John A. Poor

John Alfred Poor (January 8, 1808 – September 6, 1871) was an American lawyer, editor, and entrepreneur best remembered for his association with the Grand Trunk Railway and his role in developing the railroad system in Maine. He was the older brother of Henry Varnum Poor of Standard & Poor's, who was his partner in some business ventures. John Poor was an articulate man standing 6 feet, two inches (1.9 m) tall and weighing over 250 pounds (110 kg). He learned the geography and commerce of northern New England during travels as a young man; and developed an early appreciation for the potential of railroads. His commanding presence was enhanced by early speaking experience as a teacher and attorney. He had a unique ability to assemble the necessary resources to build early railroads, although he left the routine work of operations to others.
Early life.
John Poor was born in Andover, Maine to Dr. Silvanus Poor and Mary (Merrill) Poor. He became a school teacher at Bethel, Maine before undertaking the study of law. He was admitted to the Maine Bar in 1834 and established a law practice in Bangor, Maine with his brother Henry Varnum Poor. John Poor was inspired by his first viewing of a steam locomotive on the Boston and Worcester Railroad in 1834.
Railroads.
John Poor promoted the concept of a railroad from Montreal to Portland, Maine. Montreal would gain access to an ice-free seaport while the Saint Lawrence River was frozen; and Portland would gain commercial opportunities from the transfer of Canadian exports in its harbor. Portland writer, critic, and investor, John Neal wrote of the necessity "to drive Boston out of the business and secure [a] monopoly." Poor's vision was realized when Portland became the winter seaport of the transcontinental Grand Trunk Railway.
The Montreal Board of Trade weighed the benefits of rail connection to Portland or Boston. Portland was 100 miles closer to Montreal and Portland was a half day closer to European ports; but Portland's population of 16,000 could hardly offer the financial support for railroad construction promised by Boston businessmen. As Boston representatives presented their case, John Poor made a legendary 300-mile (500-km) trip through the White Mountains during a February blizzard. Poor left Portland shortly after midnight February 5, 1845, but the wind driven snow made it very difficult to follow the road. His sleigh covered only 7.5 miles (12.5 km) to Falmouth, Maine in three hours. After breakfast at Leach's Tavern, he traveled 40 miles (65 km), and had frostbite on his nose and one ear by the time he reached South Paris, Maine at nightfall. He traveled to his home town of Andover on February 6, after obtaining help from residents of Rumford, Maine to break a path through snowdrifts higher than a horse's back. He then traveled another 40 miles (65 km) to reach Colebrook, New Hampshire, at midnight. Colebrook residents helped Poor carry his sleigh and lead the horses through Dixville Notch where howling winds formed a 20-foot snowdrift. Poor rested in Sherbrooke, Quebec before venturing forth through unbroken snow 18 inches (46 cm) deep in temperatures of -18 °F (-27 °C) and crossed the ice-covered Saint Lawrence river at dawn on February 9. After resting 3 hours in his Montreal hotel room, Poor addressed the Montreal Board of Trade as they considered a resolution in support of the railway to Boston. Poor convinced the Canadians to delay support of the railway to Boston, and subsequent debate resulted in approval of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad to Portland. Poor had frostbitten feet and developed pneumonia upon his return to Portland that spring.
In 1846, Poor turned his attention to building locomotives for Portland's railway. After discussions with Norris Locomotive Works Poor organized, and became first president of, the Portland Company on August 8, 1846. Portland Company's locomotive erecting shops opened for business in October 1847.
In 1849, John Poor purchased the "American Railroad Journal", and his brother Henry Varnum Poor became manager and editor. Standard & Poor's traces its history back to this publication.
John Poor began promoting a railway from Portland to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1850. He became a director of the European and North American Railway in 1867. The railway was completed a month after his death in 1871. He was president of the York and Cumberland Railroad in 1851, and president of the Penobscot and Kennebec Railroad in 1852. He died at his home in Portland, Maine, on September 6, 1871. He was president of the Portland, Rutland, Oswego and Chicago Railroad at the time. His ambitious vision for Portland's rail connection with Chicago was never realized, but his European and North American Railway became the eastern end of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway.
Legacy.
The City of Portland passed the following resolutions in 1871 in respect to the memory of John A. Poor:
The Liberty ship "SS John A. Poor" was named for him.


Georgia Florida and Alabama Railroad

The Georgia, Florida and Alabama Railroad (the G.F. & A.), known as the Sumatra Leaf Route, and colloquially as the Gopher, Frog & Alligator was a -long railroad from Richland, Georgia to Carrabelle, Florida. It was founded in 1895 as a logging railroad, the Georgia Pine Railway.
The northern and southern ends of the railroad have been abandoned, but the section from Cuthbert, Georgia, to Tallahassee, Florida, remains in use by various railroads.
History.
Hannibal Kimball promoted the Bainbridge, Cuthbert and Columbus Railroad to run north-to-south through southwest Georgia in 1869. Although work began on construction in 1870, it was never completed, and in 1872 the project was abandoned amidst financial problems and bond endorsement issues that stirred allegations of impropriety against Kimball. During the 1880s, attempts were made to revive the railroad, with some activity taking place in the middle of that decade, but this too came to nothing.
Finally, in 1895 local entrepreneur J. D. Williams laid rails on part of the route creating the Georgia Pine Railroad connecting Bainbridge to Arlington. By 1898, the railroad was renamed the Georgia Florida and Alabama Railroad and by 1901, it had been extended north to Richland. In 1902, the G.F. & A. completed the section from Tallahassee to Bainbridge.
The G.F.& A. was leased to the Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1927. The Seaboard went into receivership at the end of 1930, and the lease was revoked in 1931. The Seaboard was reformed after receiving government loans, and it agreed to operate, but not lease the G.F. & A. In 1944, the court that was overseeing the Seaboard's receivership authorized the company to purchase 90% of the G.F. & A.'s bonds.
Seaboard became part of CSX Transportation in 1980. In 1983, the former G.F. & A. line was sold off to the South Carolina Central Railroad, and in 1989 it became part of the Georgia Southwestern Railroad. In 1997, the portion of the G.F. & A. route from Richland south to Cuthbert was abandoned, and in 2002 the Georgia Department of Transportation acquired the remaining Cuthbert to Bainbridge section. The Georgia Southwestern remains the operator of the line.
Route.
The northern terminus of the line was at Richland, where it met the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway and the Columbus Southern Railway. It ran almost due south through Cuthbert and Edison to reach Arlington, where it crossed the Central of Georgia Railway. It continued through Colquitt and Bainbridge before crossing the Flint river and entering Florida. It continued through Sopchoppy and Tallahassee and on to its southern terminus in Carrabelle on the Florida Gulf Coast.
Today.
The Cuthbert-Bainbridge segment is now owned by the Georgia Department of Transportation and operated by the Georgia Southwestern Railroad.
The segment from Bainbridge to Attapulgus, Georgia, is owned by CSX.
The Attapulgus-Tallahassee segment is owned by the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad.
A 2.4-mile part of the abandoned Tallahassee-Carrabelle segment of the GF&A is now the Tallahassee-Georgia Florida and Alabama (GF&A) Trail in the Apalachicola National Forest. Research work on the rail-to-trail project was done by Genesis Group.


