Allentown & Bethlehem Rapid Transit

Company History: The A&BRTCo began in 1891 with the electrification of a former horse-car line serving Allentown, Pennsylvania. In 1901, the A&BRTCo was merged with the following traction lines: Allentown & Lehigh Valley Traction Company, Quakertown Traction Company, Inland Traction Company and Montgomery Traction Company in addition to a few smaller lines to create the Philadelphia & Lehigh Valley Traction Company. It was acquired four years later by Lehigh Valley Transit.

Successor/Parent History: The LVT was established in 1905 to take over the Lehigh Valley Traction Company. It ran from the Philadelphia suburbs of Chestnut Hill and Norristown north to Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, Pennsylvania. Originally, Philly bound passengers would transfer to Philadelphia Rapid Transit at Chestnut Hill but the completion of the Norristown branch brought trackage rights on the Philadelphia & Western (a robustly built 3rd rail interurban line) into the city. The LVT was called “The Liberty Bell Route” because this was the route used in 1777 to smuggle the Liberty Bell out of Red Coat-occupied Philadelphia to a church basement in Allentown. LVT’s right-of-way ran the gamut of traction road practices. They ran on high-platform, 3rd rail on the P&W; street trackage and simple trolley wire and street level passenger loading at various towns along the way; and high speed private right-of-way with catenary (for use with trolley poles.) During the Depression, LVT snapped up relatively new cars from defunct lines in the Midwest. These included 13 of Cincinnati & Lake Erie’s 90 mph cars. Freight service was confined to package service in box motors (often coupled to regular passenger trains creating a traction version of a mixed train.) LVT did well to survive past the end of the Second World War but passengers continued to flee to their own automobiles. The last LVT train to make an interurban run across Pennsylvania Dutch country was in 1951. The few remaining streetcar operations ended shortly after.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.