Philadelphia has some wonderfully preserved graveyards. The graveyard at Christ Church or the city's first suburban cemetary, Laurel Hill, may be the best known. But many of Philadelphia's graveyards have not been carefully cared for. These graveyards have been moved, destroyed, neglected and abandoned as the city has grown and changed.
I was fascinated by the story of one of these lost cemeteries. A cemetery swept away by changing politics and a growing university. According to Philadelphia lore, in 1956 Temple University purchased the large, Monument Cemetery. They hoped to build a parking lot and playing fields on the site. In order to clear the land of human remains and tombstones 28,000 bodies had to be re-located. Most unclaimed bodies were quietly dumped into large mass graves in suburban cemeteries. The headstones and monuments were dumped into the Delaware River as support for the base of the Betsy Ross Bridge. The Betsy Ross Bridge was being constructed at the time and the headstones served as “riptrap” for the emerging bridge. Apparently at low tide you can still see the headstones submerged in the water at the base of the bridge and you can make out the names of those now resting in an unmarked suburban grave.*
Eeek!! I have chills just writing about this!
Riveted by the story, I decided to try to find a way to see this in person. So I cleared my Valentine’s Day calendar for an adventure to the shores of the Delaware River. I went online and used a handy tide calculator for the river and found out when the tide would be at its lowest. Then my accomplice and I got directions…and we were off.
I was super excited to jot down the names of these forgotten individuals and was ready to go traipsing through some muck for the view. Unfortunately our exciting adventure was thwarted by lots of barbed wire, no trespassing postings and signs of a transient community. I didn’t realize just how far we’d have to trek through the underbrush and how much fence climbing we’d have to do between the beginning of the bridge supports and actually reaching the water. We didn’t feel up to climbing fences and so we left the tombstones undiscovered and opted for a drive over the Bridge to a favorite Jersey diner. I guess we'll have to go by boat to see the stones. Does anyone have a spare kayak and the burning curiosity to confirm this legend?
Our trip was not completely in vain. We did have the opportunity to drive through the massive Tioga Fruit Terminal where I collected some great new fun facts. Tioga Fruit Terminal is an impressive port where a huge percentage of Chilean fruit comes into the US. Apparently the Delaware River ports are responsible for importing and processing 65% of all the cocoa beans used in the US and lots of the nuts, fruits and cut flowers.**
Let me know if you’re up for finding some submerged headstones. If you’ve got a life vest we’ll go boating down the Delaware where we’ll dodge ships dropping off bananas.
**This story and more fascinating Philadelphia cemetery stories can be found in Thomas H. Keels book “Philadelphia Graveyards and Cemeteries” published by Arcadia Publishing in 2003.
Today’s Trivia: Why use the words graveyard and cemetery in the same title? According to http://wiki.answers.com a graveyard is on the grounds of a religious institution while a cemetery is just for burying people and not associated with a particular religion.
**More info on the Tioga Fruit Terminal can be found at http://customs.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/02122009_5.xml or http://economyleague.org
5 comments:
Hi. Came across your blog today while surfing. Just wanted to point out that you're actually using the Disney version of the directions to Neverland. There really isn't a "star" in it.
It's just "Second to the right and then straight on 'til morning."
Just trying to help. :)
And for more Peter Pan adventure that's VERY different from all the rest, click my name.
BELIEVE!
I have seen those stones! We used to play underneath the Betsy Ross Bridge all the time as kids. The area under the bridge has since been fenced in (I think after 9/11), and its much harder to get back there. But, there are small train bridges that go over the creek (more on that later), and you may still be able to get over those, coming from Deleware ave.
It's really kind of startling to see headstones laying in the water. The ones we had seen are not directly under the bridge supports itself, but they line the banks of 'frankford creek', a creek that empties into the delaware river right near the Bridge. If you are underneath the bridge, looking towards the river, there are some trails through the brush that go off to the right, in the direction of the train bridge next to the Betsy.. IF you follow those, you will come to the steep banks where the stones are acting as breakers.
I actually have some videotape of the stones under the creek. Given it was such a morbid scene, we used the stones as a backdrop for a very sad homemade horror film, using a VHS video camera that we rented.
joe,
thanks for the info! Its awesome to hear about your expereinces as kids, using the headstones in vhs movies. Thanks for the directions to the train bridge and Frankford Creek. I'll have to check it out.
I was there sunday 5/30/10 with a few friends. We made a trip seeking out the gravestones. Being a photographer i took tons of pictures. this trip started all of our summers and now we are planning on going on adventures through out the summer. im super excited about. If you want to see some of the images, you can email me. wassphotography@gmail.com
Hello,
I just came across your blog and I have a comment about your assumption.
Although I do not doubt that the headstones were not moved out of the way for the construction of the Betsy Ross Bridge, the fact is that the Bridge was not under construction at the time of the demolition of the cemetery. The Betsy Ross Bridge was constructed between 1969 - 1976. This was more than 10 years after Temple bought the Cemetery.
Please refer to the following link:
http://www.drpa.org/drpa/bridges_br.html
Thanks
Dee
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