J. Wesley Gephart

John Wesley Gephart (May 25, 1853 – February 14, 1905) was a Bellefonte, Pennsylvania lawyer and industrialist. Educated in Bellefonte and at Princeton University, Gephart's diligence and intelligence were already marked when he was admitted to the bar at the end of 1876 and joined the Bellefonte law practice of James A. Beaver in 1877. He took a prominent part in the civic and moral life of the town, and enjoyed a reputation as a skillful lawyer and charismatic orator. In 1891, he became president of the newly organized Valentine Iron Company, and thereafter became increasingly devoted to furthering industry and commerce in his home town. He laid aside his legal practice in 1893, after becoming the superintendent of the new Central Railroad of Pennsylvania, to become a full-time industrialist.
His energies were primarily directed towards the promotion of the iron industry in Bellefonte, and the development of railroads to serve it, although he was also an active participant in Bellefonte's civic life, especially the YMCA. He more than once clashed with the Pennsylvania Railroad, which had previously enjoyed a monopoly on rail service to Bellefonte. Gephart proved highly successful in attracting outside capital to Bellefonte-area enterprises. At the peak of his fortunes, he supervised the town's two major blast furnaces, the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania, many of the iron ore banks in the Nittany Valley, and additional mines and quarries that fed the furnaces. However, competition with steel mills proved insurmountable for these businesses, and most were either dismantled or moribund within a decade after his death in 1905.
Early life and legal practice.
"Wes" Gephart, as he was known to his contemporaries, was born in Millheim, Pennsylvania, a town in Penns Valley. His parents were John P. Gephart, a well-to-do local farmer, and Mary (Swartz) Gephart. He was educated at the Bellefonte Academy and Princeton University. Gephart paid his way through college in part by working as a printer, having learned the trade at the "Bellefonte Watchman" in his youth. He graduated from Princeton with honors in 1874, and was named a Boudinot fellow in history.
Gephart returned to Bellefonte to study law under James A. Beaver, and was admitted to the bar on December 13, 1876. A contemporary newspaper account praised his diligence and "retentive memory." On January 7, 1877, he joined Beaver's law practice, thereafter conducted under the name of Beaver and Gephart. John M. Dale joined the partnership ten years later, around the time of Beaver's election as governor. Gephart enjoyed an excellent income from his law practice, and was highly regarded as a lawyer and orator. He took part in the local civic life as an officer of the Centennial Temperance Club, and as a member of the local Presbyterian church, where he was Sunday school superintendent. Gephart married Ella M. Hays on October 23, 1879 in Bellefonte. They had three children: Wallace Hays, William Wilson, and Elizabeth.
In 1884, he reported himself to be a "Conservative Democrat," but unlike his law partner, Beaver, did not aspire to political office. Gephart also declared himself in favor of a tariff "adjusted so as to protect and encourage industries needing it, but not to foster monopolies." The twin themes of encouraging industry and antipathy to monopoly would color much of his later career. His support for a protective tariff led him to publicly break with the Democratic Party in 1888 and endorse Benjamin Harrison's candidacy for president, much to the discomfiture of Centre County Democrats. In 1889, Governor Beaver appointed Gephart one of the Commonwealth's commissioners to the Exposition Universelle.
Valentine Iron and the Central Railroad.
Gephart began his career as a Bellefonte industrialist at the end of 1890. The Centre Iron Company, operators of Valentine Furnace, went bankrupt and was sold under foreclosure in November 1890. Gephart was named president of the Valentine Iron Company, which was chartered January 23, 1891, to take over Centre Iron's property on behalf of the bondholders and re-open Valentine Furnace. Valentine Iron also leased the Nittany Valley Railroad, which carried ore from Taylor Bank to the Furnace. Gephart became the railroad's general manager. The new iron company soon became enmeshed in a dispute with the Pennsylvania Railroad over the high freight rates on traffic to and from the furnace. The only railroad outlet for the furnace was the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad, which had been leased by the PRR since the Civil War. This monopoly allowed the PRR to set freight rates to and from the furnace at its pleasure, and the rates it imposed on Valentine Iron were significantly higher than those charged to Centre Iron, its predecessor. The high rates threatened to make the furnace economically uncompetitive, and Valentine Iron began lobbying the PRR for relief. Gephart had become a director of the Bald Eagle Valley in about 1890, perhaps to strengthen his negotiating position.
After eighteen months of negotiations failed to yield a satisfactory result, Gephart was able to persuade Valentine Iron's main stockholders to adopt a new plan to save the company. In February 1893, they agreed to help finance a competing railroad into Bellefonte to carry their iron traffic. Gephart and his backers chose to take over the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania, which had a charter from Mill Hall to Bellefonte but which had only managed to complete of grading at the Mill Hall end. Gephart arranged for the issue and sale of $600,000 in fifteen-year bonds of the railroad to Drexel and Company to finance its completion, and he was named superintendent of the railroad in June 1893. Under his direction, construction work resumed in July 1893, and the line was completed to Bellefonte. It crossed the Nittany Valley Railroad in what is now the suburb of Park View Heights, established an interchange, and began to operate the Nittany Valley under a five-year lease. In November 1893, Gephart resigned from his law practice to devote his full attention to Valentine Iron and the success of the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania. The railroad ran its first freight train on December 6, followed by its first passenger train on December 18. The Bellefonte Board of Trade celebrated the opening of the railroad with a lavish banquet at the Bush House in Bellefonte on December 22. Attendees included not only local businessmen and officials of the Central Railroad, but officials from nearby railroads such as the Reading, the Beech Creek, the Williamsport and North Branch Railroad and the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway; E.T. Stotesbury, of Drexel & Co., the Central's bondholder; and two Bellefonte natives and ex-Governors, Curtin and Beaver. As one of the principal honorees, Gephart delivered a speech on the "Future of Bellefonte," and "Canvasback duck à la Gephart" was among the dishes on the menu.
The triumphal completion of the Central Railroad notwithstanding, Gephart was to find the Pennsylvania Railroad was not so easily defeated. In September 1893, as construction on the Central Railroad was still underway, the PRR brought suit against the Valentine Iron Company. In 1887, the PRR, through its Bellefonte, Nittany & Lemont subsidiary, had agreed to help finance the Centre Iron Company in exchange for exclusive rights to its traffic. It argued that this covenant remained binding on Valentine Iron as the successor to Centre Iron. Gephart won a victory in the first round of the case in January 1894, but the PRR appealed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. At some point during 1894, as the litigation wound on, Gephart ceased to be a director of the Bald Eagle Valley. In 1895, the Supreme Court overturned the lower court's verdict and granted an injunction to prevent Valentine Iron from shipping over the Central Railroad. The Central Railroad also surrendered its lease of the Nittany Valley Railroad as a result of the new verdict. Stung by the ruling, Gephart declared that the iron company was "jeopardized" without access to "competitive railroad facilities" and resigned the presidency of Valentine Iron (and from the Nittany Valley Railroad) in an open letter to Bellefonte's business community in November 1895. He remained superintendent of the Central Railroad, which suffered financially by the loss of the iron traffic.
Seeking to boost traffic on the Central Railroad, Gephart was probably also involved in the chartering of the Bellefonte and Clearfield Railroad in December 1895. While not an officer, Gephart was understood to be the principal figure behind this railroad, and its officers included his brother-in-law, Lorenzo Terbal Munson, and John P. Harris, who was a stockholder of the Central Railroad and Gephart's successor at Valentine Iron. This line would have connected the Central Railroad, at Bellefonte, with the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway at Clearfield, Pennsylvania. By passing through the Clearfield Coalfield, the proposed railroad could have brought bituminous coal and coke down to the furnaces at Bellefonte. However, the projected expense of construction up the Allegheny Front meant that the Bellefonte & Clearfield remained a paper railroad.
Resurgence and death.
Gephart was not daunted by these reverses. Operating surreptitiously, he assembled a consortium of New York and Philadelphia investors, who formed the Bellefonte Furnace Company in May 1899 to take over the operations of Bellefonte Furnace, idle since the Panic of 1893. Gephart was named president of the new company, whose assets included not only the furnace and its historic ore sources at Mattern Bank and Red Bank, but the Scotia ore deposits, acquired from the Carnegie Steel Company after it switched to Mesabi Range ore. Gephart also obtained a charter for the Bellefonte Lime Company in September 1899, which bought the Morris lime quarry at Salona, Pennsylvania, on the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania. In addition to Gephart, the organizers included L. T. Munson, John P. Harris, and Charles M. Clement, president of the Central Railroad. The new company was to supply limestone to Bellefonte Furnace, and to the Beech Creek Railroad for ballast.
However, Bellefonte Furnace was not on the line of the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania; it lay across Spring Creek in Coleville, on the tracks of the Bellefonte Central Railroad. Gephart attempted to negotiate a new connection with, and trackage rights over, the Bellefonte Central to allow the Central Railroad to reach the furnace, but was rebuffed. Instead, Gephart announced that the Central Railroad would build its own branch directly to the furnace. The new branch would cross Spring Creek and the PRR line to reach Bellefonte Furnace and a connection with the Bellefonte Central's tracks. Its construction was delayed when the assistant superintendent of the PRR's Tyrone Division attempted to forcibly block the construction of the bridge piers on either side of the PRR right-of-way by dumping coal and rubbish into their foundations. A few days later, however, Gephart had the last word in the matter: PRR executives arrived to announce that the Central Railroad's construction had been properly authorized, and had the obstructions removed at their own railroad's expense. The new branch was opened in July 1899. Revival of the Bellefonte & Clearfield was expected at this time, but never took place.
Gephart's coup in restarting Bellefonte Furnace was repeated in 1900 with the revival of the former Valentine Furnace, now known as Nittany Furnace. After Gephart left the presidency in 1895, the furnace, the Nittany Valley Railroad, and associated ore lands had come into the hands of the Empire Steel and Iron Company. However, Empire essentially abandoned Nittany Furnace in April 1900, allowing the Commonwealth Trust Company, which held a lien on the property, to buy it at a sheriff's sale. As with Bellefonte Furnace, Gephart assembled a group of Eastern investors to purchase the furnace from Commonwealth Trust and rehabilitate it. The new company had the furnace back in blast on June 5, 1902. However, Gephart only anticipated running Nittany Furnace during times of peak market demand for iron.
Gephart was also involved in more diverse business enterprises. In 1901, he was a director of the American Central Contracting Company, whose board included other railroad and coal investors. On April 24, 1903, Gephart obtained a charter for the Bellefonte Coal and Coke Company, which bought a tract of of coal land near Winslow, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, on the Pennsylvania and North Western Railroad. Coke ovens were planned there, which would have provided fuel for the two furnaces.
Among all his business activity, Gephart still found time to take part in the civic life of the community. He organized a subscription drive to get the Bellefonte YMCA out of debt in October 1895. He was a director of the organization in 1904, when the YMCA was raising funds for a new building. In 1903, he was vice-president of the newly organized Nittany Country Club. Gephart was also a trustee of his alma mater, the Bellefonte Academy.
Wes Gephart died suddenly at his home in Bellefonte, of a stroke, on February 14, 1905. Contemporary obituaries praised his "indomitable energy and perseverance," an "active influence" in the church, Sunday school, and YMCA, and asserted that "no one living in Bellefonte...could interest and command capital as Mr. Gephart did." After his death, Bellefonte and Nittany Furnaces, though owned by separate groups of investors, came under a single management. The Bellefonte Furnace investors were more closely tied to the Central Railroad, and that furnace operated somewhat more frequently than Nittany, to generate traffic for the railroad. The superintendency of the Central Railroad was assumed by Gephart's son Wallace, who was soon made its president.
However, Gephart's industrial empire would not long survive him. The formation of large, vertically integrated firms such as U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel made independent blast furnaces such as Bellefonte and Nittany increasingly uneconomical to run. The Panic of 1907 proved to be the final blow for the furnaces, which operated only sporadically afterwards. Bellefonte Furnace went out of blast for the last time in December 1910; Nittany Furnace, in January 1911. The Central Railroad survived a little longer, but it could not cover its operating expenses without the traffic provided by the iron furnaces. Its last train ran in November 1918.


