Railroads had been used for a very long time, but not for travel. Indeed, they were used
commonly in the coal mining regions of both America and England. Horses were used to pull
the wagons and carts loaded with coal along a track made of wood. Horses were also used to
pull barges carrying people and/or cargo along canals. Wooden rails were used as far back as
2,000 years ago by ancient Greeks to help their oxen, horses and humans pulling the weight of
the heavy wagons. It wasn't until "the 1700s that strips of brittle cast iron were laid over
the tops of the wood rails to keep them from wearing out." 3
About 1,200 years ago, the Egyptians invented the first known steam "engine" although they
really had no idea what to use it for. They had boiled a kettle of water over a wood fire and
the resulting steam was collected "in a hollow ball through pipes. A couple of bent pipes
pierced the ball. Hissing steam escaped through the bent tubes, making the ball spin." 3
In 1698, a steam engine was built in England. Its purpose was to help pump water out of coal
mines. Thomas Savery, the man who invented it, coined the word "horsepower" when he compared
his steam engine to that of a horse. It wasn't until 1800 that James Watt built a more powerful
and efficient steam engine that could do more than just pump water. This new engine could
operate at different speeds by use of a throttle. Using a crankshaft, it was also able to turn
wheels and thus self-propel. 3
Mechanically-powered railroading began as a bet made by a Cornish iron-mill owner. His bet was
that a steam engine could be built to haul 10 tons of iron over the course of a 9 mile rail.
He hired Richard Trevithick (a mining engineer) to build the locomotive. By 1804, the first
true steam locomotive carried 10 tons of iron and 70 men! Along the way, it derailed a few
times, each time being righted by men and horses. It travelled only 5 MPH, but proved "it can
be done."4
In 1808, Trevithick put his steam engine on display, running it on a circular track. But it derailed and was wrecked. The crowds stopped coming. The "father of the locomotive" was disheartened and returned to the mines. He died in poverty. 4
Around the same time, in America, a man named Oliver Evans was experimenting with high-pressure steam engines. He invented the first water-powered mill in the world. "Instead of using workers to stir, grind, and carry the grain, he invented an elevator and conveyor belt." He also invented an automatic mixer. In 1804, he designed an even more powerful engine which could "grind grain, saw timber, cut marble, drive a boat, and even drive a carriage." He also created the first drege which was put into use in Philadelphia to deepen the Schuylkill River. 4
In 1813, Evans asked potential backers for funds to created a railroad powered by steam which would carry people from New York to Philadelphia at a rate of about 15 MPH. "I do verily believe that carriages propelled by steam will come into general use, and travel at the rate of 300 miles per day," Evans had proclaimed. These potential backers thought he was crazy and he died just 10 years before his dream would be realized. 3,4
Steam-powered barges and ferries were being used routinely by the mid 1820s. As much as the owners liked the idea of steam engines, they were not too happy with talk of creating an overland railroad. This would become competition for their carriages. But, following Great Britain's lead, Americans wanted a railroad to connect major towns and cities so they could transport needed goods and services, along with people to inhabit new towns along the way. "By 1820, primitive locomotives steamed around the mines and ironworks of Great Britain." 5 Although canals were in much use transporting between towns, the Appalachians made for a great barrier, as did the ice on the canals and lakes in the winter months. Canal boats were slow, too and the "condition of the roads made wagon freight costly as well as slow. Somthing better was sorely needed." 4
John Stevens was another dreamer. Living in New York City and vacationing in Hoboken, NJ, he hoped to have a tunnel built under the Hudson River. He spent time designing steam engines so he could run a business ferrying people back and forth between New York and New Jersey. To demonstrate his ideas about steam engines on rails, he designed a circular track and ran his steam locomotive on his own front lawn. 3
Stevens' Steam Locomotive 3
In England, in 1825, George Stephenson, built a steam locomotive for his company, the Stockton&Darlington Railway. The company had received a royal charter in 1821 to build a public tramway for "hauling wagons and other carriages" by means of "men or horses or otherwise." On September 27, "Stephenson's Locomotion No. 1 successfully pulled 30 cars loaded with water, coal, flour, and people at seven or eight miles per hour along an 18-mile stretch of track in northern England. The age of transporting freight by rail over long distances had begun. America was not far behind." 3
On July 4, 1828, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, Maryland, broke ground for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. However, the B&O's intent was to use nothing more than horse-powered wagons along the trails. But Carroll saw the future in steam. As this 91 year old stated, "I consider this among the most important acts of my life, second only to my signing the Declaration of Independence, if second even to that." 4
