City and Region of Trenton Mercer County, N.J.

Large map of the city of Trenton, NJ with manuscript updates from the Pennsylvania Railroad.

This detailed city plan was originally published by the City of Trenton under John Hartman, Director of Public Works, in 1927. This particular example is a unique copy that was updated by the engineering department at the Pennsylvania Railroad, reflecting changes up until the mid-1940’s.

The map has been dissected and mounted to linen with custom leather covers. The underlying base map has been updated with color manuscript annotations and a custom legend identifying track ownership across the city between the Penn R.R. and the Reading R.R. Additional notes identify specific locations of interest; such as railyards, passenger stations, proposed connections and more.

In addition, the map shows an interesting mid-century transportation configuration a few decades prior to Penn R.R.’s merger with the New York Central in 1968. The resulting company, the Penn Central, declared bankruptcy in 1970 (the largest filing at the time) and many of its lines were eventually taken over by Amtrak. A century, the Pennsylvania Railroad was the largest corporation in the world and paid out annual shareholder dividends for over 100 consecutive years, showing just how rapidly and completely railroading fortunes could change.