Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
Philadelphia circa 1905. "Pennsylvania Railroad ferry terminal, Market Street." There's a lot going on in this bustling street scene. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
The man working on the electric lines to the right has used an extension ladder, and if you look closely you can see he has used the rope that raises the extension to tie the lower part of the ladder to the wood pole. Today he would be in a "giraffe" truck, and the area would be marked out with traffic cones, and no doubt there would be a flagger or two.
The Pennsylvania RR electric trains to Millville from the other end of this ferry line also had a branch from Newfield via Mays Landing to the Tennessee Avenue station in Atlantic City. Electricity was replaced by steam and internal combustion due to the Depression. Give Shorpy time and he'll find a photo of the Electric Train wreck on the Beach Thorofare drawbridge in 1906.
I am unaware of any PRR electric trains that served Atlantic City. The only electrified line the PRR ran from it's its Camden terminal in New Jersey went south to Millville, in Cumberland County.
This was one of the busiest places in Philadelphia, where thousands of people took the ferry to Camden. Some to work in places like Campbell Soup and The Victor Talking Machine Co. Others rushed into trains to Atlantic City and suburban towns. Note the sign showing the brand-new electric trains. A few years later, the Market Street Subway came out of the ground onto an elevated right down along the waterfront. When bigger trolleys arrived a few years later, the tracks were cut back to a loop on top of that hill.
This is a beautiful shot of life just as the gasoline engine was changing the world. Electric streetcars, an electric delivery truck (?) and a sign advertising electric trains with horse drawn wagons as a counterpoint. Three years in the future the Model T is introduced and America got wheels.
I don't think I've seen something like this before, where a complete streetcar loop's laid out right in the middle of a street. Usually it's track laid around a block or a loop like that in a lot off the side of the road.
Complete with windshields for the conductor and a cowcatcher net to save errant pedestrians from a horrible death -- pretty cutting edge in 1905.
Living near Worcester, Mass., I was interested in the sign for Worcester Salt. Interestingly, while there is no connection to Worcester, one of Worcester Salt's three factories was located in Ecorse, Michigan, a place I'd only JUST heard of in the previous Shorpy photo. God, I love this place!
I'm going out to buy an 8x10 view camera.
A very tough dangerous job back then. No bucket truck for you.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5