South Side Flats in Pittsburgh in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)

Panhandle Railroad

Three Rivers Heritage Trail

Photographed by Bernard Fisher, May 30, 2021

1. Panhandle Railroad Marker

Inscription. Packhorses, rivers and the Pennsylvania Canal were Pittsburgh's transportation system until the years before the Civil War. Railroads offered inexpensive routes and year-round service to compete with the ice jams, floods, and costly repairs that closed the canal for weeks at a time. The Panhandle Railroad, named for the West Virginia Panhandle through which it passed, was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system.

In 1864, while the Civil War raged in the South, the Panhandle Railroad blasted a "Great Tunnel" under Pittsburgh near the Old Pennsylvania Canal tunnel. Trains traveled beneath the Courthouse through this tunnel to Union Station on Liberty Avenue.

The Panhandle Railroad extended more than a thousand miles into the American mid-west to Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis. In the 1920s, 50 freight trains passed daily through Pittsburgh on this line. To carry larger and heavier locomotives, the railroad regularly upgraded bridges and abutments. In 1903, the original bridge over the Monongahela River was replaced to meet these new load requirements.

Increasing railroad traffic across downtown streets caused many fatal accidents. These railroad crossings became so dangerous that the railroads had to eliminate them, and in 1911, the level of the Panhandle Bridge was raised to span above First and Second Avenues.

Still

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a key entrance into the city, the Panhandle Bridge today carries the Port Authority's light-rail transit system from the South Hills.

(captions)
Fares and destinations from Pittsburgh in 1835
Pennsylvania Railroad locomotive
The Panhandle Railroad crossed the river and then plunged through a tunnel under Grant Street. Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania

Erected by Friends of the Riverfront, DCNR, Steel Industry Heritage Corporation, City of Pittsburgh, PHMC.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Railroads & Streetcars.

Location. 40° 25.902′ N, 79° 59.291′ W. Marker is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in Allegheny County. It is in the South Side Flats. It is on Three Rivers Heritage Trail 0.4 miles east of South 4th Street, on the left when traveling east. Not accessible by motorized vehicle. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Pittsburgh PA 15203, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in the American Northeast, in the Mid-Atlantic, in the Ohio River Valley, in Appalachia, and specifically in Northern Appalachia. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Viceroyalty of New France, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, and one of the original Thirteen Colonies.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Pittsburgh Glass (here, next to this marker); Pennsylvania Canal in Pittsburgh (here, next to this marker); Oliver Iron and Steel (approx. 0.2 miles away); Bedford School (approx. 0.2 miles away); South Side Market House

Three Rivers Heritage Trail image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Bernard Fisher, May 30, 2021

2. Three Rivers Heritage Trail

(approx. 0.2 miles away); Seventeenth Ward World War Memorial (approx. 0.2 miles away); South Side High School (approx. ¼ mile away); First Associated Reformed Church of Birmingham (approx. ¼ mile away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Pittsburgh.

Also see . . . Friends of the Riverfront. (Submitted on June 1, 2021.)

Credits. This page was last revised on February 2, 2023. It was originally submitted on June 1, 2021, by Bernard Fisher of Richmond, Virginia. This page has been viewed 777 times since then and 23 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on June 1, 2021, by Bernard Fisher of Richmond, Virginia.