Broad Street Station (Philadelphia) - Location and Services

Location and Services

Broad Street Station dominated the center of the city. Trains would enter and exit the station two stories above street level on a viaduct known as the "Chinese Wall" and run west to cross the Schuylkill River. The tracks thus bisected the western half of Center City Philadelphia. Fifteenth Street ran beneath the station's lobby, and the numbered streets up to 24th ran beneath the viaduct. John F. Kennedy Boulevard traces a similar path today.

The station was renowned for its architecture but cursed for inundating the heart of the city with the smoke and noise of the day's steam locomotives. The Chinese Wall also made Center City north of the station unfashionable, as the area was cut off from the rest of downtown. Passengers arriving at Broad Street Station could make connections to the rest of the city via the numerous trolley lines on Market Street and 15th Street, or via Philadelphia's east-west Market-Frankford Subway-Elevated Line (beginning in 1907) or the north-south Broad Street Subway starting in 1928. The latter two were heavy rail lines that crossed under City Hall.

The Station had service to virtually every destination served by the PRR. From Broad Street Station, passengers would first arrive at West Philadelphia Station at 32nd and Market Streets on the west side of the Schuylkill, which in 1933 was replaced by 30th Street Station. The lines then split in three directions:

• Trains heading west toward Harrisburg would take the PRR line to 40th Street Station, 52nd Street Station, and Overbrook Station. Trains heading northwest along the Schuylkill would split from this line after 52nd Street toward the stations at Wynnefield Avenue and Cynwyd.
• Trains heading north toward New York City or east across the Delaware River to New Jersey would take the New York Division lines through North Philadelphia, North Penn Junction, and Frankford Junction Stations, before splitting off.
• Trains heading south would take the Baltimore & Washington RR Central Division line through Angora station.

Today all these railroad lines, except for the one between 30th Street and Broad Street stations, remain intact as part of SEPTA or NJ Transit rail services.