Ben Franklin Bridge - abandoned/never used trolley line

From a WHYY special... the trolley line planned for use across the Ben Franklin bridge, never actualized. Pretty incredible footage, plus some cool blueprints/schematics showing the original plan. The stations are in the anchoring houses of the bridge!

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Philadelphia
• Lightning
• Bolt
• Abandoned
• Trolley
• Line
• Franklin
• Square
• PATCO
• stop

[linowilly]

it goes from Philly to Camden; so it goes from no where to nowhere right?

[WhollyGhost]

From no where to nowhere to now here.

[njsocagyal]

This video was absolutely fascinating, thank you so much for posting.

[WhollyGhost]

You're very welcome!

[dvd215]

Whats the name of this special

[WhollyGhost]

"Secrets Beneath The Streets"

[dpjaexp]

Nobody 'wanted to ride buses', as this man stated. The fact is, there were forces within Big Auto and Big Oil at that point - chiefly Ford and GM - who didn't want transit to be a part of the equation on bridges like the Ben Franklin. They had allies in government who worked with them to quash the expansion of transit. Then the Great Depression hit and that put paid to many projects. If transit had been incorporated into the span, millions more trips would be made over it, in half the time.

[hop208]

They'll probably have to finish it eventually out of necessity. 

[filbruce1]

somebody sell the space to westfields

[DavisCampbell]

@WhollyGhost cool eh.?

[PmMidnight]

Lavar Burton?

[DoubleDee39]

I THINK IT WOULD BE A GREAT IDEA IF THEY DID FINISH THAT PROJECT!! I BET MANY PEOPLE WOULD RIDE IT, JUST LIKE A SUBWAY! ESPECIALLY WITH THE PRICES OF GAS NOW!

[pigenital]

@dpjaexp It's slightly more complicated, in that clean new buses were replacing dirty old streetcars. So people did want to ride buses, but it was because of the decisions of the transit companies to buy buses rather than streetcars. The PCC streetcars that run on Route 15 were an attempt to stem the tide in the 1930s by designing a modern streetcar.

[MrMuddshovel]

at 3.25 what is that ?

[murcuryvapor]

I love stuff like this. Thanks!

[cfreak99]

wow. very interesting video. Just the schematics from the begining was amazing to see. I so love street-secrets

[masluxx]

volume is way too low i can not hear it