Philadelphia Rapid Transit: Construction and Equipment of the Market Street Subway and Elevated

Book excerpt: In 1903 the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company broke ground on an ambitious project, to create the City of Brotherly Love's first high speed rail system. When it opened on March 4, 1907, the Market Street Subway-Elevated Line was greeted with acclaim. Running from the suburbs of West Philadelphia on elevated tracks, trains ducked underground to reach the city center. The line would be joined by the Frankford Elevated in 1922, and merged into today's Market-Frankford Line, now operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). Originally printed in 1907 to celebrate the opening of the subway line, Philadelphia's Rapid Transit include descriptive text, and dozens of rare photos showing the men who built the line. The book provides a fascinating glimpse into the construction and design of one of the nation's earliest municipal railway systems. This reprint has been slightly reformatted, but care has been taken to preserve the integrity of the text.