By Snejana Farberov 0 If New York City could transform an abandoned railway into a beloved park, why can't Philadelphia? That is what landscaper and Philadelphia history buff  Peter VanMeter asked himself in 2010 when he founded VIADUCTgreene, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of a blighted three-mile stretch of train tracks slicing through the heart of the City of Brotherly Love. The idea was to transform the vast, long-defunct Reading Viaduct covering 55 city blocks, encompassing both elevated and submerged portions, into a lush green space on the model of New York City's famed High Line - a one-mile elevated track on the lower west side.
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Activists in Philadelphia have been working since 2003 to turn 3 miles of train tracks into a park
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City Branch and Reading Viaduct once belonged to Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
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Company declared bankruptcy in the 1970s and train tracks have stood abandoned since 1990s
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Study found that demolishing the tracks will cost 10 times more than turning them into green space
For nearly a century beginning in 1890, the Reading Viaduct carried trains laden with goods into @placeholder.