Trolleys also helped to develop the area. The first independent trolley started in Chester in 1883. It was the Chester and Media Electric Railway and was chartered on April 18, 1892 (later to become Southern Pennsylvania Traction Company). The first trolley rolled out on March 6, 1893. The route came from Chester, went out Chestnut Parkway, turned into Garden City, crossed private fields to Rose Valley and Providence Roads, continued up Providence Road, went out Wallingford Avenue, turned onto Vernon Street in South Media (at that time the most active part of the township) continued to Manchester Avenue, Front Street, South Avenue, and ended in Media at Orange Street. A second line starting in 1894, came from Angora. It rolled along Baltimore Pike into Media, and also ended at Orange Street. It was called the Delaware County and Philadelphia Electric Railway. It also became part of Southern Penn. A third line named the Philadelphia, Morton and Swarthmore Street Railway Company came from Darby, went down Yale Avenue, and continued across Crum Creek on a high bridge over Rose Valley Road. It proceeded up Rose Valley Road to Brookhaven Road, over a private right-of-way past Rose Valley Swim Club to Woodward Road, and then continued past the Moylan station, up the hill on Manchester Avenue, and into Media on Radnor Street. It was organized in 1899 but the line did not extend into Nether Providence until July 4, 1904 because it was necessary to build that long trestle across Crum Creek. The fourth trolley line came from 69th Street, through Lansdowne, Springfield, Smedley Park, the northern end of Nether Providence, and into Media on State Street. Its first trip was made in 1913 and it was officially titled the Philadelphia and West Chester Traction Company, better known as the Red Arrow Line. Thanks to men such as T. Jay Sproul, vice president of the line and for eighteen years one of our Township Commissioners, the line actually prospered during the Depression. It is the only survivor of the exciting era of the trolley. It continues today as SEPTA with airconditioned cars and an upgraded track.

     Developers followed the new transportation as sea gulls follow a ship. Along the Red Arrow trolley line, Horace Twaddell's 87-acre estate became "Pine Ridge" and William Howell's 58 acres was named "Bowling Green." The railroad line spawned "Wallingford Hills" on D. J. Bullock's 21 acres. Horace Furness' 67-acre property became "Heatherwold" and on Joseph F. Fitzell's land grew "Moylan."

     During the late 1930s the trolleys started to disappear. Roads improved, automobile use increased and buses became more available. By 1870, the basic road system of the township was in place. By 1913, some roads such as Providence, Chester, Manchester, Brookhaven, some parts of Chestnut Parkway, and, of course, Baltimore Pike were macadamized. Baltimore Pike was the township's one and only turnpike. It was laid out in 1808 as the Philadelphia, Brandywine, and New London Turnpike, a private toll road. The state decided to take over the road and re-name it Baltimore Pike in 1920, after a truck loaded with potatoes crashed through the old, covered, timber bridge and fell into Crum Creek. A new wider bridge was erected in 1924, and a seventyfoot memorial arch was raised in the center to mark the entrance to Nether Providence. This arch contained two, fourteen-foot bronze tablets with the engraved names of the 282 men and two women who died in World War 1. When the road was again widened in 1958, the arch was demolished. The tablets were cleaned and moved to the Baltimore Pike entrance to Smedley Park.

     More transportation - more development! In 1910, the largest planned subdivision to date was begun by John J. Ryan, the creator of Garden City, Long Island. It was named (appropriately) "Garden City." H. P. Woodward built custom homes along the road that bears his name in the early 1920s. World War I accelerated development in the Township's southern end. "Union Park" was built in 1916 for munitions workers employed by industries along the Delaware River. In 1925, "Lapidea Hills", adjacent to Springhaven Club and named for Governor Sproul's estate, opened. Later on in the 1930s, "Sharpless Manor" on Hastings Avenue was developed. "Providence Village" (in 1939) and "Green Acres" (in 1948) sprang up on what was the Palmer-Ryan farm between Golf View Road and Providence Road.

     The advent of the family car and paved roads produced more subdivisions: 1953 - Sykes Estate, Parkridge, and Sproul Estates; 1960 Wesley Manor (off Beatty Road) and Wallingford apartments on the Cutler property (off Wallingford Avenue); 1961 - Wallingford Knoll on the Allison property; 1962 - Scott Glen Estate (off West Brookhaven Road); 1966 Putnam Village on the old Aberfoyle County Club property (on the corner of Brookhaven Road and Waterford Road); and Oak Knoll on Ward Hinkson's property (on Avondale Road).

     Institutions were also attracted to our township. The Philadelphia Orphanage Society founded in 1815 by a group of eight women moved to Wallingford in 1904, closed in 1965 and reopened October 25, 1969 as the Wallingford Convalescent, Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. A convent on Manchester Road became Notre Dame High School and is now Pennsylvania Institute of Technology. Pendle Hill Quaker Study Center was established in 1930. The Mary Lyon School (located in Swarthmore), established a golf course between Golf View Road and Avondale Road. In 1904 the Springhaven Club (established in 1896) moved from Providence Road and Jackson Street in Media (Five Points) to its present 115 acres on Providence Road. In 1920, the Aberfoyle Manufacturing Company of Chester bought the 110 acre farm of George Lindsay called "Edzell Farm" and established the Aberfoyle Country Club for the family enjoyment of its employees. It closed in 1950 when the company moved to New Jersey. These clubs offered their members club houses, swimming pools, tennis courts, dance pavilions, playgrounds, playfields, and picnic areas. In short, everything proper suburbanites would need to sustain themselves was provided.

     On February 15, 1898, the battleship Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor. On April 25, 1898, Congress declared wax on Spain. On May 23, 1898, the Wallingford Red Cross Organization was formed. Its purpose was to raise money and supplies for the sick and wounded soldiers in Cuba.