Reading Company

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Reading Company's $ 1000 Gold Bond dated June 19, 1902

The Reading Company (pronounced: "Redding") was an American industrial group that was mainly known for its involvement in the railroad business . It was set up as a railway and industrial holding company in 1871 and went bankrupt in 1971. Thereafter, the company continued as a real estate company until it merged to Reading International in 2001. In the 1870s, the Reading Company was the largest company in the world.

The origins of the Reading go back to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad . This railroad company was founded on April 3, 1833 to transport coal from the mines in eastern Pennsylvania to New Jersey and Delaware. The great economic importance of coal helped the company to make large profits, which it soon invested in other branches of business, namely in the areas of mining , steel industry , shipbuilding and real estate . The company rose to become the largest company in the world at the time in the 1870s.

In response to antitrust restrictions, the Reading Company was set up as a holding company in 1871, which henceforth ran the railroad and heavy industry ( Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company ) as separate subsidiaries. This remained for a few decades until the Supreme Court ordered the break-up of the company. By January 1924 the industries were given up, and the Reading Company then concentrated on the real estate and transportation business. This led, among other things, to the fact that the railway companies (including the Philadelphia and Reading Railway) were dissolved and the business was taken over by the mother Reading Company. It is therefore often referred to as the Reading Railroad .

The Reading Company's route network in 1923.

The railroad network stretched between Philadelphia , Harrisburg , Williamsport and Scranton ; there were routes to New York City and Wilmington .

Like many other railroad companies in the eastern United States, the Reading began to decline after World War II . The importance of coal as an energy carrier declined, heavy industry migrated, and competition in the transportation business increased with the construction of the interstate highways . In 1971 Reading finally had to file for bankruptcy.

Reading's bankruptcy proceedings resulted in just giving up the shipping business. The lines and the operating resources were given to the Conrail in 1976 . The real estate business remained under the Reading name and was increasingly expanded to include cinemas in the United States, the Caribbean and Oceania during the 1980s . The railroad properties were gradually sold; last was the old Reading Terminal in downtown Philadelphia in 1993.

In 2001 the merger with two other companies in this branch, the Craig Corporation and Citadel, to form Reading International Inc.

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