By 1910 the riverfront at Bridesburg was a linear bulkhead edged with two sets of railroad tracks as freight trains began to supplement transport by ships along the river. Bromley’s 1910 map (above, left) shows the Beltline tracks at the water’s edge with the northern terminus at waterfront property of the Foerderer Glue Works (formerly Bridesburg/ Jenks Mfg. Works) property. A couple of feet inland are the Kensington and Tacony tracks which lie in the right-of-way of Delaware Avenue and continue north across the Frankford Creek. The K & T tracks make much of the Tacony Chemical Works accessible by rail. As rail transport began to supplant shipping as a way of moving goods and passengers, Bridesburg began to lose its advantage over inland sites as a convenient location for industrial and residential settlements.

At the beginning of the 20^th century Bridesburg was described as a neighborhood of “neat row homes with gardens, a riverfront lined with boathouses and a creek with boats ready in their slips for a day of fishing.” (Freitag & Silcox, p3) Photographs illustrate this story better than Bromley’s maps. The Beltline tracks served as a boardwalk of sorts for Bridesburg’s boathouses. Undated photos show a lively array of two-story structures, many with balconies at the second story for a better view of the river. Large doors on the first story indicate that boats were stored at that level. The Bridesburg Yacht club and activities at the Bridge Street offered additional recreational options for enjoying the waterfront alongside busy industrial sites.

By the WWII years “Philadelphia along the Delaware River had more mills and factories than any other city in the world.” (Waldowski) Just before 1921, the Rohm and Haas chemical company purchased the estate of the late John B. Lennig and continued manufacturing chemicals on the site of the Tacony/ Lennig Chemical Works. Rohm and Haas acquired adjacent parcels through the 1960’s when the company boasted 2500 employees (The Bridesburg Story). In 1932 an aerial photograph (below, left) shows that the Rohm & Haas site had taken over the site of the former Bridesburg Mfg Company (the distinctive square of buildings is on the right side of this photo midway between the top and bottom). The boats on the top right side of the 1932 photo are gone in the c.1945 photo (below, right). The Bridesburg Mfg buildings have been demolished and long mounds of yellow sulfur have been stockpiled along the river at the upper center portion of the photo, prior to being used in the manufacture of sulfuric acid.