That same year, Horatio Allen, an engineer who helped design the fairly new Erie Canal, was "sent to England by the Delaware & Hudson Company to study the successful use of steam locomotives on coal-mine railways." 3 By this time, railroads were already replacing horses on what were called tramways. Allen was so impressed with this new way of travel that he had 4 of these locomotives loaded onto a ship bound for America. England did not want to share its technology with anyone, so plans for the engines were not shared. Since entire locomotives would not fit on ships, they had to be dismantled for the voyage and re-assembled once they reached their destination. Americans fairly quickly learned the technology. 2
On August 8, 1829, Allen drove one of these British steam lcomotives, the 7-ton Stourbridge Lion, along the 16-mile track from Honesdale to Carbondale, in northeast Pennsylvania. 3 The Lion proved to be too heavy for the tracks, but she succeeded and paved the way for future railroads to be built. She was dismantled and stored for parts. 4
For the future of the B&O, Peter Cooper decided that he had to prove that steam could work on rail lines. Using parts he had on hand, including two muskat barrels, he created the first American-built locomotive. On August 28, 1830, the Tom Thumb, named for a popular miniature storybook character of the times, "made the 26-mile roundtrip to Ellicott's Mills, pulling a carload of directors and journalists, in little more than two hours." 4
"The trip was most interesting," noted John Latrobe, the B&O's lawyer. "The curves were passed without difficulty at a speed of fifteen miles an hour...Some excited gentlemen...pulled out memorandum books...at the highest speed, which was eighteen miles an hour, wrote thir names...to prove that even at that great velocity, it was possible to do so." It was so hard to believe that people could travel at greater speeds than that of a horse at full gallop that people believed they lost their senses. 3
After travelling thirteen miles and already on its return trip, the Tom Thumb was challenged by a horse-drawn car on the opposite track. "Racing toward the finish, the locomotive pulled ahead of the horse. Unfortunately a mechanical failure caused the engine to lose power and the race."2 Although the steam engine lost that race, it proved to everyone that it can be done!
Tom Thumb races a horse 4
Money had been hard to come by for very few people believed in the power of steam but now the tide had turned. Steam power was a reality. They had used horses pulling wagons for so long and they weren't sure that steam engines would make their lives any better, fearing the opposite (just like almost 100 years later when dreamers talked about airplanes.). Many people protested that they didn't want the noise or the soot, many more complained about the trains "spooking" the cows and chickens, and setting fire to the haystacks. But the steam engine prevailed! 3
By the middle of the 1830s, steam powered railroads began to appear in the eastern part of the United States financially backed by private and corporate investors and speculators. Although there were a few tracks laid in the south, most of the rail lines were laid in the North and Northeast. America's agricultural society was moving into the Industrial Age. The railroad was not only a symbol of change it was an instrument for change. 3
1830
1840
1850
The red lines indicate railroads 6
As England had looked to the sea toward expansion (the American Colonies), the Americans looked overland toward their "manifest destiny."* Some cities west of the Appalachian Mountains existed such as Chicago and San Francisco. But there was very little else. A railroad connecting the east coast cities with the cities west would improve the transport of goods and services to and from the Pacific shore.
A few venture capitalists saw the money-making opportunities in investing in a railroad that would cross the country. The government deeded land tracts to those who could raise the money to build the railroads and in turn, the owners of the railroads sold adjacent land to settlers willing to work the land and establish towns. This was a win-win situation for most of the railroad owners, the westward expansion of the country and a cheaper, more efficient way of moving goods and people.
As the railroads grew in popularity, the country began to look toward making the railroad the primary form of transportation to outlying areas. Railroads needed to be connected to each other in the quest to eventually join the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Transcontinental Railroad was about to be built.
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* "If something is made manifest, it means that the thing has been made so clear and apparent that it cannot be mistaken or questioned. Destiny is a course of action or behavior to which one is drawn over time, as if guided by a higher power. So in a general sense, a "manifest destiny" is a course of action that is clearly meant to be. In the 1830's and 1840's, Americans became attached to a specific concept of "Manifest Destiny"--a belief that God intended the United States to extend from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific coast. Indeed, the most avid supporters of "Manifest Destiny" believed the United States could, should, and would lay claim to the entire North American continent." 7
