The Market Frankford EL

[ZARK]

For those who may be interested. Found this book on line on the building of the Frankford EL on this site..Internet Archive: Details: Philadelphia's rapid transit; being an account of the construction and equipment of the Market street subway-elevated and its place in the great system and service of the Philadelphia rapid transit company Click on the page to flip the pages.

[MarketStEl]

I remember perusing this book at the Free Library; nice to see that the University of California, Berkeley, has made a copy available online.

Didja note the nice spin in the introduction?

It will be recalled that this franchise was for an elevated road and not a subway. With the interests of the city placed ahead of their own financial interest, the Union Traction Company management first secured an amendment of this franchise so as to permit the building of the subway between the two rivers, and, secondly, secured a further amendment under which they were allowed to construct their portals upon private property, that at the east end being acquired by the new [Philadelphia Rapid Transit] Company at a cost of upwards of half a million dollars*, and that at the west end requiring the construction of a separate bridge over the Schuylkill River. While, therefore, the enterprise, as originally conceived, was of doubtful success from a financial standpoint, these people, whom it is popular to think of only as looking after their own interests, took upon themselves an additional expenditure of several million dollars solely for the best interests of the City of Philadelphia. The work is now completed; it is a monument to the unselfish public spirit of the financial interests which attempted it, to the skill of the engineers who designed it and the contractors who built it, under difficulties never before encountered in similar work. Whether it will pay directly is a question yet to be determined. If, however, it should bring to the management of the present operating Company, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, some recognition from the public that their interests are first considered, it will at once prove a profitable investment.

*that amount being a princely sum back in 1902.

Sounds a little like pleading, doesn't it? The only reason why I don't class this PR tour de force as total BS is this:

Philadelphia's Market Street line was the first -- and remains the only -- US subway that was built solely with private funds. The cost stretched the finances of the PRT nearly to the breaking point, as it and its predecessor Union Traction Company had long been seriously undercapitalized.

The only claim I question is the one about the subway provision being added to the franchise at Union Traction's behest. That may actually be true, but it sounds counterintuitive to me. However, I haven't researched the history leading up to the revised franchise agreement, so cannot pass judgment one way or the other.

[MarketStEl]

As moderator of the Transportation board, I agree that this post is relevant to this forum, but starting two separate threads on two separate boards tends to fragment the discussion.

While we do discuss transportation history here, I think that the History forum is the better place to continue this discussion, so I'm merging this thread with the one already started there. It will appear as moved on the Transportation forum, so people who come here looking for it will find it.