. The street railway review . ^U^WAr A McKEESPORT ROAD. Electricity Surmounts the DifBculties of Grades and Curves.—Doinga Steam Road Business—Mail, Freight and Express. The peculiar topography of that part of Alleghenycounty (Pennsylvania), near Wilmerding, caused that cityand the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad to beseparated from McKeesport with its two navigable rivers,its four trunk lines of railroads, its large industries and40,000 population, by an elevation less than two miles bya direct line, but 1,200 feet high, and the contours ofwhich proved for years an insurmountable obsta
. The street railway review . ^U^WAr A McKEESPORT ROAD. Electricity Surmounts the DifBculties of Grades and Curves.—Doinga Steam Road Business—Mail, Freight and Express. The peculiar topography of that part of Alleghenycounty (Pennsylvania), near Wilmerding, caused that cityand the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad to beseparated from McKeesport with its two navigable rivers,its four trunk lines of railroads, its large industries and40,000 population, by an elevation less than two miles bya direct line, but 1,200 feet high, and the contours ofwhich proved for years an insurmountable obstacle toskillful engineers who, fully appreciating the importanceof the narrow link, endeavored to discover a grade whichwould permit a steam road to be run from the main lineof the Pennsylvania railroad to McKeesport. This was before electric traction had been so fully ex-ploited and before engineers knew that the electric carscould climb a POWER AND CAR HOUSE. Engineers made many surveys, and plans coveringalmost every inch of the intervening ground and eventhe complete details of a tunnel had been prepared whichwas to pierce this troublesome eminence, and to cement,in an intimate commercial union, the large interests ofthe two sections, that were so near yet seemingly so far. Readers of the Review will no doubt remember thatthe early numbers of 1892 chronicled the organization ofthe McKeesport & Wilmerding Railway Company forpurpose of constructing an electric road over this ridgeto connect the two places. The enterprise was viewedwith much suspicion. While all admitted what an import-ant profitable link such a railroad would be, if finished,the majority doubted that it could be successfully oper-ated. Taylor, Romine & Scott, of McKeesport, Pa., werethe engineers of the road, and worked industriously foralmost one year surveying the ground and locating theroad at the shortest possible distance and with the easi
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Keywords: ., book, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectstreetrailroads
