Wilmington Rail Viaduct
Encyclopedia
The Wilmington Rail Viaduct is a series of fills and bridges, about 4 miles (6.4 km) long, that carry 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 wall
s, 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 added to both the Historic American Engineering Record and 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.
through Wilmington Station. The west end of the viaduct is adjacent to the Alban Park neighborhood of Wilmington, an area also known as West Yard.
The bulk of the viaduct, from Vandever Avenue to Lower Linden Street, consists of earthen fill (derived from the construction excavation for the viaduct) held between heavy ashlar
sandstone
retaining walls resting on concrete foundations. Some of the northern sections of the viaduct have fill enclosed in timber cribbing on one side of the right-of-way, but generally the fill is contained with retaining walls on both sides. The ashlar also forms the abutments for the overpasses carrying the railroad tracks across city streets, which are steel plate through girder or deck girder bridges. The fill carries three tracks for much of its length; sidings, some now abandoned, descend to street level by ramps at various points. It was topped with 4 feet (1.2 m) of ballast
before tracks were laid.
The west end of the viaduct, below Lower Linden Street, was constructed as an arched viaduct when the underlying soil was found to be too soft to support the fill carrying the remainder of the line. Originally designed in stone, shortages of sandstone led to the construction of the 41 feet (12.5 m) arches in brick, instead. Twelve arches carry the line from Lower Linden Street to the (stone) Beech Street underpass, and twenty arches continue southwest from Beech Street to the former Baltimore and Ohio
and Wilmington and Northern underpass. The remainder of the structure to its West Yard end is again of retaining wall and fill construction.
The bridge over the Brandywine Creek near the east end of the viaduct had to be replaced to accommodate the newly elevated track level. At the time, this part of the Brandywine was considered navigable water, though rarely used, and the railroad had to construct a moveable bridge
to accommodate navigation. The railroad chose to use a swing bridge
, and began construction of the center pivot pier in the winter of 1903. The first caisson
sunk there was damaged by ice and swept away in a flood. A new caisson was built resumed after the winter passed and a stone-faced concrete pier, 35 feet (10.7 m) in diameter, successfully constructed. A second pier was built in the stream to the southwest, leaving two 59 feet (18 m) channels between the pivot pier and the bank and the pivot and second piers. Icebreakers were built on either side of the pivot pier. (The tidal nature of the Brandywine required them to be bidirectional.)
The superstructure of the bridge was manufactured by the Phoenix Bridge Company. It consisted of a 78 feet (23.8 m) plate girder from the southwest bank to a fixed pier, and a 158 feet (48.2 m) fishbelly girder from that pier to the northeast bank, turning on the pivot pier. It carries three tracks. Two buildings were erected on the bridge, one for a watchman and the signal levers that protected and operated the bridge, and one to house the gasoline engine that turned it. The interlocking
levers on the swing bridge were placed in service on March 4, 1906; this was the first electro-mechanical interlocking using small levers (rather than the rod-linked armstrong levers typical at the time) on the Pennsylvania Railroad system.
The structure has undergone relatively little modification since its construction. A 1920s electrification program to Wilmington added support structures to string catenary wires
along the length of the viaduct. During the early 20th Century, the swing bridge over the Brandywine was fixed in place and the engine and control buildings removed. In 1955, the construction of the Walnut Street Bridge required an undergrade bridge to be built to carry a new, wider alignment of Walnut Street slightly to the east of its original course. The new bridge is of plate girder construction over concrete abutments and piers. In 1983, Amtrak replaced the superstructure of the Poplar Street bridge and refurbished the piers and abutments.
in 1837, came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad
(PRR) when it bought a controlling interest in the PW&B in 1881. As the PRR digested its Gilded Age
acquisitions, freight traffic on its lines boomed, increasing by 64% between 1897 and 1902 in the recovery following the Panic of 1893
. Longer, heavier, and more frequent trains pushed the railroad's existing infrastructure to its limits; however, they also brought an enormous increase in earnings. During the beginning of the 20th Century, the PRR invested a portion of these profits in improving its rights-of-way and expanding capacity throughout its system.
An important component of these improvements was grade crossing elimination. In many of the cities served by PRR lines, the railroad tracks ran at ground level, crossing the streets at grade. As train speeds increased and traffic swelled, preventing grade crossing accidents became increasingly difficult. In Wilmington, the PRR had already built the Shellpot Branch
in 1888 to divert through freight traffic through the sparsely developed marshes to the south of the city. However, many industries along the Christina waterfront still required local freight service, and congestion in the city streets remained a serious problem.
