Editing Reading, Pennsylvania (section)

===20th century===
[[File:ReadingPAKodachrome1983.jpg|thumb|A [[Kodachrome]] slide of Reading developed in May 1983]]
In the early 20th century, the city participated in the burgeoning automobile and motorcycle industry as home to the pioneer [[Brass era|"Brass Era"]] companies, [[Daniels Motor Company]], [[Duryea Motor Wagon Company]], and Reading-Standard Company.<ref>Clymer, Floyd. ''Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877–1925'' (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950), p.158.</ref>

Reading experienced continuous growth until the 1930s, when its population reached nearly 120,000. From the 1940s to the 1970s, however, the city saw a sharp downturn in prosperity, largely owing to the decline of the heavy industry and railroads, on which Reading had been built, and a national trend of urban decline.

Following more than a century of prosperity, the Reading Company was forced to file for bankruptcy protection in 1971. The bankruptcy was a result of dwindling coal shipping revenues and strict government regulations that denied railroads the ability to set competitive prices, required high taxes, and forced the railroads to continue to operate money-losing passenger service lines. On April 1, 1976, the Reading Company sold its current railroad interests to the newly formed Consolidated Railroad Corporation ([[Conrail]]). That same month, the Reading Brewing Company closed.<ref>"Reading Brewing Co. Will Close April 15." Reading, Pennsylvania: ''The Reading Eagle'', April 2, 1976.</ref>
In 1972, [[Hurricane Agnes]] caused extensive flooding in the city, not the last time the lower precincts of Reading were inundated by the [[Schuylkill River]]. A similar, though not as devastating, [[Mid-Atlantic United States flood of 2006|flood]] occurred during June 2006.