The Main Line of Public Works was a railroad and canal system built by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the 19th century. It ran from Philadelphia west through Harrisburg and across the state to Pittsburgh and connected with other divisions of the Pennsylvania Canal. It consisted of the following principal sections, moving from east to west:

Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad: from Philadelphia to Columbia in Lancaster County; Eastern Division Canal: from Columbia to Duncan's Island at the mouth of the Juniata River; Juniata Division Canal: from Duncan's Island to Hollidaysburg; Allegheny Portage Railroad: from Hollidaysburg to Johnstown; Western Division Canal: from Johnstown to the terminus in Pittsburgh. The system opened in 1834 and was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1857.

Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad

The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad began in Philadelphia at Broad and Vine Street, running north on Broad and west on Pennsylvania Avenue (later taken over and submerged/tunneled over by the Reading Railroad) before heading northwest across the Columbia Bridge over the Schuylkill River. Just after crossing the river, it traveled up the Belmont Plane, an inclined plane in the current location of West Fairmount Park, and continued west across the eastern part of the state to Columbia, where the Columbia Plane headed down to the Susquehanna River. At that point, the eastern division of the canal continued north along the river and then west.

The Northern Liberties and Penn Township Railroad was incorporated in 1829 to build a branch continuing east on Noble Street and Willow Street to the Delaware River. This opened in 1834.

The Belmont Plane ran from the Schuylkill River for , rising in for a total of . A very important event in railroad history occurred on this inclined plane. On July 10, 1836, the Norris Locomotive Works, a Philadelphia firm, ran a test of a 4-2-0 locomotive named George Washington. The engine of hauled a load of (including 24 people riding on tender and one freight car) up the grade at per hour. This engine, the first to ascend a hill by its own power, proved that steam locomotives could climb an ascending grade while pulling a load. So remarkable was this accomplishment that reports in engineering journals emphatically doubted its occurrence. A second, more formal trial with an even greater load proved the engine's capabilities on July 19, 1836.

The Columbia Plane was bypassed in 1840 by a new alignment.

In 1850 the state bought the West Philadelphia Railroad, which had been incorporated in 1835 to bypass the Belmont Plane and failed after completing only the section from 52nd Street west to the main line at Rosemont. The state built the rest from 52nd Street east to downtown, but on a different alignment than the one originally planned; the new line, put into operation October 15, 1850, ended at the west end of the Market Street Bridge, from which the City Railroad continued east. The old line, which ran from the Schuylkill River up the Belmont Plane to Ardmore along the route of present-day Montgomery Avenue in Lower Merion Township, was abandoned. The Columbia Bridge and line east to Broad and Vine Streets were sold to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad as part of its main line. The Reading acquired the Northern Liberties and Penn Township Railroad in 1870, giving it access to the Delaware River.

The section of the old Pennsylvania Railroad running from Philadelphia west through Chester County and, by extension, the western suburbs of Philadelphia, is still known as the Main Line.

Eastern Division Canal

The Pennsylvania Canal's Eastern Division, which opened in 1833, ran along the east side of the Susquehanna River between Columbia and Duncan's Island at the mouth of the Juniata River. The canal included 14 locks with an average lift of . The state originally planned a canal of running between the Union Canal at Middletown to the Juniata. However, the plan changed in 1828, when the state opted to extend the Eastern Division further south to connect with the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad at Columbia.

Engineers faced complications at the northern end of the Eastern Division Canal, where it met the Juniata Division Canal and the Susquehanna Division Canal at Duncan's Island. Boats had to cross from one side of the Susquehanna River to the other between either the Susquehanna Division or the Juniata Division on the west side and the Eastern Division on the east side. They solved the problem by building a dam long and high between the lower end of Duncan's Island and the east bank of the Susquehanna. This formed a pool across which boats could be pulled from a wooden, two-tier towpath bridge at Clark's Ferry. Two Duncan's Island lift locks raised or lowered the boats traveling between the dam pool and the other canals.

Juniata Division Canal

The Juniata Division Canal was approved in segments starting in 1827 with a canal from near Duncan's Island in the Susquehanna River to Lewistown, upstream. Subsequently the state agreed to extend the canal to Hollidaysburg and the eastern end of the Allegheny Portage Railroad, from the Susquehanna. A total of 86 locks were required to overcome a change in elevation of over the full length of the canal, which opened in 1832.

