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Name:
Tidewater Pipe Co.
Region:
Allegheny National Forest Region
County:
Mckean
Marker Location:
PA 446, .3 miles Southwest of Coryville
Dedication Date:
August 9, 1949
Behind the Marker
In Titusville in 1878, Byron Benson incorporated the Tidewater Pipe Company to build a pipeline to transport crude oil to Williamsport, Pennsylvania. An arrangement was made with the Reading Railroad to haul the crude in tank cars to Philadelphia and New York. By 1879 the line was completed. In 1882 it was extended to Bayonne, NJ. Benson's strategy was, in part, to bypass Standard Oil's dominance of the transportation market. The "Tidewater line", as it was known, was six inches in diameter, 109 miles long, and pumped oil over a mountain nearly 2600 feet high.