In February 1901, the PRR's Annual Report announced the railroad's intention to make extensive improvements to its line between Philadelphia and Washington, DC. In the Wilmington, the planned improvements included the double-tracking of the Shellpot Branch, the elevation of the main line through the city, and the construction of a new station along the elevated main line. The railroad's shops were also to be moved from 3rd and Church Streets to Todd's Cut, to the east of the city near Edgemoor. This would allow ample room to expand the shops, and would make room for a realignment of the main line to reduce curvature and increase train speeds.
The original plan for the viaduct called for a double-track structure, enclosed between two stone walls 12 and 14 ft (3.7 and 4.3 m) high, which would largely follow the previous alignment of the main line. The choice of stonework reflected prevailing practice on the PRR and its rival, the New York Central. The choice of stone, in preference to steel bridges, reflected engineering conservatism on the part of the railroads, and also associated the railroad structures with a sense of permanency and a monumental aesthetic. The PRR's Chief Engineer, William H. Brown, was particularly known for his advocacy of stone construction, and it was under his direction that the railroad's engineering department drew up the plans for the viaduct.
City streets were to be crossed by iron bridges, minimizing roadwork. The railroad originally planned to build iron bridgework to connect old and new segments of the main line during construction to minimize service disruptions. However, it was not required, because service was able to continue on the old main line without interruption. Plans also had to be altered in the West Yard area, where marshy ground dictated the construction of an arched viaduct rather than a fill. Construction commenced in the spring of 1902, starting in the area around Wilmington station and working outwards. Simultaneously, construction began from LANDLITH toward the Brandywine. The original completion date of mid-1905 was not met, in part due to a general retrenchment which temporarily stopped the work, apart from the Brandywine Creek bridge, on March 1, 1904. The southbound tracks were placed in service from the new Wilmington Shops south across the Brandywine to 5th Street on August 25, and on September 24, construction work resumed to add a third track from the Brandywine to the shops. The new swing bridge over the Brandywine was opened on March 1, 1906, and the southbound tracks were opened over the length of the viaduct on January 28, 1907. The northbound tracks were opened on March 16; however, the side of the new Wilmington station serving those tracks did not go into service until July 7, 1908.
As early as 1918, the PRR had begun electrifying some of its lines radiating from Philadelphia to replace steam trains with double-ended multiple unit
cars to ease congestion at its terminal. Extension of the electrification program to Wilmington was announced on March 25, 1926, and electrified local service opened on September 30, 1928.
The PRR continued to operate service over the viaduct until its 1968 merger with the New York Central Railroad
to form the Penn Central Transportation Company. After the bankruptcy of Penn Central in 1976, the viaduct, with the rest of the Northeast Corridor
, was transferred to Amtrak
, which currently maintains and operates it.
Construction of the viaduct had a significant effect on the development of Wilmington. In addition to emphasizing the stability and importance of the PRR, the elevated fill both visually and spatially separated the Christina River waterfront from the rest of the city north of Front Street. It served to both maintain and screen the heavy industries that grew up along the waterfront during the 20th Century. With the passing of these industries and the redevelopment of the Wilmington waterfront, the viaduct now forms one boundary of the city's riverfront district.
Northeast Corridor
The Northeast Corridor is a fully electrified railway line owned primarily by Amtrak serving the Northeast megalopolis of the United States from Boston in the north, via New York to Washington, D.C. in the south, with branches serving other cities...
through the city of Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located 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...
above street level. Constructed between 1902 and 1908, the structure consists principally of fills supported by heavy stone retaining wall
Retaining wall
Retaining walls are built in order to hold back earth which would otherwise move downwards. Their purpose is to stabilize slopes and provide useful areas at different elevations, e.g...
s, punctuated with plate girder bridges over streets, and augmented by a few sections of brick arch viaduct
Viaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
. Its construction is typical of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
's architectural practices at the time, and the viaduct has been added to both the Historic American Engineering Record and the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. 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.
Physical description
The viaduct extends from Vandever Ave, on its east end (a location on the railroad known as LANDLITH interlocking), across the Brandywine Creek and then roughly parallel to the Christina RiverChristina River
The Christina River is a tributary of the Delaware River, approximately 35 miles long, in northern Delaware in the United States, also flowing through small areas of southeastern Pennsylvania and northeastern Maryland. Near its mouth the river flows past downtown Wilmington, Delaware,...
through Wilmington Station. The west end of the viaduct is adjacent to the Alban Park neighborhood of Wilmington, an area also known as West Yard.