Auburn Valley State Park

Auburn Valley State Park (formerly Auburn Heights Preserve) is a state park, located in Yorklyn, Delaware, United States. The park, which is around 360 acres, preserves the former home and estate of the Marshall family as well as portions of the family's former mills alongside the Red Clay Creek and additional land purchased by the state. The preserve contains several miles of trails open to walking, biking, and antique cars, and the state owns conservation easements on 160 acres of privately owned land adjacent to the park to help maintain the park's rural character.
The park also features what the state bills as the largest collection of operational steam cars in the world, and a miniature coal-powered train that runs on tracks encircling the estate. The mansion, mills, and steam museum were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 as the Auburn Mills Historic District.
Park history.
Interest in preserving land near the Red Clay Creek was first expressed to the state by local residents and conservation groups in 2000. With the nearby National Vulcanized Fiber company looking to downsize, there was a general agreement among advocates that an opportunity for conservation had presented itself. Tom Marshall, the owner of a local estate, began donating portions of his land to the Delaware Nature Society for conservation purposes. The state began acquiring land for a preserve in 2002, with a purchase of 104 acres of NVF land for $3 million and a purchase of 65 acres of Marshall's old land from the Delaware Nature Society for $2.3 million.
Additional purchases of 19 acres were made in 2005, bringing the preserve's total size to almost 200 acres. It was made a state park in 2008.
After NVF declared bankruptcy, the state purchased 42 of the company's 119 acres of land, bringing the main portion of the preserve to a total of 234 acres. The state also acquired conservation easements on much of the remaining NVF land and began working with its purchasing developer to establish a plan which would maintain open space, build a network of trails through the valley, and help revitalize the mill town by adaptive reuse of historic structures.
On November 9, 2018, Auburn Heights Preserve was renamed and dedicated as Auburn Valley State Park, with Governor John Carney, U.S. Senator Tom Carper, DNREC Secretary Shawn M. Garvin, and other state and local officials in attendance at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Auburn Heights Mansion.
The Auburn Heights Mansion was built in 1897 by Israel Marshall, the descendant of a family of local farmers that immigrated to the United States in the seventeenth century. In 1890, Israel and his brother, T. Elwood Marshall, purchased the nearby mill. The home was built in a Victorian style, and is situated on a large hill so that it overlooks the mill complex, and the town of Yorklyn, below. The fully furnished home and 4 acres of surrounding land were donated to the state in 2008 by Tom Marshall, the grandson of Israel Marshall. The park provides tours in which visitors can learn about the family as well as the industrial history of the region.
Oversee Farm.
The Oversee Farm is a separate unit of the park that is nearby, but not connected to the main portion of Auburn Heights Preserve. The farm is the former estate of Eleanor Marshall Reynolds, Tom Marshall's cousin. Reynolds purchased the farm in 1945, intending to see it preserved for future generations. Contained within the farm property are stretches of forest, freshwater marshes, open fields, and scenic views of Red Clay Creek. Following her death in 2003, Reynolds' son Warren sold the 125 acre farm to The Nature Conservancy in order to see it preserved, and the conservancy worked with the state to transition the farm to the ownership of the state's parks department.
Plans call for the farm to be connected to the main unit of the preserve through the park's network of trails by passing through privately owned land on which the state owns conservation easements.
Marshall Steam Museum.
T. Clarence Marshall, the youngest son of Israel Marshall and the father of Thomas Marshall, was fascinated by the steam power that operated the family's mills. He became a licensed dealer for Stanley Motor Carriage Company and began acquiring a personal collection of steam automobiles. The collection was first opened to the public in the 1970s. Following its donation in 2008 by Tom Marshall, the collection is owned by the nonprofit Friends of Auburn Heights Preserve which operates the park in partnership with the state. The collection is housed in the Auburn Heights carriage house, where a team of volunteers maintains the vehicles so that they remain fully operational. Included in the collection are 15 Stanley cars and several steam and electric cars from other manufacturers. The Museum's collection also includes a 1/8-size steam locomotive that runs on tracks around the estate called the Auburn Valley Railroad.
Visitors are able to view the collection, and on certain days rides on the cars and trains are offered to the general public. The park has a field trip program in which visiting students can learn about the history of transportation technology and steam power.


Albany and Northern Railway

The Albany and Northern Railway (A&N) began life in about 1895 on a stretch of railway from Cordele to Albany, Georgia. The line had originally been built around 1890 by the Albany, Florida and Northern Railway (AF&N). The AF&N was leased then to the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway (SA&M) in 1892. In 1895, the SA&M went bankrupt and the AF&N was then reorganized into the Albany and Northern Railway.
In 1910, the Georgia, Southwestern and Gulf Railroad (GS&G) leased the A&N with the goal of opening a line from Cordele to the Gulf Coast. The GS&G ran into financial trouble and was dissolved in 1942 at which time the A&N ran independently again. The Southern Railway acquired the A&N and Georgia Northern Railway in 1966, and merged the former into the latter on December 31, 1971.


Joseph S. Gitt

Joseph S. Gitt (September 9, 1815 – January 22, 1901) was a self-taught civil engineer and politician from Pennsylvania. After an unsuccessful career as a newspaper publisher, Gitt went back into railroading, estimating that in his career, he had conducted 31 different railroad surveys for a total distance of over 300 miles in his career Gitt either surveyed or engineered most of the railroads constructed in Frederick and Carroll county, Maryland and Adams county, Pennsylvania in the 1855-1885 period with the exception of the civil war.
Life.
Joseph S Gitt was born on September 9, 1815, the oldest of the eleven children of Daniel (1793-1872) and Lydia Gitt (1797-1886) in Conowago township, Adams County, Pennsylvania. He studied at Gettysburg college (1835–36) receiving a degree of Fellow of Philosophy. He married on March 31, 1841, to Miss Anna M Baughman (1817-1898), daughter of David Baughman, of Hanover, Pennsylvania. They had four children, one of whom Maria Louisa Gitt, married William Gardner Smyser (1845-1926) a civil engineer for the Santa Fe Railway living in Topeka, Kansas.
Gitt was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics, he was a democrat in his youth (See newspapers above) and later a republican, as well as a prohibitionist and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
In 1862, Gitt was nominated by the Union party ticket for county surveyor. In 1895, Gitt was nominated by the local Prohibitionist party to run as county surveyor for Adams county, Pennsylvania.
Railroad Engineer.
After being employed as a surveyor on earlier railroads, in 1851, Gitt became Assistant Engineer for the construction of the Hanover Branch railroad (later, consolidated under the name of Hanover Junction, Hanover & Gettysburg Railroad). Upon its completion in November, 1854 Gitt became Chief engineer for the Philadelphia and West Chester railroad.
Gettysburg Railroad.
Gitt was Engineer (of Record) for the Gettysburg railroad from 1855 to its opening on February 11, 1856. He then became chief engineer for the Littlestown railroad, a railroad from Hanover to New Oxford in Pennsylvania which opened on January 6, 1858.
Western Maryland Railway.
After the civil war, Gitt surveyed and prepared cost estimates for the extension of the Western Maryland Rail Road Company from Union Bridge, Maryland its terminus in 1865 to Hagerstown, Maryland a route distance of 42.75 miles along the line of Pipe creek towards Mechanicstown, Frederick County (known today as Thurmont, Maryland) proceeding on towards Sabillasville and from there in a southwesterly direction, Hagerstown at an estimated cost, net of right of way of $1.25 million in US$,1865.
Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad.
In 1867, Gitt located a route for the Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad. Unlike the 1865 survey for the Western Maryland, Gitt made a fourteen-day reconnaissance in the field on horseback for the proposed road and did not supplement that information with instrumental surveys. (Gitt, preface) The major feature of Gitt's proposed route was that from Woodsboro south into Frederick, it was located between the Woodsboro and Frederick Turnpike, now Maryland Route 194 and Israel creek. Aside from diverting in Walkersville, the road continued south along the eastern side of the turnpike, crossing over at the toll house and crossing the Monocacy just north of what is today Route 194 at Ceresville, Md.. The first route south of Walkersville terminated opposite the Court House, at Church Street, in Frederick, Md. A second route started on the east-side and headed due north to Worman's mill and intercept the first line near the river crossing.
European and North American railroad.
Gitt then briefly became Chief engineer for the European and North American railroad from Bangor, Maine to New Brunswick, Canada for the extension from Saint John westward.
Emmitsburg Railroad.
In 1868, Gitt returned to survey and locate the newly incorporated Emmitsburg Railroad.
In 1882, Gitt surveyed possible routes for the Round Top Branch which was an extension of the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad from the Gettysburg borough across the Gettysburg Battlefield to Round Top, Pennsylvania.
Death.
On January 22, 1901, Gitt died in New Oxford Borough, Adams County, Pennsylvania and was buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Hanover with the rites of the Odd Fellows.
Legacy.
Gitt estimated that in his career, he had conducted 31 different railroad surveys for a total distance of over 300 miles in his career Gitt either surveyed or engineered most of the railroads constructed in Frederick and Carroll county, Maryland and Adams county, Pennsylvania in the 1855-1885 period with the exception of the civil war. <br>
Five years after his death, Gitt was eulogized in the same paper as a man of means and a civil engineer of some repute who was willing to fore-go his work at any time to offer gratuitous support for public education for as the editor put it.. "if there was one thing Joseph Gitt loved above all else, it was to write for the papers."


Blakely Southern Railroad

The Blakely and Southern Railroad has one of the briefest existence of any railroad line that actually operated track. It was chartered in 1911 and was built in 1911–12, the railroad went bankrupt and was completely abandoned by 1914. The railroad had only one locomotive, one freight car, and one passenger car. It operated a 22-mile line between Blakely, GA and Jakin, GA.


