South Side Extension

The South Side Extension of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) was a rail line that ran from its Market Street Branch at West Yard Junction, on the west side of Wilmington, Delaware, across the Christina River to serve industrial areas on the south side of Wilmington.

[2] Diverging from the Market Street Branch at West Yard Junction, the South Side Extension turned southeast and crossed the Christina River on a swing bridge in the middle of the present Wilmington riverfront.

A long spur ran from the wye down C Street to the edge of Christiana Avenue.

[4] An extension of the spur along C Street across Christiana Avenue to the Christiana River would have facilitated a carfloat connection to the Central Railroad of New Jersey, but the branch on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River was never completed.

The B&O arranged with the Reading to switch its remaining customers on the south side of the river,[6] and continued to serve a few industries between West Yard Junction and the bridge.

An aerial photograph looking southeast across the Wilmington riverfront and the south side of Wilmington.
In this image, taken in the early 1930s, the swing bridge (with approach trestles removed) can be seen in the right foreground. Across the river, the extension, now connected to the Reading's South Walnut Street Branch, which it crosses, can be seen running into the Southside neighborhood on C Street.