You will receive the exact certificate pictured
Guaranteed authentic
Over 125 years old
First mortgage bond
April 1, 1890
Issued, uncanceled
International Bank Note Company
Hand signed
10 1/2" (w) by 15" (h)
Signed by Peter AB Widener
Historical Context
The Metropolitan Crosstown Line was a surface public transit line in Manhattan, New York City, connecting the 14th Street Ferry and Desbrosses Street Ferry on the Hudson River with the Grand Street Ferry on the East River.
It was owned by the New York Railways Company, and contained the Spring and Delancey Streets Line streetcars.
The company was discontinued September 21, 1919 but restored from February 1, 1920 to May 20, 1931 by court order.
Peter AB Widener
During the Civil War, Widener won a contract to supply mutton to all Union Army troops within 10 miles of Philadelphia. The city was a major transportation hub for troop deployment, and the location of many of the largest Union military hospitals. Widener invested his $50,000 profit in horse-drawn city streetcar lines. He grew to prominence in Philadelphia politics, and had become the City Treasurer by 1871. In 1883, he was a founding partner in the Philadelphia Traction Company, which electrified the city's trolley lines, and expanded into other major cities in the United States.
He and his business partner, William L. Elkins, invested with businessmen such as Charles Tyson Yerkes, the streetcar czar of Chicago. Widener used the great wealth accumulated from public transportation to become a founding organizer of United States Steel and the American Tobacco Company, as well as to acquire substantial holdings in Standard Oil.
Widener died on November 6, 1915 in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. At the time of his death, Widener was considered to have been among the 100 wealthiest Americans, with his fortune of of about $32,000,000 ranking him as the 29th richest man in America at the time.
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