Constructed between 1902 and 1908, the structure consists principally of fills supported by heavy stone retaining walls, punctuated with plate girder bridges over streets, and augmented by a few sections of brick arch viaduct.

The viaduct extends from Vandever Avenue, on its east end (a location on the railroad known as LANDLITH interlocking), across the Brandywine Creek and then roughly parallel to the Christina River through Wilmington Station.

As the PRR digested its Gilded Age acquisitions, freight traffic on its lines boomed, increasing by 64% between 1897 and 1902 in the recovery following the Panic of 1893.

Longer, heavier, and more frequent trains pushed the railroad's existing infrastructure to its limits; however, they also brought an enormous increase in earnings.

In many of the cities served by PRR lines, the railroad tracks ran at ground level, crossing the streets at grade.

In Wilmington, the PRR had already built the Shellpot Branch in 1888 to divert through freight traffic through the sparsely developed marshes to the south of the city.

[7] However, many industries along the Christina waterfront still required local freight service, and congestion in the city streets remained a serious problem.

In February 1901, the PRR's Annual Report announced the railroad's intention to make extensive improvements to its line between Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

[3] The original plan for the viaduct called for a double-track structure, enclosed between two stone walls 12 and 14 feet (3.7 and 4.3 m) high, which would largely follow the previous alignment of the main line.

The railroad originally planned to build iron bridgework to connect old and new segments of the main line during construction to minimize service disruptions.

Plans also had to be altered in the West Yard area, where marshy ground dictated the construction of an arched viaduct rather than a fill.

The original completion date of mid-1905 was not met,[3] in part due to a general retrenchment which temporarily stopped the work, apart from the Brandywine Creek bridge, on March 1, 1904.

[11] As early as 1918, the PRR had begun electrifying some of its lines radiating from Philadelphia to replace steam trains with double-ended multiple unit cars to ease congestion at its terminal.

In addition to emphasizing the stability and importance of the PRR, the elevated fill both visually and spatially separated the Christina River waterfront from the rest of the city north of Front Street.