Riverside–11th Street Bridge is a district in the northeastern section of

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

Geography

Riverside–11th Street Bridge lies north of Brandywine Creek and south off the city line with Edgemoore. The western border is formed by Northeast Boulevard ( U.S. Route 13), the other side of which is Price's Run and East Lake neighborhoods, which include the Brandywine Village Historic District. The

Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C., in the south, with major stops in Providence, Rhod ...

(carrying

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

and

SEPTA SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly four million people througho ...

Wilmington/Newark Line The Wilmington/Newark Line is a route of the SEPTA Regional Rail commuter rail system in the Philadelphia area. The line serves southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware, with stations in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, Wilmington, Delaware, and ...

) runs alongs the district's eastern side, separating it from the

Howard R. Young Correctional Institution The Howard R. Young Correctional Institution, colloquially known as Gander Hill Prison, is a state prison for male inmates in Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware New Castle County is the northernmost of the three List of counties in Dela ...

in Gander Hill, Amtrak's Wilmington Maintenance Facility, and

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

's Shellpot Branch. It roughly corresponds to

census tract A census tract, census area, census district or meshblock is a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census. Sometimes these coincide with the limits of cities, towns or other administrative areas and several tracts commonly exis ...

30.2

History

A wooden bridge built in the 1860s over Brandywine Creek was replaced by a steel drawbridge known as the Eleventh Street Bridge in 1882. The current Northern Boulevard Bridge was built in 1932. The neighborhood was the site of the junction of the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

(PRR) Brandywine Branch and its main line at a point called Landlith and ran parallel with the creek on city streets and what has become

Brandywine Park Brandywine Park was the first city park established by the city of Wilmington, Delaware. It is located on the banks of Brandywine Creek, between Augustine Road and North Market Street. The park was established in 1886, and was designed by Samue ...

. The junction lends its name to the Landlith

Interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. In North America, a set of signalling appliances and tracks inte ...

. In conjunction with the construction of the

Wilmington Rail Viaduct The Wilmington Rail Viaduct is a series of Cut and fill, fills and bridges, about long, that carries the Northeast Corridor through the city of Wilmington, Delaware, above street level. Constructed between 1902 and 1908, the structure consists ...

and the Wilmington Shop complex in the early 20th century, developers started building modest workers’ housing in the vicinity of Vandever Avenue at the southern end of the property. St. James A. U. M. P. Church church site was purchased on Jan. 13, 1872 and the corner-stone laid on October 12, 1884. The cornerstone of Kingswood Methodist Episcopal Church was laid in 1891. The Kingswood Community Center started in 1946, when a group of residents came together to create a space for youth afterschool activities, which they found at the Kingswood United Methodist Church. By 1956, the church space became too small for the program, and with financial help of foundations and local philanthropists the current 12-acre (4.9 ha) site on Bowers Street was purchased. The E.D. Robinson Urban Farm, also known as the Brandywine Urban Farm, is at Brandywine Street and East 12th Street. Once a debris-covered lot, it was transformed at the initiation of a local bartender, Adrienne Spencer. Named after Eric Robinson, a former City Councilman and neighborhood activist, the farm, has 600 square feet of

community gardening A community garden is a piece of land gardening, gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for thei ...

and 1,400 square feet of commercial garden space. It has been recognized by the Delaware Center for Horticulture as a model of success in urban agriculture. In 2018, Riverside was designated the 19th location to participate in Purpose Built Communities, a public-private initiate to re-invigorate neighborhoods. In 2020, the stakeholders announced a townhouse development which includes affordable housing.

DART First State The Delaware Transit Corporation, operating as DART First State, is the only public transportation system that operates throughout the U.S. state of Delaware. DART First State provides local and inter-county bus service throughout the state and al ...

operates buses through the district.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riverside-11th Street Bridge Neighborhoods in Wilmington, Delaware