LaSalle Street Cable Car Powerhouse (Chicago)

The LaSalle Street Cable Car Powerhouse at 500 North LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois (northwest corner of LaSalle and Illinois Streets) is a rare surviving artifact of Chicago's cable car system, which at its peak in the 1890s was one of the largest in the country, in terms of riders and equipment. Three separate companies operated thousands of cable cars over 82 miles of track. The three story powerhouse was built by the North Chicago Street Railroad Company in 1886-1887 for $35,000. "It was a striking presence in the River North area, which was a jumble of low-scale factories, warehouses and shipyards," said a Commission on Chicago Landmarks Designation Report from 2000. The railroad company was organized by Charles Tyson Yerkes, the leading transit entrepreneur in Chicago during the late 19th century. At the height of his influence, Yerkes controlled eight separate street railway companies and 250 miles of track in the city.
Chicago historian Greg Borzo calls the LaSalle Street Cable Car Powerhouse, "the crown jewel of Chicago’s cable car remnants." He also notes, "This powerhouse drove two cables: one that pulled cable cars through a tunnel under the Chicago River along LaSalle Street and around the downtown and another shorter cable that pulled cars along Illinois Street between Clark Street and Wells Street." Those cables, in turn, pulled the thousands of cable cars that, at the peak of their operation, brought approximately 100,000 workers into downtown Chicago each day.
The LaSalle Street Cable Car Powerhouse helped make possible the rapid development of the city's outlying North Side neighborhoods during one of the greatest boom periods in the history of Chicago.
Cable cars operated in Chicago until 1906.
The LaSalle Street Cable Car Powerhouse was designated a Chicago Landmark on June 27, 2001. Today it is a restaurant. It used to be Michael Jordan's Restaurant until 2000.


Newark Light Rail

The Newark Light Rail (NLR) is a light rail system serving Newark, New Jersey and surrounding areas, operated by New Jersey Transit Bus Operations. The service consists of two segments, the original Newark City Subway (NCS), and the extension to Broad Street station. The City Subway opened on May 16, 1935, while the combined Newark Light Rail service was officially inaugurated on July 17, 2006.
Newark City Subway.
The Newark City Subway is the longer and older of the two segments. The line is a "subway–surface" line which runs underground from downtown to Warren Street, and above-ground north of Warren Street. Before becoming a part of the Newark Light Rail service, it was also known as the "#7-City Subway line," an NJT Bus Operations route number carried over from its days when it was part of Public Service's Transport of New Jersey subsidiary. The number still applies internally. (During subway system closures, replacement buses would also bear the route number "7 City Subway.")
The segment is long and runs between Grove Street in Bloomfield and Newark Penn Station, a major transportation hub with connections to the PATH rapid transit system to Manhattan, multiple bus routes, and both Amtrak and New Jersey Transit Rail Operations trains.
History.
The line opened in 1935 along the old Morris Canal right-of-way, from Broad Street (now known as Military Park) to Heller Parkway (now replaced by the nearby Branch Brook Park station). Works Progress Administration artists decorated the underground stations with Art Deco scenes from life on the defunct Morris Canal. The southernmost part, south of Warren Street, was capped with a new road, known as Raymond Boulevard. Only one grade crossing was present on the original subway; the line crosses Orange Street at grade so it can pass over the below-grade Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (now NJT Morristown Line) immediately to the north. The original Newark City Subway line had its own right-of-way and did not share city streets with local traffic, except at the Orange Street grade crossing.
Operation of the complete subway to the newly built Penn Station was delayed until 1937. The terminal below Penn Station has five tracks, two incoming and three outgoing, connected by two loop tracks. This part of the subway included a grade-separated junction with a connection to the lower level of the Newark Public Service Terminal that was used for only a few months (June to September).
An extension to a wooden station at North 6th Street or Franklin Avenue was opened in 1940, located north of the present Branch Brook Park station. In 1953 the line was cut back about one block to accommodate construction of a turning loop, and a new station, still called Franklin Avenue, was opened adjacent to Anthony Street. The station was enlarged in 2002 and renamed Branch Brook Park.
The subway was operated by Transport of New Jersey (formerly Public Service Coordinated Transport) as its No. 7 line. Other streetcar routes used parts of the subway, reaching street trackage at the locations shown below, ending as each route was closed and replaced by bus service:
Until June 5, 1952, the Roseville Car House, on the south side of Main Street (on the No. 21 line) near the eastern city line of East Orange, was used for the No. 7 line. From that time until 2002, Newark Penn Station was used for storage and maintenance. A new shops and yard complex opened at the end of the extension to Grove Street.
Starting in January 1954, 30 PCC streetcars bought from Twin City Rapid Transit provided all service on the route. They were single-ended, requiring construction of a new turning loop at the Franklin Avenue terminal. The cars had been built 1946–1949 by the St. Louis Car Company and were sold by TCRT when that system went through a conversion to buses. Four cars were scrapped over the years, and two were sold to Shaker Heights Rapid Transit in 1978.
New Jersey Transit took over operations in 1980.
In 2001, new light rail cars built by Kinki Sharyo in Japan in 1999 replaced the PCCs. The last day of PCC service was August 24, 2001.
Some of the PCCs are stored in the Newark City Subway shop. Eleven were sold in 2004 to the San Francisco Municipal Railway for use on its F Market heritage streetcar line. One PCC, #15, was delivered to the Connecticut Trolley Museum in 2013 for restoration and display. One of the Shaker Heights cars has been restored by the Minnesota Transportation Museum, which operates it on a short stretch of track in western Minneapolis.
In 2005, eight PCCs were given to the City of Bayonne to be rehabilitated and operated along a proposed loop to serve the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, formerly Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY). The proposed line would be connected to the 34th Street station of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail.
On September 4, 2004, Broad Street Station was renamed Military Park Station, to avoid confusion with the terminal of the new route to the Newark Broad Street Station at University Avenue, operated by New Jersey Transit.
Bloomfield extension.
On June 22, 2002, the Newark City Subway was extended to the suburbs of Belleville and Bloomfield along what had been the former Erie Railroad Orange Branch, now under Norfolk Southern ownership. New stations were opened at Silver Lake and Grove Street, and the Heller Parkway and Franklin Avenue stations were combined into a new Branch Brook Park station. The loop at Franklin Avenue was removed, since the new vehicles are bidirectional, unlike the old PCCs. A new loop, however, is in place at the Grove Street facility. All the street crossings on the extension are at-grade.
Shared-track operation.
The original agreement gave sole operating privileges to Norfolk Southern between 11 pm and 5 am daily, but a new agreement allows passenger service to operate at all hours, with late-night service commencing on January 8, 2005. In exchange, Norfolk Southern can now operate during all off-peak hours, when passenger trains are infrequent.
Broad Street Extension.
The Broad Street Extension is the second segment of the Newark Light Rail. It was planned as the first phase of the Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link. The line is long and connects Newark Penn Station to Broad Street Station. It branches off the older City Subway using the existing junction that had led to the Public Service terminal.
A new tunnel leads from the junction to a portal about two blocks north. The remaining section runs above ground. For a few blocks, the two tracks run on different streets a block or two apart. Both tracks serve the New Jersey Performing Arts Center at Center Street. The outbound track makes stops at Atlantic Street and at the Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium. The inbound track makes a stop at Washington Park. The extension opened on July 17, 2006.
Construction began in 2002 with an estimated cost of $207.7 million, or about $40,000 per foot of track; it was completed within budget. Projections were for 4,000 average weekday boardings after one year, growing to about 7,000 in 2010. Actual weekday boardings in 2010 for both Newark Light Rail lines combined were reported at 9,000.
The art work at the new stations has a common theme, "Riding with Sarah and Wayne." It is intended as a tribute to Newark-born jazz greats Sarah Vaughan and Wayne Shorter, and includes the lyrics to Vaughan's signature song, "Send in the Clowns," and colored bricks representing the music notes.
The Broad Street Extension was intended to ease connections between Newark's two rail stations. The two separate stations are a legacy of their roots in two separate railroads. Broad Street Station was once owned by the Lackawanna Railroad and its successor, the Erie Lackawanna Railway, while Penn Station was built and owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Previously, passengers wanting to transfer between Amtrak and the former PRR/Conrail commuter lines and the former (Erie) Lackawanna commuter lines had to make their own way (usually by taxi or bus) between the two stations.
Fares.
The Newark Light Rail is equivalent to a one-zone bus ride: a one-way ticket costs $1.60 (as of October 1, 2015), and is valid for one hour on the entire system from the time the ticket is validated. A special $0.75 "Underground" fare is available for trips that use only the subway between Warren Street and Penn Station and not the surface portion. Through-ticketing is available for connecting bus routes. Monthly and weekly NJ Transit bus and rail passes valid for one or more local bus zones, as well as transfers purchased on buses, are also accepted.
The Newark Light Rail, like most light rail systems in the United States, operates on a proof-of-payment system, in which riders must present their tickets upon request during random fare inspections by police officers, transit workers, or fare agents. Passengers must purchase tickets at ticket vending machines (TVMs) located on station platforms or near station entrances. One-way, round-trip, and ten-trip tickets must then be validated at automated validators located near the TVMs, which stamp the date and time on the ticket for 60 minutes of use. NJ Transit's fare inspectors randomly check tickets on trains and at stations; fare evasion carries a fine of up to $100. On the PCC streetcars, cash fares (exact fare) were paid on board via farebox, except for a brief period starting in October 1999 prior to the introduction of LRVs, when proof-of-payment fare collection was instituted.
Stations.
Broad Street Extension.
On weekdays, service operates separately between the two sections. On weekends, service operates jointly.
Rolling stock.
The Newark Light Rail system uses a new-model vehicle built by Kinki Sharyo of Japan. This model is the same one used by the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system, although the ones used on the Newark Light Rail were built with slight modifications to the trucks and wheels due to the different rails used. Like the HBLR vehicles, the NLR vehicle is a double-articulated vehicle with three sections. Each of the two end sections has an operator's cab at the far end, thus eliminating the need for the vehicle to turn itself around physically in order to reverse direction. Each end section also has seating for 16 passengers on an upper level, and seating for 13 passengers on the lower level, including one special fold-down seat next to an empty space that a passenger using a wheelchair may use. With these two sections, and a middle section that seats ten passengers (five on each side), the vehicle can comfortably accommodate 68 seated passengers and two wheelchairs. An additional 122 passengers could stand in the vehicle, if necessary. Vehicles can be coupled into two-unit sets. A contract to expand 10 of the 20 LRVs assigned to the Newark Light Rail system for the purpose of increasing passenger capacity was approved on July 9, 2014.
The Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, ME acquired PCC #5 in 2011. The car represents the first piece of NJT rolling stock in the museum's collection. The car is currently undergoing restoration and rehabilitation work so that it may operate on the museum's 1 1/2 mile demonstration railway. Car #5 joins the museum's already-extensive collection of PCC cars from numerous cities, including Boston, Pittsburgh, Dallas, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Kansas CIty.
Timeline.
Accidents.
The Newark City Subway has had a few accidents over the years:


