Why is there a Bridesburg flea market at Margaret and James Sts inside the borders of Frankford?
Bridesburg Flea Market Sits Inside Frankford
5 thoughts on “Bridesburg Flea Market Sits Inside Frankford”
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When I was growing up in Bridesburg, the boundary line was never clear. At some point people thought it was the Frankford Creek. Some others said it was the railroad tracks. When Aramingo Avenue was connected to Harbison Avenue in the 60s that became another possible boundary.
If you take the railroad as the boundary then the flea market counts as in Bridesburg. We go along with the U of Penn in their assessment that Aramingo Avenue from the Frankford Creek is the boundary between Bridesburg and Frankford.
Map link: http://cml.upenn.edu/nbase/nbProfileMap.asp
I’m surely no authority, but train tracks always feel like a big boundary. Also, if you make Frankford Creek to those tracks east to demarcate the Northeast Philadelphia line, you don’t have to deal with the confusing question that part of Bridesburg makes it into the NEast. …Anyone to whom I ever spoke doesn’t think Bridgesburg is in the NEast, but rather nearer to Port Richmond, in that awkward group with Fishtown and Kensington. (East Philadelphia anyone?) So, I think the creek, but west of the Avenue it becomes those tracks, which makes that market in Bridesburg. …All that said, it’s close.
Now just be aware, that if you’re going to use the Frankford Creek as the dividing line of the northeast, it was diverted 50 years(?) ago to run straight to the Deleware river. It used to run along Aramingo Ave up to just south of the Frankford Arsenal. Now this would explain why, even though the arsenal is in Bridesburg, it’s really in Frankford. You can even see the stub of what was the true mouth of the Creek to the right of the arsenal on google maps.
This would mean Bridgesburg isn’t in the northeast, which I personally agree with, and make it one of the river wards.
I can speak from some experience regarding the Frankford Creek in Bridesburg. From 1948 to 1964 I lived on Pratt Street hear Bridge within sight and smell of the creek.
At that time, it as more like an open sewer as it wound its way through the neighborhood. My father told me stories of him and his brothers swimming in it when they were kids living up on Melrose Street but those days were long gone.
The other issue with the creek was the flooding. When it rains the creeks rise and they did more than once back up into our basements because the storm sewers emptied directly into the creek. So when the creek level went up, it backed up into every low lying basement.
Diverting the creek solved that problem and covering most of it over solved the odor problem. I was never sure why they left that last part open down near Bridge Street. It might have been because nobody had any designs on the land that would be gained by covering it up. Also at issue is that the ground water there is toxic and that would certainly put off any development.
You will see folks fishing now and then off of the bridge over the creek. Not sure I would eat the fish but the water is clean enough for them to survive. My father and uncles would enjoy that.
Is Quaker City flea market still on state road?