Pennsylvania Canal and Bridge at Columbia

This postcard, printed in the United States in the first years of the 20th century, bears a legend, “Pennsylvania Canal and Bridge, Columbia, Pa.

The illustration may be older than the printing of the postcard.

The scene appears to be looking south along the banks of the Susquehanna River.

In the second quarter of the 19th century, canals lined both sides of the river, to Columbia on the east and to Wrightsville on the west.

Canal traffic through the mid-19th century, and railroad connections through the first half of the 20th century, made Columbia an important commercial center.

The Pennsylvania Railroad system and the Reading Railroad network connected at Columbia.

In the years before the Civil War, the canals sometimes functioned as paths to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

The first image is an enlargement of the illustration on the postcard; the entire postcard is presented as the second image.