Baltimore Belt Line pulled by horses along Pratt Street between the B&O's Camden Station and the PW&B's President Street Station. In 1884, the PW&B was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), a major rival of the B&O, and the PRR cut off the connection. The B&O then proceeded to build its Philadelphia Branch (formally known as the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad) to connect to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, in turn connecting with the Central Railroad of New Jersey for B&O's New York service. The combination also provided a connection to the Staten Island Railway, which served as the terminal switching company for
Reading, Pennsylvania longest in the Pennsylvania Hillclimb Association series, which follows the same route the automaker used to test his cars. Reading played host to a stop on the PGA Tour, the Reading Open, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The city's cultural institutions include the Reading Symphony Orchestra and its education project the Reading Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Reading Choral Society, , the GoggleWorks Art Gallery, the Reading Public Museum and the Historical Society of Berks County. Reading is the birthplace of graphic artist Jim Steranko, guitar virtuoso Richie Kotzen, novelist and poet John Updike, poet Wallace Stevens, and singer-songwriter