The bulk of the viaduct, from Vandever Avenue to Lower Linden Street, consists of earthen fill (derived from the construction excavation for the viaduct) held between heavy ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
retaining walls resting on concrete foundations. Some of the northern sections of the viaduct have fill enclosed in timber cribbing on one side of the right-of-way, but generally the fill is contained with retaining walls on both sides. The ashlar also forms the abutments for the overpasses carrying the railroad tracks across city streets, which are steel plate through girder or deck girder bridges. The fill carries three tracks for much of its length; sidings, some now abandoned, descend to street level by ramps at various points. It was topped with 4 feet (1.2 m) of ballast
Track ballast
Track ballast forms the trackbed upon which railway sleepers or railroad ties are laid. It is packed between, below, and around the ties. It is used to facilitate drainage of water, to distribute the load from the railroad ties, and also to keep down vegetation that might interfere with the track...
before tracks were laid.
The west end of the viaduct, below Lower Linden Street, was constructed as an arched viaduct when the underlying soil was found to be too soft to support the fill carrying the remainder of the line. Originally designed in stone, shortages of sandstone led to the construction of the 41 feet (12.5 m) arches in brick, instead. Twelve arches carry the line from Lower Linden Street to the (stone) Beech Street underpass, and twenty arches continue southwest from Beech Street to the former Baltimore and Ohio
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...
and Wilmington and Northern underpass. The remainder of the structure to its West Yard end is again of retaining wall and fill construction.
The bridge over the Brandywine Creek near the east end of the viaduct had to be replaced to accommodate the newly elevated track level. At the time, this part of the Brandywine was considered navigable water, though rarely used, and the railroad had to construct a moveable bridge
Moveable bridge
A moveable bridge is a bridge that moves to allow passage for boats or barges. An advantage of making bridges movable include lower price, due to the absence of high piers and long approaches. The principal disadvantage is that the traffic on the bridge must be halted when it is opened for passages...
to accommodate navigation. The railroad chose to use a swing bridge
Swing bridge
A swing bridge is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its centre of gravity, about which the turning span can then pivot horizontally as shown in the animated illustration to the right...
, and began construction of the center pivot pier in the winter of 1903. The first caisson
Caisson (engineering)
In geotechnical engineering, a caisson is a retaining, watertight structure used, for example, to work on the foundations of a bridge pier, for the construction of a concrete dam, or for the repair of ships. These are constructed such that the water can be pumped out, keeping the working...
sunk there was damaged by ice and swept away in a flood. A new caisson was built resumed after the winter passed and a stone-faced concrete pier, 35 feet (10.7 m) in diameter, successfully constructed. A second pier was built in the stream to the southwest, leaving two 59 feet (18 m) channels between the pivot pier and the bank and the pivot and second piers. Icebreakers were built on either side of the pivot pier. (The tidal nature of the Brandywine required them to be bidirectional.)
The superstructure of the bridge was manufactured by the Phoenix Bridge Company. It consisted of a 78 feet (23.8 m) plate girder from the southwest bank to a fixed pier, and a 158 feet (48.2 m) fishbelly girder from that pier to the northeast bank, turning on the pivot pier. It carries three tracks. Two buildings were erected on the bridge, one for a watchman and the signal levers that protected and operated the bridge, and one to house the gasoline engine that turned it. The interlocking
Interlocking
In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively referred to as an interlocking plant...
levers on the swing bridge were placed in service on March 4, 1906; this was the first electro-mechanical interlocking using small levers (rather than the rod-linked armstrong levers typical at the time) on the Pennsylvania Railroad system.
The structure has undergone relatively little modification since its construction. A 1920s electrification program to Wilmington added support structures to string catenary wires
Overhead lines
Overhead lines or overhead wires are used to transmit electrical energy to trams, trolleybuses or trains at a distance from the energy supply point...
along the length of the viaduct. During the early 20th Century, the swing bridge over the Brandywine was fixed in place and the engine and control buildings removed. In 1955, the construction of the Walnut Street Bridge required an undergrade bridge to be built to carry a new, wider alignment of Walnut Street slightly to the east of its original course. The new bridge is of plate girder construction over concrete abutments and piers. In 1983, Amtrak replaced the superstructure of the Poplar Street bridge and refurbished the piers and abutments.
History
The rail line through Wilmington, originally constructed by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore RailroadPhiladelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad
The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad was the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania southwest to Baltimore, Maryland in the 19th and early 20th centuries...
in 1837, came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
(PRR) when it bought a controlling interest in the PW&B in 1881. As the PRR digested its Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
acquisitions, freight traffic on its lines boomed, increasing by 64% between 1897 and 1902 in the recovery following the Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
. Longer, heavier, and more frequent trains pushed the railroad's existing infrastructure to its limits; however, they also brought an enormous increase in earnings. During the beginning of the 20th Century, the PRR invested a portion of these profits in improving its rights-of-way and expanding capacity throughout its system.
