Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1918-03-02
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PIONEER PERIOD OF RAILROAD
BUILDING IN AMERICA.


The railroad had been established, i'm
proved and very considerably perfected
and had reached a more or less advanced
stage of practical utility in England; and
the locomotive engine had been invented
and built and was being used to some ex-
tent, and was at least partially successful
upon the English roads
In America the steamboat of Fulton had
been launched upon the waters Of the Hud-
son, making regular trips between the cities
of New York and Albany and showing adj
vantages greater than any known method
of transportation. Other steamboats, of
larger dimensions were built and put into
successful operation fully demonstrating the
superiority OF steam power on inland waters.
Canals had been constructed in some
places in America and were proving their
utility and gaining friends and supporters
and seemed to indicate a superiority over
all other methods, then known, of travel
and transportation inland and between nav
igable waters.
Railroads as a means of travel and trans
portation of freight had not yet entered
into the sphere of consideration to any eX-
tent in America. They were however the
subject of some discussion among the peo-
pie who had learned of their adoption in
England, but there was a general doubt OF
their feasibility for practical purposes in
this country.
It was some thirty-fou years after the
establishment of the national government
before any real beginning was attempted,
and thirty years before the first rail-
road, short line in Massachusetts,, was
built in America; and electricity as force
capable of being utilized as a physical
power in any manner beneficial or prac-
teal had not yet entered into the con-
sideration or thought of man.
The State of New York chartered in
April, 1928, the Delaware and Hudson
Canal Company to construct a canal and
railroad sixteen miles long from the coal
fields of Pennsylvania to the Hudson at
Rondout.
In 1926 the Quincy Railroad in Massa-
chusetts four miles long, was built to haul
granite to the port of Neponset. The rails
were wooden stropped with iron. This was
the first railroad built in America, and was
visited by people from various parts of the
country who were interested in railroad
building.
The Mauch Chauk railroad, nine miles
long, was built in 1927 in Pennsylvania
to connect coal mines with Lehigh river.
The rails were wood, faced with iron.
The railroad chartered by the State of
New York and granted to the Delaware and
Hudson Canal Company in 1923, was built
from Honesdale to Carbonate, sixteen miles
long. for carrying coal, and was completed
in 1929
The State of Maryland chartered the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1927 and
began work in 1928 Six miles Of the road
was completed in 1923 and the tracks laid,
and cars put onto the line for the con-
venience of officers and to indulge the de-
sire of some Of the community with ride.
It is stated that this railroad was the first
one opened in the United States for the
carrying of passengers. Thirteen miles of
the road were finished in 1880. The Wash
ington branch was opened to Washington
in August 1884 or 1885,
The Charleston and Hamburg railroad
chartered by South Carolina in 1927 or
1925 was completed distance of one hun
dred and thirty-fve miles in 1888, and was