(The following story by Howard V. Worley Jr. appeared on the Tribune-Review website on May 23.)
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — One hundred years ago, on Tuesday, June 1, 1904, a creaky, old wooden railroad passenger car, pushed by a veteran coal-burning steam locomotive, slowly crossed the Monongahela River bridge to a Flatiron-shaped depot connecting a new railroad to Pittsburgh.
It signaled the end of a four-year struggle for the railroad to reach the city. Not only did this epic story end in Pittsburgh, it began there as well.
The railroad was the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway, “Wabash” as it was locally known, and was the brainchild of Pittsburgher Joseph Ramsey Jr. He was born in South Side’s Birmingham district on April 17, 1850, one of nine children, three of whom would choose railroading for their life’s work. After completing his education at Western Pennsylvania University in 1869, he started his railroading career as a survey crew rod man with the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad. Through the following years, Ramsey moved from railroad to railroad, rising up the ladder of responsibility from chief engineer to assistant manager, then manager, and finally vice president of the Wabash Railroad in the late 1890s.
The chairman of the board of the Wabash Railroad was millionaire George Jay Gould, who was following in the footsteps of his late father, Jay, attempting to expand his existing 15,000-mile railroad system into new territory. Gould’s one dream was to have his railroad line connect from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast. He possessed the necessary wealth to fund the project, and had widespread political power to deal with any opposition. When he found Joseph Ramsey, he knew he had the right man to complete the task.
Ramsey had his own ideas about railroad expansion, specifically, connecting his hometown to the major east and west traffic centers of Chicago and Baltimore. His plan would attempt to realize that dream and fulfill Gould’s as well.
Ramsey quickly set about examining railroad maps that connected to western Pennsylvania in general and Pittsburgh in particular. His interest centered on Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland. He quickly drafted a line from Baltimore through Hagerstown, Md., then northward through West Virginia, entering Pennsylvania in Greene County. From the west Ramsey’s pencil drew a line from Hopedale in Harrison County, Ohio, crossing the Ohio River at Mingo Junction, and traveling east through the panhandle of West Virginia, then into Washington County, Pa., finally arriving at the Pittsburgh suburb of Green Tree.
It was this western link that captured Ramsey’s attention, it being only 60 miles from Pittsburgh and very close to the main line of the rickety old coal-hauling Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad. On his next trip to Pittsburgh, Ramsey met with his cousin, James Patterson, a noted Pittsburgh civil engineer, to discuss the possibilities of building a railroad from eastern Ohio to Pittsburgh. Together, they set out to survey the route from west of the city, on down through Washington County and Brooke County, W.Va. After crossing the Ohio River near Follansbee, the proposed route traveled across Jefferson County, Ohio, finally connecting to the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad main line near their Rexford Summit station, just west of Hopedale, Ohio.
The feasibility of this route established, Ramsey and Patterson turned their attention to the actual entrance into downtown Pittsburgh. Their daring solution to the problem was to bore a tunnel through the rocky, rugged Mt. Washington escarpment. After crossing the Mon River by bridge, locations for a new passenger station, train shed and freight warehouse facilities were planned along Ferry Street and Liberty Avenue. Long-range plans called for track to continue on, crossing Duquesne Way, the Allegheny River by bridge, and finally connecting with the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh rail line in Allegheny City.
With surveys in hand, Ramsey sat down with George Gould to discuss the project. Gould was enthusiastic and immediately purchased stock control of the Wheeling & Lake Erie rail line, securing a connecting link to the west.
Ramsey meanwhile met with Andrew Carnegie, who previously expressed interest in seeing a new east-to-west railroad built to ship his steel mill products. He struck a deal with Ramsey to deliver 25 percent of all his outbound freight tonnage to the proposed new Wabash railroad. Shaking hands with Carnegie, Ramsey left on the night train to give Gould the good news.
