The arrival of the railway system provided the final ingredient to the rapidly expanding U. S. transportation system in the 19th century. In 1809 a survey map highlighted a ‘‘tramroad’’ or rail of wooden tracks that employed horsepower to pull a wagonload. This technique remained in use for some time and gave little indication that a major change was about to occur in overland transportation. James Watt’s improved steam engine and efforts to apply steam power to water transportation that culminated in Robert Fulton’s Clermont’s sail on the Hudson River in 1807 prepared the way for the adoption of steam power to the railroad, the key component in the emergence of a railroad system in America.
Events gained momentum in the 1820s. John Stevens is considered to be the father of American railroads. He showed the potential of steam locomotion on an experimental iron rail circuit he constructed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1826, three years before George Stephenson demonstrated his steam powered locomotive in Great Britain. Stevens obtained grants for railroad construction, and others soon followed suit. Serious efforts began in 1830 as surveying, mapping, and construction commenced on the Baltimore and Ohio line. By the end of the year, fourteen miles of track had been laid, although that line continued to use horsepower for another year. Over the next two years the United States had put only 73 miles of rail lines in existence. It took substantial effort and persuasion to continue railroad construction in the face of real and perceived obstacles. The foundation bed for the tracks often caused the rails to shift and loosen the spikes, and sparks from the locomotives set the surrounding grasses on fire. In addition, the locomotives frequently jumped the tracks and, for a time, a fearful public viewed the ever-increasing speed of the locomotives as dangerous and unhealthy.
The path was not always an easy one. In this early period railroads remained in competition with turnpikes and canals, which still attracted financial backers who viewed those older endeavors as safer vehicles for capital investment. Furthermore, the economic depression that swept the nation beginning in 1837 tightened the monetary supply and slowed railroad construction until the early 1840s. However, the foundation for long-term change occurred when Peter Cooper’s Tom Thumb became the country’s first steam powered locomotive and carried passengers and cargo along a thirteen mile route from Baltimore to Ellicott Mills, Maryland in the same year. New lines appeared in rapid succession: the Mohawk and Hudson in the fall of 1830; the Saratoga in July 1832; and the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company which boasted 136 miles of track in 1833, the longest steam powered railroad line in the world at that time. It was only a matter of time before the railroads supplanted canal era. In 1830 the country had 3,326 miles of canals and 3,328 miles of track. During the next decade the amount of railway lines increased nearly three times.16 By 1851 the United States had 10,600 miles of track, including a 1,497 mile leg connecting New York and New Orleans. In 1852 an additional 2,000 miles were constructed, and the pride in America’s achievement was clear as ‘‘no country in the world could equal ours (U. S.) for the number of railroads.’’17 By the Civil War the amount of track had more than doubled to 27,000 miles.
Investment capital began to surge into railroads. In the 1840s, $200 million was spent on railroad construction. That sum is greater than the amount of investment in turnpikes, canals, and steamboats in the previous forty years. Foreign investment also flowed into the American railroad industry. In 1853 nearly one fourth of all railroad bonds in the United States were foreign owned. By 1860 the railroads represented the first $1 billion industry in the United States. Railroads, like canals, quickened the tempo of the country’s economic development by reducing transportation costs even more than canals. In addition, the construction of locomotives and rail lines energized the nation’s iron, then steel, metal working, and other manufacturing enterprises so necessary to the expanding rail network. That growth was varied depending on the section of the nation. By 1860 New England had twice as much railroad mileage as the Old Northwest and four times that of the South. Speed of transit became the ultimate goal. The early railroads quickly provided transport at three to four times that of the most efficient steamboats. The rapid growth of rail transportation also generated wild ideas about how to deal with the environmental disruption that had occurred. For example, one such proposal advocated the planting of shade trees on each side of the tracks to provide shade, screen dust, and strengthen the embankments along the tracks. Supporters of this plan conceded that it might take ten to fifteen years to have trees mature to the point of achieving these goals, a concession that ended any further serious discussion.18 Another idea came from an individual who traveled between Baltimore and Washington and had to move forward several passenger cars to escape the thick dust that filled his car. He advocated the opening of railroad-company owned farms along the railroad routes that would utilize crops as ground cover and grasses along the railroad embankments to reduce or eliminate the clouds of dust enveloping the trains. His theory was that this would generate additional income for the railroads to encourage investment and also provide employment for agrarian laborers.19
The acceleration of railroad construction by the mid-1830s stimulated a demand for surveys and mapping, an activity that aided in the planning and construction of lines. However, this process proceeded without much long term consideration, and most early surveys were for short passenger routes that returned little or no profit. The importance of the surveys was that they obtained sanction and funds from the federal government for states and private business interests to use in mapping the best routes for railroad construction, an activity that had long-term positive results for railroad expansion. One example is an early map based on the survey of the route of the Western and Atlantic Rail Road of Georgia, 1837. The railroad constructed along this survey line stretched the 138-mile distance from Atlanta to Chattanooga. One could not have suspected the notoriety that this rail line would obtain in the Civil War when Union soldiers donned railroad employee clothing and seized a Confederate locomotive known as the General, thereby capturing a major Southern transportation route.
Following the Civil War, U. S. railroad construction soared. In 1872 the nation built 7,340 miles of new track. At that moment, 60% of U. S. railroad track existed east of the Mississippi River and 40% west of the river. But the nation was undergoing a fundamental shift westward. In 1880 7,150 miles of fresh track ware laid, but the balance of overall track mileage had made a remarkable transformation: 20.4% east of the Mississippi River and 79.6% west. The building boom continued unabated: 9,800 miles in 1881, 11,500 miles in 1882, 9,000 miles in 1886, and 13,000 miles in 1887. By 1892 the United States had an estimated 174,600 miles of railroad track, or the equivalent of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined21 (see Document 19). The railroad boom also stimulated locomotive construction. The Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia is a case in point. The industry employed 3,000 workers and turned out an average of ten locomotives a week. In 1861 it completed locomotive 1,000, and by 1880 had constructed some 5,000 locomotives for commercial use.22
Railroad safety was a constant concern. