The Lehigh Valley Transit Company ran a trolley between 8th and Hamilton and just outside Philadelphia between 1901 and 1951. In 1913 the company completed the 8th Street Bridge, which remains one of Allentown's icons to this day.
The Liberty Bell functioned as a trolley as it stopped in Coopersburg, Quakertown, Sellersville and the different towns along the way, but approached speeds of eighty miles a hour on the open track between them. At the last station in Upper Darby, passengers could transfer to a different company to complete the ride into center city Philadelphia.
Here in the Valley the company transitioned to buses by the early 1950's, and became part of Lanta in 1972. Lanta and Easton officials might take notice that the Allentown Ticket Office, shown in above photo, is only 75 feet from 8th and Hamilton, which was the center of the business district. The intercity rail beds are pretty much gone now. The same people who now advocate light-rail, couldn't wait to tear up the tracks and make bike paths.
reprinted from May 4, 2010
Light rail... dark rail... heavy rail... yadda, yadda, yadda.... the only result will be the further demise of this once great city and helping to increase real estate and rental prices... something they've been bellyaching about for years... We had all this and they hated it... now they're in love with it. Interestingly, every new rental being built is far away from being affordable and making the city more accessible will only aid increasing prices via increased demand. Check out the rental prices downtown at the new buildings... yikes!!! Me thinks they talk out of both sides of their face.
ReplyDeleteMichael, That Trolley Terminal became Lenny's News Stand (if you remember), and I was the Freeman's Dairy wholesaler, that served Lenny's in the 1970's....The beautiful tile walls alongside the steps were still there going down to the tracks, and rest rooms.... We need to bring back the passenger trains to the ABE area again (Just an old man's wishful thinking I guess)......PJF
ReplyDelete“Everything old, is new again.”
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