although it was upon the  nation's first early rail hubs  

and now home to one of the nation's  largest public transit systems  

the philadelphia transportation system is one  that many people are not familiar with however  

had the network reached its full growth potential  we would be telling a very different story  

did you know that philadelphia's system could have  been much bigger than it is today for beneath the  

busy streets there now sit countless abandoned  subway lines that remain tragically unrealized  

as mere shells of what could have been today  we discover the lost lines and go stations of  

philadelphia's transportation network i'm your  host ryan socash and you're watching it's history

now the tale of philadelphia's forgotten subway  lines is a fascinating one and i'd like to thank  

our history council and history preservationist  producers for making this episode possible if  

you'd like to get on the team click that join  button and now into the story of philadelphia's  

forgotten subway let's set the framework for  those lost lines by first taking a brief look at  

the history of public transit in philadelphia the  late 19th century was an incredibly transformative  

time for not only philadelphia but transportation  across the country in the years building up to the  

industrial revolution and at its peak there came  an ever increasing demand for new forms of travel  

philadelphia was no exception transitioning  out of the fixed route ferries that ran between  

philly and camden in 1688 to rail lines that ran  gradually expanding passenger rail throughout  

the height of the 19th century and for those  who were able to afford it the invention of  

the omnibus service that ran from philadelphia  to its immediate suburbs marked a new era of  

efficient travels starting in 1831. commuter  trains were quick to follow their lead  

making their way to the philadelphia germantown  and norristown railroad this new development  

now made it possible for people to work further  outside of the city in places such as east falls  

chestnut hill and montgomery county after  philadelphia was politically consolidated  

in 1854 streetcars were at the forefront of  public transportation bringing the city's  

development to new heights on january the 20th  1858 the frankfurt and southwork philadelphia  

city passenger rail company began operating the  region's very first streetcars these streetcars  

were larger faster and all around able to turn  more profit than their predecessors by servicing  

even more areas and extending the reach of the  transportation network even farther than the  

omnibus had in fact the horse-drawn transportation  system in philadelphia was so efficient for its  

time that the philadelphia encyclopedia states  philadelphia could justly claim one of the finest  

transportation systems in the country by the time  of the nation's centennial exhibition in 1876  

these streetcars were not only major methods  of transportation in philadelphia at the time  

but steam-hauled commuter trains were also on the  rise as previously mentioned these commuter trains  

served the region as a whole and as the name  suggests opened up far more opportunities for  

philadelphians who needed to commute to areas  that were further away it is also important to  

note that it wasn't until 1893 when the three main  rail systems in philadelphia all relocated to the  

center city and made their rail facilities much  more accessible that the commuter train gained  

popularity with the middle class initially most  of these streetcars and railroad companies were  

run by smaller specialized organizations that ran  a small number of routes following the civil war  

the intensely competitive atmosphere between  railroads that ran long distance eventually  

brought about the consolidation that quickly  spread across the nation's railway industry  

this coupled with similar mergers happening in the  streetcar industry led to a total transformation  

instead of multiple rival companies competing the  three main companies the philadelphia attraction  

company people's traction company and the electric  traction company all of which supplied power to  

existing transportation lines merged into the  union traction company in 1895. this new company  

was later absorbed into philadelphia's rapid  transportation company prt in 1902 leading to a  

monopoly on public transportation this monopoly  was held by both prt and two railroad systems  

that you might recognize today the pennsylvania  railroad and the philadelphia and redding they  

collectively provided the vast majority of  passenger transportation throughout the region  

from the jersey shore to harrisburg even so the  philadelphia system was far from done changing  

the late 1800s would see a brief and unsuccessful  attempt to popularize cable cars followed by  

electric trolleys and streetcars in the year 1901  philadelphia finally approved a rapid transit  

ordinance to allow both subway and elevated lines  this ordinance was approved to solve the growing  

transportation crisis of the 1900s this crisis  stemmed from the growing demand for high-speed  

inexpensive mass transportation to support  not only commuting but recreational activities  

such as shopping other new developments most  importantly the rise of the working class wages  

and the lowering of the transportation fair made  the trolleys and subways more accessible than ever  

however there was still an overarching issue  while the subways and trolleys were more  

accessible to the working class than they had  been before the services began to deteriorate  

and strikes became more frequent this led to a  government consensus that public transportation  

from then on would need far more regulation and  planning so now that we have the framework let's  

quickly talk about philadelphia's very first rapid  transit line initially the market street elevated  

line was off to a rocky start the prt had a lot  of trouble fundraising due to lingering debt from  

previous projects but nonetheless construction of  the market street elevated subway line began with  

groundbreaking in 1903. it was carried out in six  phases including the construction of a bridge to  

carry it over the skikkail river construction of  the four-track subway under market street from  

the skikkill river to city hall and construction  of a two-track subway from city hall under market  

street to an outlet at fort and arch street after  the western part of the subway was opened for use  

in 1905 it was greeted with much acclaim as  the first philadelphian rapid transit line  

that was both affordable and fast the city was  eventually given partial oversight of the prt  

and with it partial oversight of the market  street elevated line by the fall of 1908 the  

market street elevated line was fully  operational with extensions for example  

it was able to run from 69th street to delaware  avenue in less than 30 minutes in total including  

road and equipment expenditures the market street  and elevated route came to about 23 million 72  

