Since 1864 the advance in earnings has not been so great as in the
four preceding years, because of the necessary reduction in travel
and transportation since the war. But enormous improvements have been
made, thousands of steel rails have been laid, locomotives, freight
cars and passenger cars of the most beautiful description have
been added to the stock, new dépôts made (some of the finest in the
country), a new line planned and executed, carrying the road from the
meadows and marshes of the Delaware through the valleys and beautiful
rolling uplands of Delaware county to Chester, avoiding all danger
from floods, and going over or under twenty-seven streets to enter the
city without possible peril to life or limb. A whole railroad system
subsidiary to this road has been developed in Delaware, and to-day,
with the best road-bed, double tracks, steel rails, the best
locomotives, the best passenger cars in the country, supplied with all
the modern improvements of brake, platform and signal, and a perfectly
drilled corps of subordinates, this road may challenge the attention
of the country, and be pointed out as one of the best evidences of the
growth and prosperity of Philadelphia.

[Illustration: SHARON HILL.]

[Illustration: GLENOLDEN.]

The dépôt in Philadelphia, at the corner of Broad street and
Washington avenue, is a large and spacious building, which does not
pretend to be a model of domestic architecture, but is roomy and
reasonably well ventilated. The bell rings, we take our seats and move
out through the usual coal-yards and shanties and suburbs, passing the
United States Arsenal, until we reach Gray's Ferry, where we see the