Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad was an early shortline railroad  from Philadelphia to Columbia, Pennsylvania, built with a western terminal near the former ferry site known as Wright's Ferry, in Lancaster County, where it met with navigations and improvements on the Susquehanna River east bank approximately miles south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Many of its rights-of-way were obtained by the actions of the Pennsylvania Canal Commission which operated the railroad under the various enabling acts of the Pennsylvania legislature. In 1857 the Railroad and most of the Pennsylvania Canal system was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad as one of the properties legally denoted as the Main Line of Public Works which included properties of the Pennsylvania Canal Commission as far west as Pittsburgh and the Allegheny Portage Railroad.