114 that's around 664 million in 2020. following  the completion of the market street elevated line  

the city would take on a far more prominent  role in rapid transit planning and funding  

until the late 1960s and the market street line  would see extensions and later reconstruction  

in 1913 philadelphia's transit commissioner a  merritt taylor published a map of the planned  

future rapid transit line in a copy of the city  of philadelphia's annual report this plan aptly  

called the teller plan contained many routes  that philadelphians today may recognize such  

as the broad street line bsl in addition to these  routes the map also held taylor's ambitious plans  

for the future including lines that reached  as far as roxboro and overbrook as well as  

extensions to chestnut hill there were also  major branches that taylor planned for such as  

a divide on the north end of the broad street line  that was meant to split off to only and rising sun  

taylor believed that building the full system as  quickly as possible would further spur and support  

development throughout the city philly curb also  noted that at that time the booming population in  

center city was putting considerable strain on  the transportation available at the time due to  

congestion building more subway lines would help  relieve much of the congestion by giving people  

in center city a chance to spread out and move to  the southwest and northern parts of philadelphia  

thanks to the opportunity to commute this also  ensured that those who moved out of center city  

would still have access to the bustling area sadly  a large number of taylor's approved plans failed  

to come to fruition and were set aside after  politicians pushed taylor out of his position  

though they were far from the only thing  that caused his plans to fall into obscurity  

world war one loomed overhead causing construction  costs to increase considerably until it was no  

longer financially feasible to spend such a large  sum of money on multiple subway lines projected  

all at once and yet all these years later many who  know the story lament at just how well these lines  

would have served the city well beyond what we  have today and although these original plans for  

the philadelphia subway system have largely been  lost to time there are many remnants so now let's  

have a look at what's been left behind one of the  best known remnants is the roosevelt boulevard  

subway originally proposed in 1913 this lost  subway is nothing if not resilient titled by some  

as the subway that refuses to die there have been  two attempts to build this subway one of which  

built in 1967 by sears and roebuck costing around  1 million dollars is still rumored to exist  

originally intended to be a massive transit  terminal between center city and northeast  

philadelphia politics and economics both kept  the broad street line from extending far enough  

and the project was sealed off and laid to rest  though the sears building was later imploded some  

have suggested that the subway tunnels still exist  underground if this is true then it is truly one  

of the most striking examples of a ghost subway  line remaining dark and derelict after decades  

another interesting remnant is the lost center  city loop subway located at 1300 arch street  

the original expansion was planned for the broad  street trunk line to turn into a large loop when  

it reached center city it would have made a  large delivery loop that ran by arch street  

8th street and locust street before looping  back around to broad street construction of  

the loop began in the early 1900s and a series of  short tunnels were dug beneath 1300 arch street  

and locust street however these tunnels were  ultimately abandoned after work was halted due  

to a lack of funds now the locust street tunnel is  actually still in use today after it was widened  

but the arch street tunnel remains closed off to  the public and empty the henry avenue bridge was  

completed in 1932 after 20 years of proposals it  is a single span two ribbon arch bridge made of  

reinforced concrete though it has carried vehicle  traffic ever since its opening its purpose now is  

far different from its original intent originally  the henry avenue bridge was built to carry a rapid  

transit line between the road deck that would  connect roxborough and germantown to philadelphia  

even today we still don't know why the rapid  transit line was not constructed its tunnels  

today instead abandoned to time as a shell of what  could have been the darby elevated subway line was  

another line that was never created from the plan  it would have run from darby through center city  

and finally to camden there are also many lost  extensions to the original plans one example being  

the oak lane extension a later addition to the  original subway plan proposed due to the growth of  

the neighborhoods north of logan which are not so  abandoned after all it is now used as a turnaround  

for the ridge spur trains last but not least  there is also the passong spur located between  

the tasker morris and snyder stations if you  take a train towards the stadium on broad street  

you might feel the train make a slight jog to the  right as it pulls out of the tasker morris station  

this light jog is where the passong spur was  meant to branch off from the broadway street  

trunk though it was added as a substitute for the  woodland avenue elevated rail proposed in 1912.  

it met the same fate though it is still visible  today if you look out the window on the right  

side of the southbound train you can see an empty  space just before entering the snyder station this  

empty space is where the inbound track was meant  to join the main stem just after passing under it  

when it comes to philadelphia's transport network  we probably can't expect and shouldn't expect  

the same degree of visions of grandeur that  were once held in the past the subway still  

faces many challenges it was especially hit hard  by the pandemic causing a devastating plummet in  

ridership and even before the pandemic  ridership had been decreasing steadily  

over the past years due to complaints about  late trains cleanliness and safety concerns  

even so a romantic might claim that taylor's  spirit is still within according to greater prt  

mass transit along roosevelt boulevard is  still proposed by septa and other planning  

organizations not only this but the concept of  transforming the chestnut hill western regional  

rail into mass transit that connects the broad  street subway is also discussed here and there  

and in 2018 septa received a federal grant and  planned a subway improvement project worth 37  

million dollars and although that amount probably  won't go too far in the grand scheme of things  

i'd also look at the system from another angle  part of the charisma of philadelphia is its  

urban decay its oldness its spirit i feel  this best in areas that have been neglected  

it might not be comfortable for the residents  i respect and recognize that however if we take  

it as it is i think that it is very much a  part of what makes philadelphia beautiful  

and mysterious and this is just the tip of the  iceberg we also did a video about philadelphia's  

abandoned concourse tunnels so check that out  don't forget to subscribe and join our history  

council if you'd like to have a say in what  video we do next this is ryan socash signing off