Soldier Summit


Steve Tobias

Stephen Craig Tobias was an American businessman. He was chief operating officer of Norfolk Southern Railway, and a director of Canadian Pacific Railway.
Life.
Tobias, a US Army veteran, joined Norfolk Southern in 1969 as a junior engineer, and served as Chief Operating Officer from 1998 to 2009, when he retired.
In 2012, he joined the Board of Directors of Canadian Pacific, and served briefly as CEO. He stepped down from the board in 2015 for personal reasons.
Tobias died August 7, 2017.


James M. Stone

James Munroe Stone (August 13, 1817 – December 19, 1880) was a U.S. labor reform advocate and politician who served as a member, and from 1866 to 1867, the Speaker of, the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Newspaper publisher.
In the early 1840s Stone published the Worcester based weekly newspaper the "State Sentinel", later the "State Sentinel and Reformer".
Labor reform advocate.
Stone was a major advocate of labor reform in Massachusetts, he worked for years to pass the Ten Hour work day legislation in Massachusetts.


Whitcomb L. Judson

Whitcomb L. Judson (March 7, 1843 – December 7, 1909) was an American machine salesman, mechanical engineer and inventor. He received thirty patents over a sixteen-year career, fourteen of which were on pneumatic street railway innovations. Six of his patents had to do with a motor mechanism suspended beneath the rail-car that functioned with compressed air. He founded the Judson Pneumatic Street Railway.
Judson is most noted for his invention of the common zipper. It was originally called a clasp-locker. The first application was as a fastener for shoes and high boots. The patent said it could be used wherever it was desirable to connect a pair of adjacent flexible parts that could be detached easily. Possible applications noted were for corsets, gloves, and mail bags.
Early life.
Judson was born March 7, 1843 in Chicago, Illinois. He served in the Union Army and enlisted in 1861 at Oneida, Illinois in the 42nd Illinois Infantry Regiment according to the Illinois State Archives. Judson attended Knox College in his hometown Galesburg, Illinois. He was found in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1886. In 1886 and 1887 the Minneapolis city directory identified Judson as a "traveling agent" – a traveling salesman working probably for Pitts Agricultural Works. A couple of years later Judson began working for Earle Manufacturing Company with Harry L. Earle as the head of the firm. Judson sold band cutters and grain scales for them along with other items as one of their salesmen.
Career.
Street railway.
Judson began his efforts of making inventions around 1888 to 1889. His concentration was on inventions for a "pneumatic street railway". His first patented invention was for a "mechanical movement" related to that. In 1889, Judson obtained six patents related to his concept of a street railway running on compressed air. The concept was similar to the cable railway system but with pistons suspended beneath the rail-car. Judson received a total of 14 patents related to this type of railway system out of the 30 patents he had.
Similar systems were tried throughout the nineteenth century, however, they all failed because of sealing problems. Judson's similar inventions were also impractical and as a whole not very successful. The street railway concept ultimately went electric. Judson Pneumatic Street Railway was initiated by Judson and Earle was one of the promoters. It even had a demonstration line in 1890 in Washington, D.C. for about a mile that was at what is today Georgia Avenue. It ran for only a few weeks before the company shut it down due to technical problems. A cable streetcar firm bought them out and turned it into an electric streetcar since Judson's system was impractical.
Zipper.
Judson's most noteworthy invention, a chain-lock fastener, was the precursor to the modern zipper which he developed and invented in 1891. Judson is generally recognized as the inventor of the zipper. He also invented a "clasp-locker" automation production machine that made his fastener device inexpensively. His metal zipper fastener device was actually called a "clasp-locker" in his time; the name "zipper" was not actually coined or used until many years after his death. The "clasp locker" was a complicated hook-and-eye fastener with an arrangement of hooks and eyes run by a "guide" for closing and opening a clothing item. The first application was as a shoe fastener, and there is mention in the patents for possible applications for corsets, gloves, mail bags, and "generally wherever it is desired to detachably connect a pair of adjacent flexible parts." It is also said one of the reasons he invented this device was to relieve the tedium of fastening high button boots that were fashionable in those days.
Judson's first slide fastener patent was applied for in November 1891. At the time the United States Patent Office didn't require a working model of a patent, only that the invention was to be a novel idea. However, his invention was almost rejected by the patent assistant examiner Thomas Hart Anderson because there were several types of shoe fasteners already patented. He applied for a second patent on an improved version for the same item some nine months later before the first was even approved.
The patent was approved in May 1893 after the last amendment was filed with an improved version. When the two patents were finally issued on August 29 (along with 378 others that day), they received the numbers U.S.P. 504,038 (first) and U.S.P. 504,037 (second). These patents describe several designs of the "clasp-locker". Later design patents of the fastener describe opposite elements on each side that are identical to each other and fit together by the engaging of "pintles" and "sockets." In his patent U.S.P. 557,207 of 1896 is a description mostly like the zipper of today.
In 1893, Judson exhibited his new invention at the Chicago World's Fair where it had its debut. Judson launched the Universal Fastener Company to manufacture his new invention, together with Harry L. Earle and Lewis Walker. The Universal Fastener Company started out in Chicago and then moved to Elyria, Ohio. It then moved to Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, and then to Hoboken, New Jersey. The name changed eventually to Automatic Hook and Eye Company.
Judson's "clasp-locker" met with little commercial success at first. He ultimately never saw much success in the "clasp-locker" as a fashion item during his lifetime. Judson made a "C-curity" clasp-locker fastener in 1905 which was an improved version of his previous patents. It tended to break open unexpectedly like the predecessors. Clothing manufacturers showed little interest in Judson's fastener perhaps because of this reason.
An improved version of 1896 came with
Judson made his invention to save people the trouble of buttoning and unbuttoning their shoes every day as shows in his wording in the patent application. He describes this in his patent U.S.P. 557,207
In 1913, the zipper was improved by the Swedish-American engineer, Gideon Sundback, and also by Catharina Kuhn-Moos of Europe. Sundback successfully redesigned Judson's fastener into a more streamlined and reliable form called "Talon." Automatic Hook and Eye Company then changed its name to the Hookless Fastener Company. In 1937 the Hookless Fastener Company became Talon, Inc.
In 1918, a textile company manufactured flying suits for the United States Navy with this fastener. Judson's company received an order for thousands of their "clasp-locker" fasteners. Soon thereafter they appeared on gloves and tobacco pouches. The B. F. Goodrich company in 1923 installed these fasteners in their rubber galoshes, calling the new design "Zippers." This then became the name of the fastener itself. The design of the fastener today is much like Sundback's improvement of Judson's "clasp-locker."
Personal life.
Judson married his wife, Annie Martin, in 1874. They had three children: Jane, Gertrude, and Ross. Ross became vice-president of Continental Motor Manufacturing Company that developed the first automobile hydraulic system co-innovated by Judson.
Later life.
Judson lived in New York City for the later part of his life. He moved in 1906 to Muskegon, Michigan. There he died at the age of 63 on December 7, 1909.


Julius Kruttschnitt

Julius Kruttschnitt (July 30, 1854 – June 15, 1925) was a German American railroad executive.
Biography.
He was born on July 30, 1854 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1873 and worked briefly as a schoolteacher before beginning his railroad career. He joined the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1885 and served in a variety of roles, culminating in chairman from 1913.
He retired on May 31, 1925 as chairman of the executive committee of the Southern Pacific Railroad. He died on June 15, 1925 in New Orleans, Louisiana of a heart attack.


Winfield Scott Gerrish

Winfield Scott Gerrish (born 15 February 1849 in Lee, Maine—died 19 May 1882 in Evart, Michigan) is credited with revolutionizing lumbering in the U.S. state of Michigan by building a seven-mile-long logging railroad from Lake George to the Muskegon River in Clare County, Michigan in 1877. Although not the first logging railroad in the state, Gerrish's railroad was very successful. Gerrish adopted the idea of using a steam locomotive on steel rails after seeing a Porter 0-4-0 rod engine at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. However, twenty years earlier in May 1857, the Blendon Lumber Company successfully and profitably employed a standard gauge steam locomotive on its approximately seven-mile-long logging railroad that extended from the center of Blendon Township in Ottawa County, Michigan to the bank of the Grand River. The use of rail allowed year round transportation of any size tree to the sawmills where unpredictable rivers were previously used.


