30th Street Station

Old greek style pillars rise above the afternoon rush of people as they chatter through the station, all speedily moving at a pace that seems to blur their every gesture. You sit for a moment and take a breath, wondering where all of these people are going and why it is so important to get there quickly. Perhaps they simply don't like being in-between places and need to keep moving lest they become bored. 30th Street Station is the main railroad station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its design was influenced by the Northeast Corridor electrification. This allowed the tracks to pass beneath the main body of the station without exposing the passengers to soot as steam engines of earlier times had. The station itself also included a number of innovative features, including a pneumatic tube system, an electronic intercom, and a reinforced roof with space to allow the landing of small aircraft. The station was opened in 1933, shortly after the peak of expansion by the former Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which was headquartered in Philadelphia. It replaced Broad Street Station as the latter became too small to handle Philadelphia's growing passenger-rail traffic. The PRR sought a location on its main line between New York and Washington. The opening scenes of the 1985 motion picture Witness were filmed inside the station.