Which railroad's 1893 bankruptcy helped trigger the U.S. Panic of 1893?

The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad's bankruptcy helped trigger the U.S. Panic of 1893.

The railroad, commonly called the Reading Railroad, entered receivership in February 1893 after financial problems linked to heavy debt and expansion. Its failure intensified doubts about railroads and banks, sectors that had become central to the late nineteenth-century economy. The panic grew into a severe financial crisis when other railroad failures followed, including the collapse of the National Cordage Company.

The crisis led to bank runs, business failures, falling prices, and very high unemployment. The U.S. Treasury's declining gold reserves also weakened confidence in the currency and made the crisis more difficult to contain. The depression that followed lasted for years and affected farms, factories, and rail networks.

The Reading Railroad is often remembered through its appearance on the Monopoly board, but that fictional game reference is separate from its real historical role in the 1893 crisis.