Gateway Yard

The Gateway Yard of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad,
located in Youngstown, Ohio, opened in the fall of 1957 and remained in operation until CSX took over the P&LE and closed the yard in 1993. Gateway served as a place to classify and sort freight cars as well as an interchange with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the New York Central Railroad. Most of the cars that entered the yard were destined for Youngstown's steel mills.
History.
The yard itself was built on over of land and stretched for more than covering the distance from the Center Street Bridge to Lowellville, Ohio. The yard included a classification yard, office complex, diesel locomotive servicing facilities, and car repair facilities. The yard tower and yard office are housed in the same building. It is rather large and resembles an aircraft control tower. Running in front of the tower is the yard's hump that is used in the sorting freight cars.
The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Historical Society website includes a list of yard structures including their blueprints. Items include:
Today the Gateway Yard sits mostly empty after being closed in 1993. Most of the tracks have been removed. However, most of the structures still stand including the yard tower and office building. Vandals have taken a toll on the site. The office/tower complex have had every window broken out, including those that overlook the hump that runs in front of the tower. Railfanning the Gateway Yard is not hard since Ohio State Route 289 runs alongside the yard. The yard tower is visible from the road, and the CSX mainline runs right in between the tower and the road. Also visible from route 289 is the large car repair shed and several small support structures.


Allen J. Greenough

Allen J. Greenough (September 20, 1905 – September 22, 1974) was the 14th and last President of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Private life and education.
He was born on September 20, 1905, in San Francisco, California, to Ernest Allen Greenough and Nellie Jackson. He married Jean Lytel on April 8, 1933. They had two children, Allen Lytel Jackson and Norman Jackson.
He was educated at Princeton Prep School in Princeton, New Jersey until 1923. He attended Union College in Schenectady, New York, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1928.
Career.
In 1928, he began work as assistant on Engineering Corps, Pennsylvania Railroad; subsequently, all with Pennsylvania; 1929 to 1933, assistant supervisor, track; 1933 to 1939, supervisor, track, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and New York divisions; 1939 to 1945, division engineer, Columbus and Pittsburgh divisions; 1945 to 1946, superintendent, Wilkes-Barre Division, Sunbury, Pennsylvania; 1946 to 1947, superintendent, freight transportation, Chicago; 1947 to 1948, superintendent, Maryland Division, Baltimore, Maryland; 1948 to 1950, general superintendent, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; 1950 to 1951, assistant general manager, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 1953 to 1953, general manager, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; 1953 to 1955, vice-president, Eastern Region, Philadelphia; 1955 to 1959, vice-president, transportation and maintenance, system, headquarters, Philadelphia; 1959 to 1968, president and director, Pennsylvania Railroad.
He served as a director for Lehigh Valley Railroad; Detroit, Toledo and Ironton; United New Jersey Railroad and Canal; Manor Real Estate; Girard Trust; Corn Exchange Bank; Merchants Warehouse Company, and trustee, Penn Mutual Life Insurance.
Time magazine reported Greenough's promotion to president of the self-styled "Standard Railroad of the World" early in November 1959: "After the Pennsylvania Railroad's board of directors finished its regular meeting last week in Philadelphia, a telephone call went through to summon Allen J. Greenough, 54, vice president in charge of transportation and maintenance. Walking into the president's office, Greenough was hit with the biggest surprise of his career: he had just been named president of the Pennsy, jumping over the heads of other officers who had hoped to get the job. The new post put Greenough in line as heir to James M. Symes, who moved up from president to chairman."
New York Central merger.
Within a decade the vaunted Pennsylvania was gone in an ill-starred merger with arch-rival New York Central. Conflicted management teams, failure to produce an integrated computer system, internal strife, deindustrialization, Federal regulation, taxation, declining passenger and express traffic and fierce competition from trucks via the Federally subsidized interstate highway system and shipping on the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Though both the Pennsylvania and the Central struggled through the 1950s on the dividends from their large investments in border state coal haulers—the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Norfolk and Western—the Penn Central merger created a massive system from two weakened giants. Exacerbating the situation, the Interstate Commerce Commission foisted the nearly bankrupt New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad onto the new company. The New Haven, running between Boston and New York, was heavily involved in money-losing commuter traffic. Transportation historian George W. Hilton recounted the New Haven's infamous request to the ICC for permission to immediately discontinue more than one hundred and fifty money losing passenger trains circa 1958!
John F. Stover wrote, in his second edition of "American Railroads": "The giant new Penn Central system faced a variety of problems. One of [Penn Central President Stuart] Saunders' aids, Allen J. Greenough, said of the enlarged line: "This is a big dog with a lot of fleas... We'll be scratching for a long time." The Penn Central was official one railroad, but [New York] Central workers tried to follow their old rules, and Pennsylvania workers did likewise. The two old lines had very different signal and computer systems. The result in 1968 and 1969 was lost waybills lost freight shipments, even one lost train. By early 1970 a major problem was having to borrow capital at eight to ten percent for a railroad earning one or two percent. Penn Central was now losing one million dollars a day. On Sunday, June 21, 1970, Penn Central filed for bankruptcy, one of the biggest business failures in United States history."
Death.
He died September 22, 1974, at St. Luke's Hospital in Manhattan, New York City. He was 69 years old and he had homes in both North Salem, New York and County Clare, Ireland.
Memberships.
New York Railroad Club, American Railway Engineering Association, Presbyterian; Republican, Freemasonry Sundbury Lodge 713, Williamsport, Pennsylvania Consistory, Thirty-second Degree Zembo Shrine. The Round Hill Club, Pine Valley Golf Club, Rolling Rock Club, The Metropolitan Club, New York Presidents Club, and the Chi Psi executive council.
Legacy.
In 1976 the US government created the Consolidated Rail Corporation—Conrail—to handle the former Penn Central components, along with other bankrupt or financially struggling lines in the industrial Northeast. Included among the roads were the Ann Arbor, Central of New Jersey, Erie Lackawanna, Lehigh and Hudson River, Lehigh Valley, and the Reading. Conrail was privatized in 1986 and sold to CSX and Norfolk Southern between 1998 and 1999, CSX taking most of the former Central routes, and NS taking most of the former Pennsylvania components. Ironically, CSX and NS are the corporate descendants of the Appalachian coal haulers that once subsidized the Central and the Pennsylvania.


Trail Blazer (train)

The Trail Blazer was a deluxe all-coach train, inaugurated between New York and Chicago via Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 17:25 schedule operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The trains departed New York City and Chicago every day at 4:30 pm and 3:00 pm, respectively, and arrived at the destination the next morning. The "Trail Blazer" was one of the first all-coach trains (along with the Santa Fe's "El Capitan") to provide premium services comparable to a Pullman train. The "Trail Blazer" name was first used in 1927 for the East St. Louis-Pittsburgh preferred freight VL-6.
Two days before service began, the "Trail Blazer" equipment, including streamlined P70's, twin-unit diner, and observation designed by Raymond Loewy, were exhibited at Penn Station, made press runs to Philadelphia, and returned to New York on July 28 after display at Philadelphia. On July 28, 1939, service officially began, and was an immediate success. On July 29, 1939, the first eastbound "Trail Blazer" arrived at New York World's Fair for a special ceremony. Eastbound trips continued to run direct to the Fair.
According to LIFE magazine, reservations were made as far as 6 weeks in advance during the first month of service. The PRR felt very pleased with the performance of this new coach-only train. Instead of the eight-car consist originally planned, the train had to carry an average of ten. The number of passengers on the "Trail Blazer" frequently exceeded those of Pennsylvania's better-known train, the "Broadway Limited" and PRR's rival, New York Central's coach-only "Pacemaker". New York Central's "Pacemaker" offered identical service and schedule but with ordinary heavyweight equipment inaugurated on same day. The "Trail Blazer" carried about 132,000 passengers in the first year and 175,000 in the second. In 1940-41 it sometimes operated in second and third sections.
Historical photographic and films evidences showing that PRR S1 #6100 "The Big Engine" was the preferred engine of this popular, highly profitable (It carried 35 times more passengers than Broadway Limited in 1939, gross revenue equal to $2,260,000 in 1940 or $ today). The "Trail Blazer" was one of the longest and heaviest passenger train (more than 1000 tons) during the heyday of PRR's passenger services in the early 40s. Besides PRR S1 #6100, streamlined K4s, PRR S2 direct-drive steam turbine engine #6200, and PRR T1 were assigned to haul the train occasionally.
In 1948, PRR re-equipped the "Trail Blazer" with new EMD E8 Diesel engines, new lightweight P85b 44-seat coaches and new twin-unit dining car built by PRR's own shop and ACF. In 1949, the westbound schedule shortened to 15 hours 40 mins. Due to rapidly declining demand, the Pennsylvania Railroad combined the "Trail Blazer" and "General" into one service. However, their timetable continued to distinguish the two trains until July 26, 1959, when PRR removed the name "Trail Blazer"
Standard Consist in 1943.
According to the PRR's roster on 26 November 1943, the consist of Train #77 The Trailblazer had 14 rebuilt heavyweight passenger cars with streamlined features in total which including one PB70ER passenger baggage car, nine P70KR 56-seat coaches, one D70CR Kitchen Dormitory car with 18 berths for the staff and a D70DR full Dining car with Polaroid windows installed, one P70GSR 68-seat coach, and one POC70R coach-observation.
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Train Number: 76 The Trail Blazer, Westbound, Depart at 3pm
Destination: New York City, arrive at 9:25am
Consist weight (minus locomotive):
Motive Power.
Here is a list of motive power used on the "Trail Blazer":


