Crowd gathered at railroad, possibly completion of Low Grade. From the New Era, 27 July 1906: Completion of Low Grade: The last spike in the construction of the Pennsylvania low-grade freight line was driven at a point about a mile east of Quarryville. Some 300 to 400 area residents turned out for the exercises that marked the last obstacle to opening the line. At one point during construction contractors had been compelled to blast through nearly 90 feet of solid rock. Work on the line, running from Attlen to Columbia had begun on March 3, 1903. After the last spike was driven, Miss Anna Acheson, daughter of J.R.L. Acheson, one of the assistant superintendents of constrution, broke a bottle of champagne over the rail and proclaimed: "I dedicate this enterprise to the uses of humanity and to the glorification and development of God's chosen county -- the lower end of Lancaster County."
Photograph- Ice jam at foot of Locust Street, Columbia, near coal chutes. Written on back: "Reading Railroad shipped coal to Columbia by train then dumped it in coal chutes where it was put aboard boats and shipped to Baltimore. This is why the Reading Railroad bought the canal, later, from Pennsylvania. It was competition in the coal business."
Photograph- Ice jam at foot of Locust Street, Columbia, near coal chutes. Written on back: "Reading Railroad shipped coal to Columbia by train then dumped it in coal chutes where it was put aboard boats and shipped to Baltimore. This is why the Reading Railroad bought the canal, later, from Pennsylvania. It was competition in the coal business."
Description
Ice jam at foot of Locust Street, Columbia, near coal chutes. Written on back: "Reading Railroad shipped coal to Columbia by train then dumped it in coal chutes where it was put aboard boats and shipped to Baltimore. This is why the Reading Railroad bought the canal, later, from Pennsylvania. It was competition in the coal business."
Driving the last spike on the low grade freight line, possibly the Susquehanna and Atglen. First row left to right: John Strimmel, Anna Atcheson, John Hendrie, Owen Bremmer - blacksmith who made the hammer and spike, George W. Hensel Jr. - hammering last spike, Alex Hendrie, Leander T. Hensel, Samuel Bair, Ezra B. Fritz, J. R. L. Atcheson, Richard Rohrer, Jerry Regan, John Cassidy, Dean Oatman, A. S. Harkness. Second row: Benjamin Cocharan, Barney Myers, Charlie Timanus, Vernon Harkness. Remainder of the group is Italian or African American railroad laborers.
