The Public Interest of the Private City: The Pennsylvania Railroad, Urban Space, and Philadelphia's Economic Elite, 1846–1877

Abstract

On February 16, 1854, the first passenger train wound its way around the mountain division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, consummating after eight years of construction a direct link between Philadelphia and the Ohio Valley. A few days later, with their route to the west finally complete, Philadelphians celebrated the passage of an act that extended the boundaries of the metropolis to make it in territorial terms the largest city in America. The building of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the annexation of outlying suburbs were each part of an urban imperialist program to make Philadelphia the central place in the nation’s burgeoning continental empire. Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. coined the term “urban imperialism” to describe the rivalries between American cities as they strove to extend their hinterlands through the construction of turnpikes, canals, and railroads between the colonial era and Gilded Age. But while several historians have explored the mercantilist ambitions of civic boosters, fewer have analyzed how promoters imagined the impact their labor would have on the built environment. In Philadelphia, though, advocates of the Pennsylvania Railroad promised citizens that once the West had been grappled with “iron hooks” the “tribute” of that ever-expanding market would flow into the metropolitan economy, providing employment to restless mechanics and builders, enriching real estate owners, and embellishing an ever-growing city.