Anson Morrill

Anson Peaslee Morrill (June 10, 1803 – July 4, 1887) was an American politician who served as the 24th Governor of Maine from 1855 to 1856 and later as the U.S. Representative from Maine's 4th congressional district from 1861 to 1863.
Biography.
Morrill was born in 1803 in Belgrade (in modern-day Maine, then a part of Massachusetts). In his early years, Morrill served as the Postmaster of Dearborn and ran a general store. He was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1833 from Belgrade. He served as Cumberland County Sheriff in 1839, and was subsequently elected the State House from Madison in 1844. In 1850, Morrill was appointed State Land Agent, and served until 1854.
Though Morrill was a Democrat, he emerged as the anti-Maine Law candidate for Governor in 1853. In that year’s gubernatorial election, Morrill placed third, winning 13% of the vote to Democrat Albert Pillsbury’s 44% and incumbent Whig Governor William Crosby’s 32%. No candidate received a majority of the vote, which threw the election to the state legislature. Though the governing coalition of Whigs, Free Soilers, and anti-Maine Law Democrats originally agreed to elect Morrill as Governor, the Whigs backed out—and instead re-elected Crosby as Governor.
Morrill again in 1854, this time as the Know Nothing nominee, and won 49% of the vote to Albion Parris’s 31% and Isaac Reed’s 15%. The election was once again thrown to the legislature, which elected Morrill. He ran for re-election in 1855 as the nominee of the newly formed Republican Party, but though he won 47% of the vote to Democrat Samuel Wells’s 44%, the legislature elected Wells over Morrill.
In 1860, Morrill was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Maine's 4th congressional district. Though James G. Blaine had originally planned on running for the seat, he deferred to Morrill. In 1862, Morrill opted against seeking re-election to allow Blaine to run. After leaving Congress, he served as President of the Maine Central Railroad. He served one final term as a member of the Maine House from 1881 to 1882. In 1882, Morrill urged Blaine, his old friend, to run for Congress, but Blaine declined.
Governor Morrill died in 1887 in Augusta, Maine and is buried at the Forest Grove Cemetery in Augusta.


Cartersville Subdivision

The Cartersville Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of Georgia. The line runs from Cartersville, Georgia, and Cedartown, Georgia, for a total of 36.1 miles. At its east end it continues west from the W&A Subdivision and at its west end the track comes to an end.


Big Marsh Fork Subdivision

The Big Marsh Fork Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of West Virginia. It was formerly part of the CSX Huntington East Division. It became part of the CSX Florence Division on June 20, 2016. At its south end it continues north from the Big Coal Subdivision and at its north end the track comes to an end.


Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad

The Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad is a Class II railroad operating in New York and Pennsylvania.
The BPRR is owned by Genesee & Wyoming. Its main line runs between Buffalo, New York and Eidenau, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. Here, connections are made to the city center via the Allegheny Valley Railroad. The system runs largely on former Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) lines. The entire BPRR system is .
Major commodities carried include paper, petroleum products, chemicals, coal, steel, and sand.
Main line.
The Buffalo-Eidenau main line passes through Salamanca, NY, Bradford, PA, Johnsonburg, PA, DuBois, PA, Punxsutawney, PA, and Butler, PA. Principal rail yards are located at Butler, Punxsutawney (Riker), and Buffalo, with support yards for local industry at other locations.
B&P initially used the direct former B&O/BR&P main between Buffalo and Salamanca, but during the 1990s a failing bridge at Springville, New York forced the railroad to detour its trains north of Ashford Junction via the former Rochester & Southern track to Machias Junction, New York, thence north on Conrail's/Norfolk Southern's ex-Pennsylvania Railroad Buffalo Line to Buffalo. Buffalo & Pittsburgh now is the sole user of the ex-PRR south of CP-GRAVITY in Buffalo.
Other lines.
BPRR operates two key secondary lines. One runs between Erie and Johnsonburg along the former Allegheny & Eastern Railroad. Another is made up of former Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad tracks, running from the Armstrong Power Plant in Reesedale to Freeport, Pennsylvania. The B&P also operates on the Low Grade between DuBois and Driftwood that was formerly used by the Pennsylvania Railroad, then Conrail. A portion of the former B&O Northern Subdivision is used to provide access to Petrolia, PA.
CSX Transportation also leases the P&W Subdivision to the B&P between Allison Park and the New Castle Yard in West Pittsburg, just outside New Castle, PA. Though the B&P ends in Allison Park, the railroad rarely traverses the line down to the borough. Instead, it transfers its goods to the AVR either in Evans City or Bakerstown depending on the amount of freight it has. Other owned and operated branch lines travel to Homer City, St Marys, and Brookville, Pennsylvania, as well as to the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.
History.
Operations began in 1988 over mostly former Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (formerly Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh) lines. In the early 2000s, the BPRR merged other GWI railroads into it. These lines include the Allegheny & Eastern Railroad (ALY), Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad (PSR), and the Bradford Industrial Railroad (BR).
Around 2005 the Indiana Subdivision, which had been out of use, was rehabilitated to serve the Homer City Generating Station. Shortly after this, the Ridge Subdivision, which had seen a Norfolk Southern coal train run-through to Shelocta was sold off to NS.
In 2006, the railroad was honored as the Regional Railroad of the Year by "Railway Age" magazine.
Fleet.
The BPRR fleet, as of November 2020, consists of the following. Almost all locomotives were manufactured by EMD between the late 1950s and early 1970s.


Salt Lake City Southern Railroad

The Salt Lake City Southern Railroad is a short-line railroad operating between Salt Lake City, and Murray, in Utah, United States. The SL began operating on April 19, 1993 as a RailTex subsidiary. Today the SL is a subsidiary of the Utah Railway and is owned by the Genesee & Wyoming Inc.
History.
The line was originally built between 1871–1872 by the Utah Southern Railroad. By March 30, 1872 the Utah Southern reached Point of the Mountain, which is the southern end of the Salt Lake City Southern Railroad at Mount. In the 1870s, the Utah Southern was constructing a line from Salt Lake City to Chicken Creek (Juab County). Brigham Young was listed as the railroad's president. In June 1875 financial control of the railroad was turned over to the Union Pacific Railroad.
On July 1, 1881 the Utah Southern was consolidated into the Utah Central Railway. The Utah Central was building a rail network from Ogden–Milford. By 1888 the Utah Central was an operating subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad.
On August 1, 1889 the Utah Central was consolidated into the Oregon Short Line and Utah Northern Railway, an operating subsidiary of the Union Pacific. On March 1, 1897 the railway was renamed the Oregon Short Line Railroad (OSL). The OSL, a UP subsidiary, was leased to the UP on January 1, 1936.
From 1936–1993 the Union Pacific operated the tracks as part of their "Provo Subdivision." In the 1990s the UP shifted its trains on the Provo Subdivision to the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad tracks between Salt Lake City and American Fork. The UP no longer needed the line between Salt Lake City and Mount (also known as Mound or Point of the Mountain).
RailTex acquired the line between Salt Lake City and Mount and began operations in 1993 as the Salt Lake City Southern Railroad. Today the Utah Transit Authority (UTA light rail) owns much of the track as part of their light rail right-of-way acquisitions. UTA utilized the right-of-way for its TRAX light rail system, and is used, at least in part, by all three of its TRAX lines (Blue, Green, and Red, but primarily the Blue Line). The SL operates over the UTA tracks via trackage rights.
On September 30, 1999 the SL became a subsidiary of the Utah Railway.


Louisville and Nashville Railroad Lebanon Branch

The former Louisville and Nashville Railroad Lebanon Branch (AKA Knoxville Branch) was 77 miles long and ran from Lebanon Junction in Bullitt County to near Mt. Vernon in Rockcastle County. Construction of the branch began in 1857, reaching Lebanon in that year. The line was extended to Crab Orchard in 1866 and completed in 1868. Most of the line was abandoned in 1987. The portion from Stanford to Mt. Vernon was abandoned during the 1990s.
Places of interest.
New Hope-Lebanon.
Between New Hope and Lebanon the line passes through a number of small towns that provide basic services and also a variety of interesting historic sites. These include churches in New Hope and St. Francis, and the Maker's Mark Distillery near Loretto. The largest town in this section is Lebanon, which has a restored downtown area with many historic buildings housing shops and restaurants. The railroad right of way passes one block behind the main street and is intact, being used as a parking area.
Lebanon-Stanford.
Between Lebanon and Stanford the rail line passes through several small towns along the border between the Outer Bluegrass and the Knobs. Just west of Stanford the line passes near the site of historic Fort Logan. Though presently undeveloped, there are plans in the county for developing this as a historic site. In Stanford, they have successfully restored the Louisville & Nashville RR depot as a museum and community center. Also at the depot site are a playground, picnic gazebo, restored caboose and maintenance of way car, and a short walking trail on the right way.
East of Stanford.
East of Stanford the line passes through what has become the new lake formed by the impoundment of Cedar Creek. This project was finished in 2002 and will provide boating, fishing, and other recreational opportunities. If a trail were to be developed, it would have to be rerouted from the original right of way, but it could be a vital part of this new recreational and natural area.
Just east of this lake is the historic William Whitley house. It is a state historic site and is open as a museum and park with a playground, picnic shelter, and restrooms. The line is intact and fairly clear as it passes this site.
Between the Whitley house and Mt. Vernon the line passes through a few small communities that offer restaurants, shops, and convenience stores. There are a number of creek crossings that offer lovely views, however the bridges have been removed.
The last thru train passed here in July 1986, after which, the line was ripped out almost overnight from 10 ft west of Main Street, to Popes Creek Rd area, Lebanon KY. Remain trackage was used to serve the grain mill on far east Main St, as well as car storage on downtown sidings near the depot. Track from Stanford to near Mt. Vernon were removed around 1993.


