Pennsylvania Railroad black and gold logo Placemat

The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR, legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy") was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and was headquartered in Philadelphia. Named for the commonwealth it was established in, by 1882, the Pennsylvania Railroad had become the largest railroad (by traffic and revenue), the largest transportation enterprise, and the largest corporation in the world. Its budget was second only to the U.S. government. It was sometimes called the standard railroad of America Over the years, it acquired, merged with or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies.[2] At the end of 1926, it operated 11,640.66 miles (18,733.83 kilometers) of rail line;[notes 1][3] in the 1920s, it carried nearly three times the traffic as other railroads of comparable length, such as the Union Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads. Its only formidable rival was the New York Central (NYC), which carried around three-quarters of the Pennsy's ton-miles. In 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with its rival New York Central Railroad and the railroad eventually went by the name of Penn Central Transportation Company, or "Penn Central" for short. The former competitors’ networks integrated poorly with each other, and the railroad filed for bankruptcy within two years. Image copyright 1999-2020 Stan Feldman