Frankford Creek - Sewerization and Diversion

Sewerization and Diversion

Portions of its tributary Wingohocking Creek were converted to sewers between 1905 and 1915.

In 1934, the horseshoe bend between Bridge and Margaret Streets (where the creek formed part of the boundary between the Frankford and Bridesburg neighborhoods) was removed as a new straight channel was cut.

In 1949, the creek's path through Frankford was straightened as two horseshoe bends were removed in the vicinity of the intersection of Wyoming and Castor Avenues. An arch structure, the remains of a bridge carrying Wyoming Avenue over one of the removed bends in the creek, is visible from park level (approximately 15 ft (5m) below Wyoming Ave.). A bridge railing along the sidewalk still exists in this location, across from Eastern Regional Medical Center of Cancer Treatment Centers of America (formerly Parkview Hospital). Downsteam from Castor Avenue, the creek now flows through a concrete culvert.

In 1956 the creek was diverted to meet the Delaware River at a more southerly point, cutting off its natural bed that curved around Bridesburg along the Frankford Arsenal. Part of that bed was filled, but much of the old creek remains, near its original mouth on the Delaware.

Much of Frankford Creek's watershed has been converted to storm sewers, as this map discloses.