Upon his return to Pittsburgh, Ramsey, along with Patterson and other company agents, set about searching property records and buying up all the necessary land needed to build the railroad. Under the guise of the Pittsburgh & Mansfield Streetcar Co., Ramsey had his college chum, John Dalzell, a U.S. congressman from Pittsburgh, sponsor a bill to reactivate permission for a bridge to be built over the Monongahela River. In a hurry to close the legislative session, the measure was passed without objection. No one noticed in the fine print that the president of the Pittsburgh & Mansfield was Wabash Railroad Vice President and General Manager Joseph Ramsey.
On April 23, 1900, grading work started along a five-mile stretch of rights of way east of Follansbee, W.Va. A syndicate to finance the new railroad was formed the following February with $20 million being subscribed.
At that point, the parties opposed to the new railroad took up their battle positions.
Lined up against the Gould system were the Pennsylvania Railroad and its chief executive, Andrew Cassatt, along with common-interest ally New York Central Railroad, which was headed by the Vanderbilt family. At stake were the freight shipments that placed Pittsburgh first of any city in the world, even greater than the cities of New York, Philadelphia and Chicago combined.
In order to enter the downtown area of the city, the Wabash required an enabling ordinance to cross over city streets. The appropriate paperwork was filed, but Pittsburgh city council failed to act on the measure.
A closer investigation of the matter revealed that opposing forces, specifically the Pennsylvania Railroad, were exerting political pressure on city government to kill such legislation and keep the Wabash out.
Time passed with no movement on the ordinance and Ramsey decided to make a bold move. He awarded construction contracts for the Monongahela River bridge, Mt. Washington tunnel and track work as far as Carnegie. This brought an immediate legal challenge from Pittsburgh city officials. After hearing arguments, Judge Samuel McClung ruled that the Wabash was within its legal rights and ruled in its favor.
Work on the new Wabash rail project continued, extending west through Washington County, meeting with the contractors coming east from West Virginia. Still, there was no progress on the enabling ordinance. Weeks turned into months and one year went by, still no council action. Only after public opinion was aroused, and a council election was nearing, did the legislation finally pass. Almost two years had gone by since the original request was submitted. The date was Feb. 2, 1903.
With ordinance in hand and the advent of spring weather, contractors picked up the work pace, especially at the new Pittsburgh depot and the Monongahela and Ohio River bridges. The new freight marshaling yards at Green Tree saw work gangs of Swedes and Italians working shoulder-to-shoulder on track construction, yard facilities, and station buildings.
By late spring of 1904 all was in readiness and on June 1, 1904, the first Wabash train, with Ramsey and his associates on board, crossed the Mon River to the new depot.
At long last, the Wabash Railroad system was connected to Pittsburgh.
On Saturday, July 2, 1904, the first Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal train left for St. Louis with local politicians, dignitaries and officials on board. The following day the first regularly scheduled train departed the Wabash Depot with Miss Carrie Eiler as the only passenger. It was a preview of the hard times to come. The same elements that fought to keep the Wabash out of Pittsburgh now did everything in their power to prevent the new railroad from getting any freight business. Andrew Carnegie had sold his steel business to J.P. Morgan, who immediately voided the tonnage contract with Gould.
With little or no freight business and scant passenger service, the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal struggled through the next several years, finally falling into receivership after the financial panic of 1907. Intense legal action followed with more lawsuits and countersuits. Court-appointed receivers came and went. Litigation dragged on. Finally, in late November 1916, the railroad was reorganized by the first mortgage bond holders and in early 1917 became the Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway.
Ramsey did not live to see his Wabash dream die. He passed away in July 1916.
In 1948, the Mon River bridge was scrapped, its steel recast into the W.D. Mansfield Bridge at Dravosburg. Demolition on the Wabash Building, as it was later known, was completed in 1954, and the new Gateway Building 4 erected on that site.
Looking out across the Mon River from Fort Pitt Boulevard you can see the two blackened stone bridge piers standing as silent monuments, and on the face of Mt. Washington the Wabash Tunnel portal.