James was born May 1, 1848, in Philadelphia, United States, in a long line of McCreas who came to Delaware and Pennsylvania near two hundred years earlier. His parents were James Alexander McCrea and Ann Bispham Foster. He attended the
Pennsylvania Polytechnic College, gaining an education in civil engineering. He began railroad work with the Connellsville & Southern Pennsylvania Railroad in June 1865. In December 1867 he began work on the Wilmington & Reading Railroad, and in September 1868 with the Allegheny Valley Railroad. During his presidency the Pennsylvania built the Hudson River tunnels and Pennsylvania Station in New York City. McCrea also served as president of a considerable number of subsidiary roads: Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington; Northern Central; West Jersey & Seashore; Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis; Grand Rapids & Indiana; and Indiana & Lake Michigan. He completed the construction of
Pennsylvania Station (New York) in 1910, bringing the PRR lines under the
Hudson River and, for the first time, into
New York City and the Second Vice-President of the company,
John Borland Thayer died in the sinking of RMS
Titanic. McCrea was elected to the
American Philosophical Society in 1910. A biographer wrote "his success has been achieved by his ability, his practical knowledge of details, his sound judgment, and his indefatigable application to the arduous duties of railroad work. He is a man of most affable manner, generous disposition, profound insight, and acute, though humane sense of justice." James McCrea died March 28, 1913, at Ballyheather, his home at
Haverford, Pennsylvania. Ada died October 20, 1926. Both are interred at
West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. ==References==