Crum Creek

Early in the 19th century, the Leiper Canal built in 1828–29 during the middle of the American canal age ran about 3 miles (5 km) along Crum Creek in Delaware County to its mouth in eastern Pennsylvania's Delaware Valley carrying its owner‘s quarried products to docks on the Delaware River tidewater until 1852.

The Leiper Railroad was a 'family business–built' horse drawn railroad of 0.75 miles (1.21 km), constructed in 1810 after the quarry owner, Thomas Leiper, failed to obtain a charter with legal rights-of-way to instead build his desired canal along Crum Creek. The quarry man's 'make-do' railroad was the continent's first chartered railway, first operational non-temporary railway, first well-documented railroad, and first constructed railroad also meant to be permanent. The credit of constructing the first permanent tramway in America may therefore be rightly given to Thomas Leiper. He was the owner of a fine quarry not far from Philadelphia, and was much concerned to find an easy mode of carrying stone to tide-water. That a railway would accomplish this end he seem to have had no doubt. To test the matter, and at the same time afford a public exhibition of the merits of tramways, he built a temporary track in the yard of the Bull's Head Tavern in Philadelphia. The tramway was some sixty feet long, had a grade of one inch and a half to the yard, and up it, to the amazement of the spectators, one horse used to draw a four-wheeled wagon loaded with a weight of ten thousand pounds. This was the summer of 1809. Before autumn laborers were at work building a railway from the quarry to the nearest landing, a distance of three quarters of a mile. In the spring of 1810 the road began to be used and continued in using during eighteen years. by John Bach McMaster, page 494, A History of the People of the United States, from the Revolution to the Civil War

Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railway locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it moved to nearby Eddystone in the early 20th century. The company was for decades the world's largest producer of steam locomotives, but struggled to compete when demand switched to diesel locomotives. Baldwin produced the last of its 70,000-plus locomotives in 1951, before merging with the Lima-Hamilton Corporation on September 11, 1951, to form the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation. The company has no relation to the E.M. Baldwin and Sons of New South Wales, Australia, a builder of small diesel locomotives for sugar cane railroads.

Darby Creek (historically known as Church Creek or the Derby River) is a tributary of the Delaware River in Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia counties, in the U.S. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is approximately 26 miles (42 km) long. The watershed of the creek has an area of 77.2 square miles (200 km2). It has twelve named direct tributaries, including Cobbs Creek, Little Darby Creek, Ithan Creek, and Muckinipattis Creek. The creek has a low level of water quality for most of its length. The lower Darby Creek area was deemed a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) due to contamination with dangerous chemicals from two landfills. Darby Creek flows through a narrow valley in its upper reaches and a tidal flat in its lower reaches. The creek is in the Piedmont Uplands and Atlantic Coastal Plain physiographic provinces. Major rock formations in the watershed include the Wissahickon Formation. Three small dams historically existed on the creek, but were removed in 2012. The watershed of the creek is largely developed, with roughly half a million people inhabiting it. Most of the watershed is in Delaware County, but some parts are in Chester County, Philadelphia County, and Montgomery County. The watershed is part of the Lower Delaware drainage basin. Historically, the Lenni Lenape people inhabited the area in the vicinity of Darby Creek. By the 17th century, the Dutch and Swedish had arrived in the area, followed some years later by the English. Numerous mills of various types were eventually built along the creek and several railroads traversed the watershed. In modern times, grants by various organizations have been awarded to improve the creek and its watershed. The Darby Creek Valley Association operates within the watershed. Part of the creek's length is designated as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery, part is a Trout Stocked Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. Various species of fish, including redbreast sunfish, eels, and trout, inhabit it. Several areas in the vicinity of the creek are listed on the Delaware County Natural Areas Inventory. These include the Darby Creek Mouth Mudflat, the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, and the Ithan-Darby Creek Wetlands. A reach of the creek is navigable by canoe.

Chester Township is a township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,940 at the 2010 census, down from 4,604 at the 2000 census. The Sun Center Studios are located in Chester Township.

Crum Lynne is an unincorporated community in Ridley Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States.

Leedom Estates is a small unincorporated community in Ridley Township, Pennsylvania founded in 1867. It sits alongside Interstate 95 south of Philadelphia in Delaware County.

General Steel Industries, Inc. (GSI) was an American steel company founded as General Steel Castings Corporation in 1928. The company's first headquarters were in Eddystone, Pennsylvania and, prior to completing its own modern steel foundry in 1930, acquired the operations of the Commonwealth Steel Company, a critical supplier to the rail industry.An acquisition program to diversify from its core steel castings business of manufacturing large steel castings was initiated in the late 1950s and resulted in six divisions and one subsidiary by 1971. The broader business portfolio allowed GSI to close the Castings Division, the company's only business prior to diversification, in 1973. In 1974, GSI was operating 19 plants across the United States and internationally and continued operating as an independent company until it was acquired by Lukens Steel in 1981.

