Editing Schuylkill Banks (section)

== Development History ==

The Schuylkill River's east bank in Center City had served industrial purposes for over a century before the Schuylkill Banks project transformed it into parkland. Railroad tracks, utility infrastructure, and industrial facilities occupied the river's edge, preventing public access to the water. The river itself was heavily polluted from industrial discharge, with few residents seeing it as amenity. This condition persisted even as Fairmount Park, on the river's upper reaches, demonstrated that the Schuylkill could serve recreational purposes.<ref name="srdc">{{cite book |title=Schuylkill River Trail Master Plan |year=2014 |publisher=Schuylkill River Development Corporation |location=Philadelphia}}</ref>

The Schuylkill River Development Corporation, established in 2003, undertook the complex work of assembling riverfront parcels and negotiating with railroad and utility owners whose infrastructure occupied the corridor. Environmental remediation addressed contamination from industrial uses. Trail construction required creative engineering to navigate the constrained corridor between railroad tracks and river. These challenges, overcome through persistent effort, created the continuous parkland that now extends through Center City.<ref name="gallery"/>