An important component of these improvements was grade crossing elimination. In many of the cities served by PRR lines, the railroad tracks ran at ground level, crossing the streets at grade. As train speeds increased and traffic swelled, preventing grade crossing accidents became increasingly difficult. In Wilmington, the PRR had already built the Shellpot Branch
Shellpot Branch
The Shellpot Branch is a former Pennsylvania Railroad/Penn Central through-freight railroad owned and operated by Norfolk Southern since its acquisition, along with CSX Transportation, of Conrail in 1999...
in 1888 to divert through freight traffic through the sparsely developed marshes to the south of the city. However, many industries along the Christina waterfront still required local freight service, and congestion in the city streets remained a serious problem.
In February 1901, the PRR's Annual Report announced the railroad's intention to make extensive improvements to its line between Philadelphia and Washington, DC. In the Wilmington, the planned improvements included the double-tracking of the Shellpot Branch, the elevation of the main line through the city, and the construction of a new station along the elevated main line. The railroad's shops were also to be moved from 3rd and Church Streets to Todd's Cut, to the east of the city near Edgemoor. This would allow ample room to expand the shops, and would make room for a realignment of the main line to reduce curvature and increase train speeds.
The original plan for the viaduct called for a double-track structure, enclosed between two stone walls 12 and 14 ft (3.7 and 4.3 m) high, which would largely follow the previous alignment of the main line. The choice of stonework reflected prevailing practice on the PRR and its rival, the New York Central. The choice of stone, in preference to steel bridges, reflected engineering conservatism on the part of the railroads, and also associated the railroad structures with a sense of permanency and a monumental aesthetic. The PRR's Chief Engineer, William H. Brown, was particularly known for his advocacy of stone construction, and it was under his direction that the railroad's engineering department drew up the plans for the viaduct.
City streets were to be crossed by iron bridges, minimizing roadwork. The railroad originally planned to build iron bridgework to connect old and new segments of the main line during construction to minimize service disruptions. However, it was not required, because service was able to continue on the old main line without interruption. Plans also had to be altered in the West Yard area, where marshy ground dictated the construction of an arched viaduct rather than a fill. Construction commenced in the spring of 1902, starting in the area around Wilmington station and working outwards. Simultaneously, construction began from LANDLITH toward the Brandywine. The original completion date of mid-1905 was not met, in part due to a general retrenchment which temporarily stopped the work, apart from the Brandywine Creek bridge, on March 1, 1904. The southbound tracks were placed in service from the new Wilmington Shops south across the Brandywine to 5th Street on August 25, and on September 24, construction work resumed to add a third track from the Brandywine to the shops. The new swing bridge over the Brandywine was opened on March 1, 1906, and the southbound tracks were opened over the length of the viaduct on January 28, 1907. The northbound tracks were opened on March 16; however, the side of the new Wilmington station serving those tracks did not go into service until July 7, 1908.
As early as 1918, the PRR had begun electrifying some of its lines radiating from Philadelphia to replace steam trains with double-ended multiple unit
Multiple unit
The term multiple unit or MU is used to describe a self-propelled carriages capable of coupling with other units of the same or similar type and still being controlled from one driving cab. The term is commonly used to denote passenger trainsets consisting of more than one carriage...
cars to ease congestion at its terminal. Extension of the electrification program to Wilmington was announced on March 25, 1926, and electrified local service opened on September 30, 1928.
The PRR continued to operate service over the viaduct until its 1968 merger with the New York Central Railroad
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
to form the Penn Central Transportation Company. After the bankruptcy of Penn Central in 1976, the viaduct, with the rest of the Northeast Corridor
Northeast Corridor
The Northeast Corridor is a fully electrified railway line owned primarily by Amtrak serving the Northeast megalopolis of the United States from Boston in the north, via New York to Washington, D.C. in the south, with branches serving other cities...
, was transferred to Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
, which currently maintains and operates it.
Construction of the viaduct had a significant effect on the development of Wilmington. In addition to emphasizing the stability and importance of the PRR, the elevated fill both visually and spatially separated the Christina River waterfront from the rest of the city north of Front Street. It served to both maintain and screen the heavy industries that grew up along the waterfront during the 20th Century. With the passing of these industries and the redevelopment of the Wilmington waterfront, the viaduct now forms one boundary of the city's riverfront district.