Crum Lynne station is a station on the SEPTA Wilmington/Newark Line. Though the station sits along the Northeast Corridor, it is not served by any Amtrak intercity services. The station, located at Chester Pike (US 13) & West Ridley Avenue in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, is actually northeast of the community the station is named for. It was named by a then-Pennsylvania Railroad vice president after Crumlin, Wales, where his mother was born. It includes a 14-space parking lot, and sheltered platforms on both West Ridley Avenue and Chester Pike.

The Printzhof, located in Governor Printz Park in Essington, Pennsylvania, was the home of Johan Björnsson Printz, governor of New Sweden. In 1643, Johan Printz moved his capital from Fort Christina (located in what is now Wilmington, Delaware) to Tinicum Island. At that time Fort Gothenburg was established in addition to Printz's dwelling and headquarters. Two years later a fire swept over the newly established settlement. The Printzhof was reconstructed more solidly and lavishly. The two-story log structure contained lumber sent from Sweden, glass windows and lavish draperies.Johan Björnsson Printz, his wife and younger children returned to Sweden during 1653. The Dutch West India Company subsequently captured the Swedish colony in 1655. Armegott Printz, the eldest daughter of Governor Printz, had married his successor, Lt. Johan Papegoja. She remained at The Printzhof even after the Dutch conquest. During 1662, she sold the estate for a partial down payment with the remainder due when she reached The Netherlands. When payment was refused, she returned to reclaim possession of her property. Ten years later in 1672, the Governor and Council ruled Armegott Printz should be in possession of the property. She subsequently sold the estate a second time and returned to Sweden where she died on November 25, 1695 at Läckö Castle.Today, the Printzhof's stone foundations are the only remains of the settlement. The Printzhof site is located near the intersection of Taylor Avenue and Second Street in Essington, Pennsylvania. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

On April 10, 1917, four days after the United States declared war on Germany, an explosion at the Eddystone Ammunition Corporation's artillery shell plant in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, killed 139 people. The majority were women and girls who worked in the loading room, loading shells with black powder. 55 of the victims could not be identified and were buried in a mass grave. Hundreds more were injured. The victims were arguably among the first American casualties of World War I. The explosion was initially blamed on German saboteurs, and later on Russians. It may in fact have been an accident caused by malfunctioning equipment.

The Delaware Valley, sometimes referred to as Greater Philadelphia or the Philadelphia metropolitan area, is a metropolitan region in the Northeast on the East Coast of the United States that centers on Philadelphia and spans four U.S. states: southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, northern Delaware, and the northern Eastern Shore of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the core metropolitan statistical area of the Delaware Valley had a total population of 6.288 million residents, making it the nation's seventh-largest, the continent's eighth-largest, and the world's 35th-largest metropolitan area. The combined statistical area of the Delaware Valley is even larger with a total population of 7.366 million. The Delaware Valley's urban core is Philadelphia, the nation's 6th-most populous city. Other major urban population centers in the region include Reading, Upper Darby Township, and Chester in Pennsylvania; Atlantic City, Camden, Vineland, and Cherry Hill in New Jersey; and Wilmington and Dover in Delaware. Philadelphia metropolitan area has a gross domestic product (G.D.P.) of $431 billion, the ninth-largest among U.S. metropolitan areas. The Delaware Valley has been influential in the nation's history and economy. The area has been home to many people and sites significant to American culture, history, and politics. Philadelphia is sometimes known as "The Birthplace of America", since both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drafted and signed in the city. The Delaware Valley was home to many other instrumental moments during the American Revolution, and Philadelphia served as the nation's first capital for most of the 18th century until construction of the nation's capital in Washington, D.C., in 1800. Both the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were signed and ratified in Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 1776 and 1789, respectively. The Delaware Valley is one of the nation's leading regions for academia and academic research with a considerable number of globally-known and highly ranked universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, Thomas Jefferson University, Rowan University, Villanova University, Saint Joseph's University, Temple University, Rutgers University–Camden, La Salle University, the University of Delaware, Stockton University, and others. Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley are a biotechnology hub. As of 2023, metropolitan Philadelphia had entered the ranks of the top five U.S. venture capital centers, facilitated by its relative proximity to the New York metropolitan area and its entrepreneurial and financial ecosystems. In addition, South Jersey and the wider Philadelphia metropolitan area have become a U.S. East Coast epicenter for logistics and warehouse construction.