, was a complex system of transportation infrastructure improvements, including canals, dams, locks, tow paths, aqueducts, and viaducts. The canal was constructed and assembled over several decades beginning in 1824, the year of the first enabling act and budget items.
Delaware Route 100 (DE 100) is a state highway in New Castle County, Delaware. The route runs from DE 4 near Elsmere to the Pennsylvania border near Montchanin, where it continues into Pennsylvania as State Route 3100. The road runs through suburban areas of northern New Castle County. The route intersects DE 2 in Elsmere before forming separate concurrencies with DE 48 and DE 141 from west of Wilmington north to Greenville. In Greenville, there is an interchange with DE 52. North of Greenville, DE 100 continues by itself to the Pennsylvania border, intersecting DE 92 in Montchanin. DE 100 was first designated in the 1930s to run from DE 52 to the Pennsylvania border, where it connected to Pennsylvania Route 100 (PA 100) until the southern terminus of that route was truncated away from the state line in 2003. By the 1970s, it was extended south to DE 4. The route was realigned to follow parts of DE 48 and DE 141 by 1990.
The Wilmington and Northern Railroad is a railway company that once owned a line from Reading, Pennsylvania to Wilmington, Delaware. The original main line from Wilmington to Birdsboro, Pennsylvania was built between 1869 and 1871 by its predecessor, the Wilmington and Reading Railroad. An extension from Birdsboro to High's Junction was completed in 1874. There the Wilmington and Reading connected with the Berks County Railroad and ran over its tracks to Reading. The Berks County Railroad was foreclosed on at the end of 1874 and reorganized as the Reading and Lehigh Railroad, under the control of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road. The Wilmington and Reading also experienced financial difficulties and was itself foreclosed on in 1876. It was reorganized in 1877 as the Wilmington and Northern. After the reorganization, the railroad was closely affiliated with the Reading, but retained its own organization and officers until 1898. In that year, the Reading bought a majority of the company's stock and incorporated it into its own system. The main line from Birdsboro to Wilmington became the Wilmington and Northern Branch, while the extension above Birdsboro was incorporated into the Reading Belt Line. The Wilmington and Northern continued to exist as a paper railroad within the Reading system. The portion of the Wilmington and Northern north of Modena, Pennsylvania was sold to Conrail at its formation in 1976. The line south of Modena was retained by the Wilmington and Northern, which leased and then sold it piecemeal to other railroads between 1981 and 2005. As of 2021, the Wilmington and Northern still survived as a subsidiary of Reading International, Inc.
The Delaware Railroad was the major railroad in the US state of Delaware, traversing almost the entire state north to south from the mid-1850's until 1976. It began in Porter and was extended south through Dover andSeaford before reaching Delmar on the border of Maryland in 1859. Although operated independently, in 1857 it was leased by and under the financial control of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad, which was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1881. In 1891, it was extended north approximately 14 miles (23 km) with the purchase of existing track to New Castle and Wilmington. It remained a part of the PRR system and then Penn Central until 1976 when Penn Central went bankrupt at which point it was absorbed into Conrail.
The Port of Chester is an American port on the west bank of the Delaware River in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Centered around Chester it ranges into Marcus Hook to the south and Eddystone to the north. It is part of the Delaware Valley port complex and lies between the Port of Wilmington and the Port of Philadelphia. Traditionally, shipbuilding and later automobile assembly were the mainstays of the port. It has since given way to other manufacturing and recreational activities, with Penn Terminals the only traditional maritime facility.
United States
