Wawa, Pennsylvania

Wawa is an unincorporated community located in Middletown Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania in the United States, at coord|39|54|06|N|75|27|35|W|region:US_type:city|display=inline,title. Named for the Ojibwe word for "goose" (taken from "The Song of Hiawatha"), [cite web|url= http://www.native-languages.org/hiawatha.htm |title= Native American Words in Longfellow's Hiawatha |accessdate= 2006-08-09] Wawa is the location of the corporate headquarters for Wawa Dairy, [Note that the Wawa Corporate webpage correctly says "Wawa" means "goose", but incorrectly claims it is a Lenape word.cite web|url= http://www.wawa.com/wawaprofile/pro-home.asp|title= Wawa > WaWa Profile > Company Profile |accessdate= 2006-08-09] which operates convenience stores in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. It was originally known as Grubb's Bridge. Ashmead's 1884 "History of Delaware County" depicts the Edward Worth estate called "Wawa" here, and it is possible the name came to be applied to the whole community. [cite book |last= Ashmead |first= Henry Graham |title= History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania|origdate= 1884|url= http://www.delcohistory.org/ashmead/ashmead_pg298.htm |accessdate= 2006-08-09|publisher= L. H. Everts & Co.|location= Philadelphia|id= |doi = |pages= page 298]

In addition to the convenience store headquarters, Wawa was also the former location of the Franklin Mint, which produced fine collectors items, and was once a train station and junction for the Pennsylvania Railroad's three branches — the West Chester Branch, which is now the SEPTA R3 commuter rail line (currently inactive west of Elwyn, but plans are in place to restore service west to a new park-and-ride facility in Wawa), the Chester Creek Branch, which was abandoned in 1972, and the Octoraro Branch, which was abandoned between Wawa and Chadds Ford in 1973. The former Octoraro Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, used to run from the Susquehanna River, in Maryland, to Wawa. The easternmost part of this was used by a steam tourist railroad, the Wawa and Concordville Railroad, from 1966 to 1970. Floods in 1971 and 1972 caused it to be abandoned.

Wawa is also notorious for having numerous accidents on U.S. Highway 1 (which runs through the area) at the approach to the R3 underpass, whose main feature is a sharp, downhill curve known to locals as "Dead Man's Curve." In 1920, Babe Ruth was involved in an automobile accident. He and all of the occupants of the car were ejected, but all escaped serious injury. In 1999, five girls who were juniors at the local high school were killed in a high-speed (the road was posted at 55 mph), head-on collision with a tree at the curve. The principal cause was speeding, along with the girls being under the influence of an inhaled substance (electronics dusting spray), a phenomenon known as "huffing." The results, the release of which caused the eventual dismissal of the medical examiner (under political pressure from the parents of the dead students) became a story that eventually aired on ABC News 20/20 in 2000.

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