As SEPTA replaces the Easton Road and Keswick Avenue railroad bridges in Glenside, the Cheltenham Township Historical Commission included in its April 2025 issue a century-old background for the project.

According to the commission, the original crossings were “at grade, meaning the tracks and street physically intersected at the track level, as it does on Highland Avenue.”

“The Reading Railroad began a program to raise the track beds and lower the street level, the result of which is the ‘tunnel’ effect of Easton Road under the tracks,” the commission wrote. “The structures adjacent to Easton Road and the tracks had their basements exposed and finished, as those became the first floor entrances to the structures.”

Courtesy of the commission, the clipping below is from The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s September 24, 1925 issue:

In 2023, the Facebook group You know you grew up in Abington, PA if you remember … shared photos of Easton Road circa 1870 and 1928:

From their Facebook post:

This is Easton Road between Mt Carmel & Glenside Ave, 50ish years before & then later as the tunnel was dug to go under the railroad tracks on Easton Rd at the Glenside Train Station, as stated there was more traffic (sound familiar even today) so they wanted it to br safer and cars not hit by trains.

Circa 1870 for the railroad photo (no bridge) I believe the photo is looking southbound from Abington towards Cheltenham south on Easton Road.

The bridge photo was taken in 1928… I believe facing the opposite direction, looking northbound from the Cheltenham side north towards Abington, the businesses such as Bike Works were created after the bridge was dig out. I love this history of our towns.

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