The way things were …

… Remembering Philadelphia's Broad Street Station | RealClearHistory.

“As both the main station in its hometown and its headquarters, Broad Street Station was the consummate symbol of the nation’s most powerful railroad, one that carried 10 percent of all freight and 20 percent of all passengers in the U.S.,” said Dan Cupper, editor of Railroad History, the journal of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society and the author of several books on the railroad. 

“Philadelphia sat at the nexus of the railroad’s two most important routes – New York to Washington (today’s Amtrak Northeast Corridor) and Philadelphia to the Midwest (Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Detroit). In its heyday, the PRR operated 5,000 trains a day,” he said.