Newkirk Viaduct Monument

The monument commemorates the 1838 completion of the Newkirk Viaduct, also called the Gray's Ferry Bridge, over the Schuylkill River. The bridge completed the first direct rail line between Philadelphia and Baltimore, Maryland — tracks that closely paralleled the King's Highway, the main land route to the southern states.

On Aug. 14, 1838, the PW&B board of directors decided to name the bridge after company president Matthew Newkirk (1794-1868), a Philadelphia business and civic leader, and to commission a monument at its west end. (Earlier in the year, the company gave Newkirk a silver plate worth $1,000 ($24,009 today[3]) to reward him for arranging the merger of four railroads that together built the Philadelphia-Baltimore line.)[4]

Designed by Thomas Ustick Walter,[5] who would go on to design the dome of the U.S. Capitol, the white marble monument consists of seven pieces of carved stone held together simply by weight and friction — not reinforced, for example, with metal pins. The uppermost piece, a 7-foot obelisk, weighs about 6,000 pounds, while the 5-foot base and other pieces weigh a rough total of 12,000 pounds.[2] The obelisk and base are inscribed with the names of 51 men,[6] including senior officials of the four railroads and various employees who helped build the bridge and rail line.[7][8]

The monument was installed along the western approach to the bridge and surrounded by a low iron fence.[7] An 1895 account describes its location as "on a high bank in the angle formed by the junction of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad and the Chester Branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway just below the western end of the Gray's Ferry Bridge."[9] It sat about 700 feet from the Schuylkill River, at 39.93975 north latitude, 75.20830 west longitude.[10]

In 1872, the PW&B built a new mainline west of the Viaduct, and leased its old line to the Reading Railroad, which expanded the old track to a small railyard.[1] In 1900, an article about the Viaduct's replacement noted the monument, and said, "On account of its inaccessibility and the dense foliage, it is scarcely ever seen."[11]

Some decades later, the monument was moved to a spot along the new 1872 mainline. The reason for and date of the move is unknown. In 1939, the Delaware County Daily Times reported that the monument had been moved in late 1917 to make way for the Hog Island Railroad, and that three of Newkirk's daughters had been asked their permission for the move.[12] But a 1927 aerial photo shows it still in its original location.[13]

The monument was placed at 39.939492 north latitude, 75.210633 west longitude,[10] on the site of the demolished Gray's Ferry Station, just northeast of the 49th Street Bridge.[1]

For more than eight decades, it sat all but abandoned, in disrepair, and nearly forgotten, though it was visible to passengers traveling Amtrak's Northeast Corridor or SEPTA Regional Rail trains on the Airport Line and the Wilmington/Newark Line.[8]

As transcribed by Wilson, the four sides of the monument and its base are inscribed as follows:[9]

Wilson's transcription contains several errors; for example, it misspells the last names of Henry Hazlehurst and Edward Tatnall.[14]

• "Newkirk Monument," Schuylkill Banks Development Corporation, May 5, 2017.
• Kelly, Sara (2002-05-01). "I Wanna Know". Philadelphia Weekly. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
• Maule, Bradley (March 13, 2013). "Wrong Side Of The Tracks: Newkirk Viaduct Monument In Photos". Hidden City Philadelphia. Retrieved March 15, 2013.
• Spivak, Joel. "Newkirk Viaduct Monument". Society for Industrial Archaeology Car Barn Tours. phillytrolley.org. Retrieved 2009-06-06.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Newkirk Viaduct Monument.