page_title: Germantown Pike
section_title: Philadelphia County
hierarchical_section_title: Germantown Pike / Route description / Philadelphia County
caption_attribution_description: I am on Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill, awaiting the No. 23 service to return to Center City. The No. 23 used to be a streetcar service, whose tracks are still visible here, but the service has been run with buses since the early 1990s. Upper-middle class Chestnut Hill, at the northwestern city limits, was the 19th Century version of an exurb, connected to Philadelphia by two rail lines and this trolley line, but otherwise a world away from the bustle of Center City. It certainly is a very nice diversion from the rest of Philadelphia, and certainly off the beaten path.
context_page_description: Germantown Pike is a historic road in Pennsylvania that opened in 1687, running from Philadelphia northwest to Collegeville. The road is particularly notable for the "imposing mansions" that existed in the Germantown neighborhood in Philadelphia. The road was left in ruins after the British destroyed it in the Revolutionary War during the 1777 Battle of Germantown, and was not rebuilt until 1809. Portions of Germantown Pike were signed as U.S. Route 422 before the latter was rerouted along a freeway alignment to King of Prussia.
context_section_description: Upon crossing Northwestern Avenue, SR 3053 ends and the road heads into the city of Philadelphia in Philadelphia County as Germantown Avenue, a two-lane undivided city street. The road heads into the Chestnut Hill neighborhood and passes southwest of Chestnut Hill College before heading into forested areas of Wissahickon Valley Park and crossing Wissahickon Creek. Germantown Avenue curves east and continues through wooded areas, passing to the south of Morris Arboretum. The road turns southeast and gains a second eastbound lane as it passes southwest of the Woodmere Art Museum, narrowing to two lanes at the Bells Mill Road intersection. Germantown Avenue passes through wooded residential areas and passes to the southwest of Chestnut Hill Hospital. The road heads into the downtown area of Chestnut Hill and passes south of SEPTA's Chestnut Hill Bus Loop, where Germantown Avenue becomes surfaced with bricks and the unused tracks of SEPTA's former Route 23 trolley (now a bus route) begin to follow the road. Germantown Avenue comes to an intersection with the southern terminus of Bethlehem Pike, where it becomes part of SR 4007. The road passes to the north of Chestnut Hill West station, which serves as the terminus of SEPTA's Chestnut Hill West Line, and continues southeast through downtown Chestnut Hill. Germantown Avenue crosses Cresheim Creek and passes under an abandoned railroad line in a wooded area. From here, Germantown Avenue heads into the Mount Airy neighborhood, where it passes a mix of homes and businesses in the neighborhood. Farther southeast, the road comes to an intersection with Washington Lane, where SR 4007 splits southwest along Washington Lane and Germantown Avenue becomes SR 4005. From here, Germantown Avenue continues into the Germantown neighborhood and passes more urban residential and commercial development, heading through the downtown area of Germantown at the Chelten Avenue intersection. From here, the road continues southeast through more urban areas in the Germantown neighborhood.
  Germantown Avenue curves south and passes under SEPTA's Chestnut Hill East Line and Main Line and over CSX's Trenton Subdivision northeast of the Wayne Junction station serving the SEPTA lines. From here, the brick surface ends and road heads into the Nicetown–Tioga neighborhood, passing urban areas of homes and businesses and crossing under US 1 (Roosevelt Expressway). Germantown Avenue runs through urban development and passes over Conrail Shared Assets Operations' Richmond Industrial Track immediately before coming to an intersection with US 13 (Hunting Park Avenue). The road continues southeast and reaches an intersection with PA 611 (Broad Street) and Erie Avenue. From here, Germantown Avenue becomes a city street that runs south-southeast through urban areas of homes and businesses, passing to the east of Temple University Hospital and intersecting the southern terminus of Old York Road. The road passes under Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and heads into the Fairhill neighborhood, where it curves to the south. Germantown Avenue turns to the southeast and the former Route 23 trolley tracks split to the south to follow 10th and 11th streets. The road continues southeast through urban areas as a two-lane street, where Germantown Avenue becomes discontinuous between Norris Street and Berks Street due to a shopping center. From here, Germantown Avenue resumes and runs south-southeast through urban residential and commercial areas, crossing Cecil B. Moore Avenue. The road becomes one-way westbound between 4th Street and Thompson Street. Germantown Avenue becomes two-way again and heads into the Fishtown neighborhood. Here, the road crosses Girard Avenue, which carries SEPTA's Route 15 trolley line. Following this, Germantown Avenue continues southeast past urban development and reaches its terminus at an intersection with Front Street and Laurel Street underneath I-95 and SEPTA's Market–Frankford Line.
caption: Germantown Avenue in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia
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