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The Railroad That Never Was: Vanderbilt, Morgan, and the South Pennsylvania Railroad

by Herbert H. Harwood Jr

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A thwarted rail venture that helped shape the Pennsylvania Turnpike

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A thwarted rail venture that helped shape the Pennsylvania Turnpike

Herbert H. Harwood Jr. traces the South Pennsylvania Railroad, an 1881 effort to carve a 200-mile route across Pennsylvania’s difficult mountain country and challenge the Pennsylvania Railroad’s regional dominance. The account places William H. Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia industrialists, and J. P. Morgan within the project’s rise and abrupt cancellation, when the line stood close to opening. It also follows the long afterlife of an unfinished right-of-way: its abandoned tunnels and route later became part of the original Pennsylvania Turnpike in the late 1930s. Drawing on letters, documents, diaries, and newspaper reports, the book examines the business rivalry, finance, and infrastructure behind a railway that never entered service.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

Readers interested in U.S. railroad and transportation history
Those interested in Pennsylvania history and the origins of the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Readers exploring Gilded Age industrial and financial rivalry

Themes

Railroad historyInfrastructure and unfinished projectsGilded Age business competitionPennsylvania Turnpike originsFinance and industrial power

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Book overview

This 200-mile line through Pennsylvania's most challenging mountain terrain was intended to form the heart of a new trunk line from the East Coast to Pittsburgh and the Midwest. Conceived in 1881 by William H. Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and a group of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia industrialists, the South Pennsylvania Railroad was intended to break the Pennsylvania Railroad's near-monopoly in the region. The line was within a year of opening when J. P. Morgan brokered a peace treaty that aborted the project and helped bolster his position in the world of finance. The railroad right of way and its tunnels sat idle for 60 years before coming to life in the late 1930s as the original section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Based on original letters, documents, diaries, and newspaper reports, The Railroad That Never Was uncovers the truth behind this mysterious railway.

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