Negative number: 5156, View of the snow-covered concrete roadbed of the elevated railway, looking south from Green Street. Shows construction equipment in the distance. The Philadelphia Warehousing & Cold Storage Company building is visible on the east side of the railway.
Negative number: 2993, View looking north at the construction of an elevated railway bridge over the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad tracks that span Kensington Avenue near Lehigh Avenue. Shows crowds of men standing on both sidewalks around the construction site at steel bent 273. Includes a partial view of Strathmann's Coal at the northeast corner of Kensington and Lehigh Avenues.
Negative number: 2711, Street view looking north toward Girard Avenue from construction site at bent 113 . A horse-drawn buggy stands in the right foreground. A group of young boys stand in the road in the distance. Includes Kensington Loan & Storage Co., pawnbrokers, at 100 Girard Avenue, and a whiskey distillery across the street.
Negative number: 2710, Street view looking south at piles of lumber and steel near construction site at bent 113. J.A. Dougherty's Sons, distillers, sits at 1136 North Front Street. Gustav Berger, manufacturer of sash doors, is also visible.
Negative number: 3119, View looking south at recently constructed steel bents and through trusses on Front Street, below Girard Avenue. Includes horse-drawn cart advertising Abbotts "A" milk, Philadelphia and Seashore.
Negative number: 3118, View looking north at recently constructed steel bents and through trusses on Front Street, near Girard Avenue. Includes signboard for Gustav Berger's sash door business.
Negative number: 2372, Street view looking south from the most recently constructed steel bent, Bent 62, showing installation of through-Pratt trusses resting on the steel bents. Construction materials and debris line the cobblestone street.
Negative number: 2290, Perspective looking south from the Philadelphia Warehousing & Cold Storage Co building on North Front Street. Shows through-Pratt trusses supported by steel bents running the length of Front Street, as far as the eye can see. Includes the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad's Outward Freight building no. 6 in the foreground.
Negative number: 3120, Street view looking west at a section of the unfinished elevated railway crossing over Girard Avenue. A group of young boys stand in the middle of the street. Shows William Penn Hose Co. and Kensington National Bank in the distance.
Negative number: 4535, View looking north along Kensington Avenue, showing the underbelly of the arch spanning Lehigh Avenue and the truss bridge carrying the elevated railway over the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad pony plate girder bridge. Includes a partial view of the Port Richmond division of the Young Men's Christian association (left). A trolley car travels south on Kensington Avenue.
Negative number: 3109, View looking north at the construction of an elevated, deck truss railway bridge over the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad tracks that span Kensington Avenue near Lehigh Avenue. Shows a locomotive sitting on the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad tracks and crowd of men standing in the foreground, looking at the bridge. Includes the business sign for Strathmann's Coal at the northeast corner of Kensington and Lehigh Avenues.
Negative number: 3299, View looking north along Kensington Avenue at the construction of a truss bridge that will carry the new elevated railway over the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad tracks near Lehigh Avenue. A horse-drawn delivery wagon sits on the west side of the road. Businesses include a "money back store"; a shoe store; a saloon; Hamilton clothing store; S. Weinstein, tailor; and Chas. Schmelz, tobacconist. Includes a partial view of the Young Men's Christian association, Port Richmond division up on the hill near the railroad tracks.
Negative number: 3308, View looking north from the corner saloon at the southeast corner of Kensington and Lehigh Avenues at the construction of the elevated railway bridge spanning the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad tracks. Men stand around the construction scene on the sidewalks and on Lehigh Avenue. Includes an exterior view of the Port Richmond division of the Young Men's Christian Association, a three-and-a-half story brick building elevated above the street at the northwest corner of Kensington and Lehigh Avenues.
Negative number: 3268, View looking north from a marker for bent 244 on Kensington Avenue. The east sidewalk is crowded with spectators. A man sits in a large cart hitched to a team of horses on the west side of the block. A trolley travels down the tracks in the distance. The elevated railway bridge spanning the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad tracks near Lehigh Avenue is also visible. Businesses include Edward C. Johnson's liquor store (2473 Kensington Avenue) and Munch's Saloon (2500 Kensington Avenue).
Negative number: 4534, View from a rooftop on the west side of Kensington Avenue looking north from Huntingdon Street showing the recently installed steel bents and though Pratt trusses of the elevated railway. Includes a clear view of Orinoka Mills and Hulton Dyeing & Finishing Co., two brick, industrial buildings that tower over neighboring properties near Somerset Street, behind the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad tracks. Also shows the bridge crossing the tracks in the distance.
Negative number: 3381, Depicts the underbelly of the bridge spanning the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad tracks at Lehigh Avenue. View looks south at the 2600 block of Kensington Avenue.
Negative number: 3122, View looking north at the pony plate girder bridge carrying the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad tracks over Kensington Avenue. Above this bridge spans the recently constructed truss bridge carrying the new elevated railway over the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad tracks.
Negative number: 4536, View looking west on Lehigh Avenue, showing the arch of the bridge spanning Lehigh Avenue and the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad bridge.
Negative number: 3307, View from the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company tracks running parallel to Lehigh Avenue, showing the construction of a steel bent on the 2600 block of Kensington Avenue. A crane rises high above the street. Image includes partial views of St. Cecilia's Roman Catholic Church, the five-story brick building of a carpet manufactury, and a row of residences, all on Lehigh Avenue. Spectators stand in the street and on the sidewalks.
Scene showing predominantly African American construction workers laying down railroad tracks near a block of rowhouses at Front and Arch Streets in Philadelphia. The men are surrounded by piled planks, buckets, and construction debris. Many of the workers have stopped to pose, including a white man, possibly a foreman. In the left, two men continue to work and consult near steps by a curved railing. The half completed tracks, bridge platform, a billboard, factory buildings, and water tower are visible in the background. Constructed under the auspices of the City of Philadelphia's Department of City Transit (later Transit Operations and Planning Division) between 1915 and 1922, the Frankford Elevated Railway consisted of a two track structure six miles in length that extended north over the roadway of Front Street, Kensington Avenue and Frankford Avenue between Arch and Bridge Streets. Operated under lease to the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (later South Eastern Public Transportation Authority or SEPTA), the line opened November 5, 1922., Title supplied by cataloger., Purchase 1989., Description revised 2022., Access points revised 2022., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Date
[September 6, 1922]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department photos - unidentified - Construction [P.9260.419]
