Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad

Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad

P&CRR schedule (1837)
Reporting mark	P&CRR
Locale	Philadelphia to Columbia, PA
Dates of operation	1834–1857
Successor	Pennsylvania Railroad
Track gauge	standard
Length	82 miles (132.0 km)
Headquarters	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Canal Commission

Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad (P&CR) (1834) was one of the earliest commercial railroads in the United States, running 82 miles (132 km) from Philadelphia to Columbia, Pennsylvania, it was built by the Pennsylvania Canal Commission in lieu of a canal from Columbia to Philadelphia; in 1857 it became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and its trackage lives on today operated by Norfolk-Southern. The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad's western terminus was located near the former ferry site known as Wright's Ferry, in the town once of that name, but now Columbia in Lancaster County. There the P&CR met with the Pennsylvania Canal—navigations and improvements on the Susquehanna River east bank approximately 30 miles (48.3 km) south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Most of its right-of-way was obtained by the actions of the Pennsylvania Canal Commission which operated the railroad under the various enabling acts of the Pennsylvania legislature known as the Main Line of Public Works in support of a far sighted plan to link the whole state by canals. With an engineering study reporting back a finding that obtaining sufficient waters to flood the intended 80+ mile canal from Philadelphia to Columbia, the Canal Commission and legislature authorized the railway on the right of way intended for the canal.

In 1857 as one of the properties legally denoted as the Main Line of Public Works, with rapidly improving railroad technology driving rapid changes in capabilities, the Railroad was sold along with most of the Pennsylvania Canal system, to the young Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) which acquired properties of the Pennsylvania Canal Commission as far west as Pittsburgh and included the Allegheny Portage Railroad with the proviso that the Railroad had to link Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. At the time, the PRR had begun building its famous Horseshoe Curve cutting across several of the streams forming the gaps of the Allegheny. Hence, the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad became a key integral part of what grew to be the largest railroad in the world.