Newkirk Viaduct Monument

Newkirk Viaduct Monument

2018 photo
39°56′24″N 75°12′23″W / 39.9400°N 75.2063°W / 39.9400; -75.2063
Location	West Philadelphia
Designer	Thomas Ustick Walter
Type	obelisk
Material	white marble
Width	5 feet (1.5 m)
Height	14 feet (4.3 m)
Completion date	1839
Dedicated to	Matthew Newkirk
Moved from original location sometime after 1927.[1] Moved to current location in 2016.[2]

The Newkirk Viaduct Monument (also, Newkirk Monument) is a 15-foot (4.6 m) white marble obelisk in the West Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was installed in 1839 to mark the completion of the Newkirk Viaduct, the first permanent railroad bridge over the Schuylkill River. It is inscribed with the names of 51 railroad builders and executives, among other information.

Designed by Thomas Ustick Walter, a future Architect of the Capitol, the monument was erected by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad to mark its completion of a bridge across the Schuylkill River and the first railroad line south from Philadelphia. The monument originally sat about 700 feet (210 m) from the riverbank. Between 1927 and 1930, it was moved about 600 feet (180 m) further inland, where it sat for decades by the main line that became Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. In 2016, it was moved to its present location, about 100 feet (30 m) from the river's edge at the north end of the Bartram's Mile section of the Schuylkill River Trail.