Zoo Miami

The Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens, also known as Zoo Miami, is a zoological park and garden near Miami and is the largest zoo in Florida. Originally established in 1948 at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne, Zoo Miami relocated in 1980 as Miami MetroZoo to the former location of the Richmond Naval Air Station, southwest of Miami in southern metropolitan Miami-Dade County, in the center of the census-designated places of Three Lakes (north), South Miami Heights (south), Palmetto Estates (east) and Richmond West (west).
The only tropical zoo in the continental United States, Zoo Miami houses over 3,000 animals on nearly , of which are developed. It is about around if walked on the path, and features over 100 exhibits. The zoo's communications director is wildlife expert and photographer Ron Magill. Zoo Miami is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
History.
The history of Zoo Miami can be traced back to 1948, when a small road show, stranded near Miami, exchanged three monkeys, a goat and two black bears for approximately $270 in repairs for the truck. These six animals were the beginning of the Crandon Park Zoo at Crandon Park on the island of Key Biscayne, just southeast off the coast from downtown Miami. The Crandon Park Zoo occupied of the park. The first animals in the zoo, including some lions, an elephant and a rhinoceros, had been stranded when a circus went out of business in Miami. Some Galapagos tortoises, monkeys and pheasants were added from the Matheson plantation. By 1967, the Crandon Park Zoo had grown to over 1,200 animals, and was considered one of the top 25 zoos in the country.
Other animals were added, including a white Bengal tiger in 1968.
In 1965, Hurricane Betsy devastated the zoo and killed 250 animals. After the hurricane there was talk of a new zoo for Dade County, but not until 11 December 1970 did Dade County officials apply for of land in the Richmond Naval Air Station property. Construction began in 1975. The zoo opened on July 4, 1980 as Miami MetroZoo with a preview section of 12 exhibits and Asia, the first major exhibit, opened on December 12, 1981. A total of 38 exhibits, covering , were open to the public at this time.
In the 1980s, the zoo continued to expand. An additional with six new African hoofed stock exhibits opened in 1982, along with the zoo's monorail in 1984. After the closing of 1984 Louisiana World Exposition in New Orleans, monorails were being moved in Florida and re-used at Miami MetroZoo. Wings of Asia, a free-flight aviary, was opened in December 1984. Three additional African hoofed stock exhibits followed in 1985, and two new exhibits were opened in the African savanna section in 1986. The Australian section of the zoo was opened in 1989, and PAWS, the children's petting zoo, opened in 1989. The Asian Riverlife Experience opened in August 1990.
In 1992, the zoo suffered extensive damage when Hurricane Andrew made landfall in South Florida on August 24. The small, yet intensely powerful category 5 hurricane toppled over 5,000 trees and destroyed the Wings of Asia aviary—which had been built to withstand winds of up to —resulting in the loss of approximately 100 of the 300 resident birds. Despite the majority of the zoo's animals remaining outside during the duration and aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, only five animals were killed from either debris or the consumption of contaminated water. MetroZoo, though looking dramatically different, was reopened on December 18, 1992; with the zoo's tiger temple exhibit renamed in honor of Naomi Browning, a local 12-year-old zoo volunteer who was one of the storm's casualties. By July 1993, many of the animals that were sent to other zoos and animal parks across the United States during the zoo's reconstruction had been returned to MetroZoo, and over 7,000 new trees had been planted to begin restoring the zoo's tree canopy.
In 1994, stray dogs entered the zoo during off-hours and killed five Thomson's gazelles and two Grant's gazelles. In 1996, a brush fire burned 100 acres in the southeast portion of the zoo's undeveloped land. Nearly 30 animals from neighboring exhibits were evacuated. The Falcon Batchelor Komodo Dragon Encounter opened that same year, followed by Andean Condor (1999), Meerkats (2000), Cuban Crocodiles and Squirrel Monkeys (2001), and Dr. Wilde's World, which is an indoor facility for traveling zoological exhibits. The rebuilt Wings of Asia aviary, housing more than 300 individuals representing 70 species of birds, opened in the spring of 2003.
On July 4, 2010, the zoo was renamed the Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens, or Zoo Miami, for marketing and branding purposes. This was a part of the zoo's 30th anniversary celebration. The zoo broke ground on a $43 million project that included an Everglades exhibit and a new state-of-the-art entryway. The Everglades exhibit opened on December 10, 2016.
In 2017, the zoo was struck by Hurricane Irma, which impacted South Florida on September 10. The Amazon and Beyond exhibit suffered the most damage, with widespread tree loss in that area. According to the zoo, one American flamingo, one Great hornbill, and a few other birds died reportedly due to stress. The zoo remained closed until October.
Conservation efforts.
Zoo Miami supports conservation programs at the local, national and global level, and was a founding member of the AZA's Butterfly Conservation Initiative (BFCI), a program designed to assemble non-governmental organizations and government agencies to aid in the population recovery of imperiled butterflies in North America.
The zoo has also provided financial help through the Zoo Miami Conservation Fund to upgrade captive breeding facilities in Thailand zoos for endangered clouded leopards and fishing cats.
Exhibits and animals.
There are five main exhibit sections in the zoo: Florida: Mission Everglades, Asia, Africa, Amazon and Beyond, and Australia. The zoo's main entry includes an entryway canopy structure, conjoining ticket booths and gift shop, and an adjacent American flamingo exhibit. At the junction of the zoo's main pathways, is the Conservation Action Center, an indoor pavilion featuring interactive exhibits themed to conservation and wildlife preservation. The property includes a large lake, called Lake Iguana.
An air-conditioned monorail system loops around the zoo's premises, providing both an aerial view of the zoo and a convenient way to move between sections. The monorail system has four stations, each found throughout the zoo. Narrated tram rides and guided tours are given daily.
Florida: Mission Everglades.
The Florida: Mission Everglades exhibit features native fauna and flora species found in Florida, particularly from the state's Everglades region. Species displayed include American alligators, American crocodiles, North American river otters, American black bears, Florida panthers, and bald eagles. The $33 million project features Lostman's River Ride, a gentle air boat ride attraction.
Asia.
The zoo's Asian exhibit features dozens of animals such as Bornean orangutans, Asian elephants, Indian rhinoceros, Sumatran tigers, Indian gaur, Bactrian camels, dromedaries, Malayan tapirs, sloth bears, clouded leopards, and Asian small-clawed otters. The multi-leveled Asian Riverlife Experience replicates the appearance of an Asian river brook. Zoo Miami is only one of two zoos in the United States to display a pair of black-necked storks.
The zoo's orangutan exhibit once housed Nonja, a female Sumatran orangutan that was relocated from a Dutch zoo to Zoo Miami. She was widely believed to be the oldest living specimen of her species, until her death in 2007. Another notable resident was Carlita, a 21-year-old female white Bengal tiger, who resided in the zoo's tiger enclosure from 1994 until her death in 2013.
The Asian exhibit is home to 3 asian elephants: an elderly bull named Dalip, an elderly female named Nellie and a young male named Ongard. Dalip (born on June 8th, 1966 in Kerela), arrived at the old Crandon Park Zoo on Key Biscayne as a young calf in August of 1967, along with his mate Seetna and he is the father to Spike (born on July 2, 1981 in Zoo Miami and he is Dalip's only surviving offspring) who currently lives in the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington. Sadly Seetena and Dalip were separated due to the damage caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Both were separated during the storm, Seetna moved to Two Tails Ranch (Patricia Zerbini) and stayed there for breeding purposes but sadly died of labour issues in 1996 while Dalip returned to Zoo Miami in 1995 where he has remained ever since.
The American Banker's Family Aviary, Wings of Asia is also located here. The aviary features 300 rare birds of 70 species in a temperate mixed forest, and it highlights the evolutionary connection of birds to dinosaurs. At , it is the largest open-air Asian aviary in the Western Hemisphere. The Children's Zoo, hosts special animals that can be approached to a close distance by guests. Guests can view meerkats, a petting zoo, an exhibit that displays small species of reptiles, amphibians and insects, butterfly gardens, a carousel dedicated to individual animal species, and experience traditional camel rides.
Africa.
The African lobe of the zoo offers animals from different locations on the African continent. Visitors can observe species including reticulated giraffes, pygmy hippos, African elephants, black rhinoceroses, zebras, ostriches, Western lowland gorillas and okapis. Oasis Grill, a small eatery plaza, is situated at the northern end of the African exhibits.
Eleven-year-old "Pongo," at sixteen feet the tallest giraffe in the zoo, was euthanized on January 4, 2021, after failing to recover from a foot injury.
Amazon and Beyond.
Amazon and Beyond, situated in the zoo's northwest corner, opened on December 6, 2008. This area has dedicated to the flora and fauna of South America, and is subdivided into four distinct areas: Village Plaza, Cloud Forest, Amazon Flooded Forest, and Atlantic Forest. The first area provides guests an immersive experience for the unique culture found in central and southern American civilizations. The remaining three areas represent native habitats that are found in the Amazonian region—the "cloud forest", the Amazon River basin, and the Atlantic Forest-Pantanal—with species such as giant river otters, jaguars, Orinoco crocodiles, giant anteaters, howler monkeys, and fruit bats.
Australia.
The zoo's Australian habitat showcases specimens from throughout the region of Australia, Oceania, and the Pacific islands, including koalas, emus, giant tortoises, and tree-kangaroos. Situated near this to habitat, is the 800-seat Sami Family Amphitheater, where daily animal presentations, concerts and cultural events are held. The amphitheater is named in memory of Albert and Winifred Sami, who anonymously donated an estimated $3 million to the zoo from 1993 until their deaths in 2007 and 2014, respectively. Zoo Miami recently celebrated the birth of a baby koala, who was actually born in May, 2019, but only emerged from its mothers pouch on January 8, 2020. The baby koala was named Hope in light of the recent fires that devastated Australia.
Zoo Miami Foundation.
The Zoo Miami Foundation is a group setup as the non-profit support organization of Zoo Miami. It was founded in 1956 and is responsible for improvements over the years of the zoo. Key members of the foundation include Senator Dwight M. Bullard and Diana L. Fitzgerald, among others.