Side Quest: Wade through the Creswell Station culvert

Here is one of the many beautifully constructed tunnels and culverts built along the Enola Low-Grade Line. Most of them are entirely hidden from view. In fact, scores of people pass over them every day without ever knowing.

The Atglen & Susquehanna Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad (commonly referred to today as the Enola Low-Grade) is one of the greatest feats of engineering marvels in Lancaster County. The goal of this ambitious project? Create a low-grade railroad line with no slope steeper than one percent and no curve sharper than two degrees.

Easy on paper.
Difficult in reality.

Roughly 1,000 men and 150 horses were deployed to build it. Many were immigrants from Italy, Turkey, Syria, and other southeastern European countries and were taken directly from incoming boats to the Lancaster job site.

Here are the GPS coordinates (39.967833, -76.456861) for the Creswell Station culvert.

To learn more about the Enola Low-Grade and its history, click here.

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Purchase a beautiful reproduction map from 1875 or 1899 of Manor Township or the 1919 Road Map of Lancaster County that highlights the route of the Enola Low Grade..