This photo shows the excavation of the Market Street tunnel at 36th Street. Tunnel digging had harmful effects for the surrounding blocks, in this case a majority-African American neighborhood known locally as the Black Bottom.
This 1939 aerial photo shows the relationship of the Market Street Bridge and the El between the U.S. Post Office (left) and 30th Street Station (right). Trolley tracks can be seen on the bridge.
This photo shows the El near 32nd Street on the eve of renewed tunneling of the West Philadelphia integrated rapid transit and subway system, which had been halted during the Great Depression and Second World War.
The frame of a historic Woodland Avenue trolley marks the entrance to the SEPTA station at 37th and Spruce streets. The trolley was manufactured by the J.G. Brill Company. The station itself is some 40 feet below ground. Across Spruce is the Memorial Gate of Penn’s Upper Quad college houses.
During the Second War World, the athletic venue once called Passon Field was deployed as Victory Gardens. The view is east toward 48th Street, with the Tudor Gothic towers of West Philadelphia High School shown at upper left.
