Pennsylvania Railroad, Connecting Railway Bridge

Pennsylvania Railroad, Connecting Railway Bridge
Pennsylvania Railroad, Connecting Railway Bridge from the southeast in 1999.
Coordinates	39°58′35″N 75°11′38″W / 39.97639°N 75.19389°W / 39.97639; -75.19389Coordinates: 39°58′35″N 75°11′38″W / 39.97639°N 75.19389°W / 39.97639; -75.19389
Carries	SEPTA Trenton Line and Chestnut Hill West Line, Amtrak Northeast Corridor, NJT Atlantic City Line
Crosses	Girard Avenue, Schuylkill River, Landsdowne Drive
Locale	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Other name(s)	Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Division, Bridge No. 69
Characteristics
Design	Arch bridge
Material	Stone
Longest span	103 feet (31 m)
History
Designer	John A. Wilson (attributed) George Brooke Roberts
Constructed by	Thomas Seabrook
Opened	1867

Pennsylvania Railroad, Connecting Railway Bridge is a stone arch bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that carries Amtrak Northeast Corridor rail lines and SEPTA and NJT commuter rail lines over the Schuylkill River. It is located in Fairmount Park, just upstream from the Girard Avenue Bridge.

It is also known as Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Division, Bridge No. 69. Other names include Connecting Railway Bridge, Connection Bridge, New York Connecting Bridge, New York Railroad Bridge, and Junction Railroad Bridge.

The bridge was built in 1866 and 1867 by the Connecting Railway, a company affiliated with the Pennsylvania Railroad and formally purchased by the PRR in 1871. Its purpose was to connect the PRR's southern and northern lines, and to be part of an eventual direct PRR line from Washington, D.C., to New York City. Before the bridge's construction, PRR trains took a circuitous route between PRR's West Philadelphia and North Philadelphia Stations.

The bridge was probably designed by John A. Wilson, chief engineer of the Connecting Railway Company, who surveyed the route in 1863. Following Wilson's 1864 resignation, PRR First Vice-President George Brooke Roberts, an engineer, took over the project and saw it through to completion. (He later became president of the PRR.) Thomas Seabrook was the masonry contractor.

The bridge opened to traffic on 2 June 1867. The bridge was narrow, with only 2 tracks and an iron truss at mid-river. This was a 236-foot-3-inch (72 m) cast- and wrought-iron, arch-reinforced, double-intersection Whipple truss.