Past to Present - Part 2 7/29/21
This blog entry is a continuation of Part 1 7/19/21
The Lower Rail-Trail, on which we frequently bike ride, is built on 17 miles of the rail bed of the former Petersburg and Williamsburg Branches of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which run along the edge of the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River. The remains of structures from both the earlier Penn Canal era (e.g., lock walls, concave channels, stone house walls) and the subsequent railroad era (e.g., concrete abutments, contours of sidings, bridges) can be seen as one rides Lower. Williamsburg and Alexandria, which are essentially at opposite ends of Lower Rail-Trail, each had significant ties with both the Penn Canal anal the railroadlnes that replace it. The early 1870s appears to have been a transition points between the canal and rail eras for Williamsburg; thirty years later Alexandria had a similar transition. The 1870 census shows Williamsburg and Alexandria had populations of 800 and 300, respectively. (Today, Williamsburg has 1,100 residents; Alexandria is about the same size).
The photo immediately above shows the Juniata River and the Penn Canal side-by-side in 1870 from the east side of Alexandria, with the canal on the right running through the town. The river level is much higher and wider in this photo than it is today due to locks and dams. The three-section covered bridge over the river no longer exists - a single two-lane 50 ft span is sufficient today given the lower water level. In fact, today there are no visible signs of a concave canal channel in Alexandria, yet the 1873 map below clearly shows the Penn Canal running from the northwest to the southeast through the town and looping toward the northeast.
The route taken by the Peterburg Branch of the PRR through Alexandria between 1900 and 1979 appears to be the route of the former canal canal. That is, the canal appears to have been filled-in in building the rail bed, the contours of which are evidence in Alexandria, today.
A map below of Williamsburg, also form 1873, shows a rail line and canal adjacent to each other for about 100 yards in the north east area of the town along the southern bank of the Juniata. In that year, Williamsburg appears to have been a transition point for goods between the canal that was engineered into and along the Juniata and the recently completed "Williamsburg Branch" of the PRR that extended west-ward to Hollidaysburg. (1870 was about that time that the rail branch replaced an original Penn Canal segment between Williamsburg and Hollidaysburg.)
In Williamsburg today there is no clear structural or ground contour evidence of the canal, and where the path of the Lower Rail-Trail deviates from the path of the railroad (i.e., in the community park), Nor is there evidence of the railroad-canal transition area as shown on the 1873 map, above. I note on that map below what exists in the area today: a) in blue, the path of Lower Rail-Trail, and b) in red, the trail access point at mile post 11 (e.g., parking lot, picnic pavilion, bike rack); a convenience store adjacent to where the canal is shown to have ended on the map; and a large community park with a war memorial, pavilions, play grounds, sports fields, and parking in the area further west through the middle of which the railroad ran until 1979. Prior 1873 - before the Williamsburg Branch of the PRR was completed - the canal would have extended west through the middle of what is now the community park and onto Hollidaysburg.
The following are photos of these areas were taken last month - of the Lower Trail Access at mile post 11 and of the community park, both looking west.
Based on photos, maps and info from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission online archives <https://www.phmc.pa.gov/Archives/Research-Online/Pages/default.aspx> and from Wikipedia: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamsburg,_Pennsylvania>, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Canal> and <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegheny_Portage_Railroad>.