From the canal basin, westbound boats began their journey by being elevated about by a lock that brought them to the level of a wooden aqueduct on which they were towed to the south side of the Juniata. At North's Island, from the Susquehanna, they were towed to the north side of the river across a slack water pool formed by a dam. From North's Island to Huntingdon, the river was dammed in three more places to feed water to the canal, and above Huntingdon, 14 more dams were needed to create of slack water navigation in the river to supplement miles of travel in segments of canal. In addition, the state built three reservoirs on Juniata tributaries to keep the upper parts of the canal filled with water.

Remnants

A canal section of has been restored near Locust Campground, west of Lewistown. At the western end of the canal, the Hollidaysburg Canal Basin Park has preserved two canal basins and a connecting lock; a museum at the park illustrates how canal boats transferred between the canal and the Allegheny Portage Railroad.

Allegheny Portage Railroad

From 1834 to 1854, the Allegheny Portage Railroad made continuous traffic possible over the Allegheny Mountains between the Juniata and Western Division Canals. It followed a route that included 11 levels, 10 inclined planes fitted with stationary engines that could raise and lower boats and cargo, a , viaduct over the Little Conemaugh River, and many bridges. The railroad climbed from the eastern canal basin at Hollidaysburg and from the western basin at Johnstown. At its summit, the railroad reached an elevation of above sea level.

Western Division Canal

1826, the state legislature authorized the first segment of the Western Division Canal, from Pittsburgh up the Allegheny River to its confluence with the Kiskiminetas River at Freeport. Pittsburgh residents favored a route that would follow the south bank of the Allegheny River and terminate in Pittsburgh, while residents of the borough of Allegheny favored a north bank canal ending in the borough, across the river from Pittsburgh. Eventually, the canal was run along the physically more favorable north bank, but the state agreed to build the main terminal and turning basin in Pittsburgh and a secondary terminal and connecting canal, the Allegheny Outlet, in the borough. Getting the main canal across the Allegheny River into Pittsburgh required an aqueduct of , the longest on the Pennsylvania Main Line route. Linking to the Ohio River at Pittsburgh, the Western Division Canal also linked, through a tunnel of under Grant's Hill in Pittsburgh, with the Monongahela River.

Subsequent Western Division Canal extensions went from Freeport up the Kiskiminetas and Conemaugh Rivers to Blairsville and then to the western end of the Allegheny Portage Railroad at Johnstown. East of Tunnelton, the route went through a canal tunnel of built to avoid a long loop of the Conemaugh River. The first fully-loaded freight boat traveled from Johnstown to Pittsburgh in 1831; the route through Grant's Hill opened in 1832. Over its length of , the canal employed 68 locks, 16 river dams, and 16 aqueducts. From Freeport, a separate extension, the Kittanning Feeder, ran up the Allegheny River to Kittanning.

Remnants

The Tunnelview Historical Site shows where in 1830 a canal tunnel of was built through Bow Ridge to avoid a long bend on the Conemaugh River, west of Blairsville. Saltsburg Canal Park, where Loyalhanna Creek joins the Conemaugh River to form the Kiskiminetas River, recognizes the canal's economic contribution to Saltsburg.

Points of interest

Feature	Coordinates	Description
Philadelphia		City at the eastern terminus of the Main Line of Public Works and the Columbia–Philadelphia Railroad
Columbia		Borough at the western terminus of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad and the southern terminus of the Eastern Division Canal
Duncan's Island	.	Island at the northern terminus of the Eastern Division Canal and the eastern terminus of the Juniata Division Canal
Lewistown		Borough at the western terminus of the Juniata Division Canal and the eastern terminus of the Allegheny Portage Railroad
Hollidaysburg		Borough at the western terminus of the Juniata Division Canal and the eastern terminus of the Allegheny Portage Railroad
Johnstown		City at the western terminus of the Allegheny Portage Railroad and the eastern terminus of the Western Division Canal
Pittsburgh		City at the western terminus of the Main Line of Public Works and the Western Division Canal
Kittanning		Borough at the northern terminus of the Kittanning Feeder Canal

See also

• List of canals in the United States

References

1. Burgess, George H. and Kennedy, Miles C. (1949), Centennial History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Philadelphia: The Pennsylvania Railroad Company

Further reading

For more on the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, see William Hasell Wilson, The Columbia-Philadelphia Railroad and Its Successor (1896). A reprint of this booklet was issued in 1985. See also John C. Trautwine, Jr., The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad of 1834, in Philadelphia History, Vol. 2, No. 7 (Philadelphia, PA: City History Soc. of Philadelphia, 1925). This is a pamphlet written for The City History Society of Philadelphia and read at the meeting of March 15, 1921.

External links

• Pennsylvania Canal Society
• American Canal Society
• National Canal Museum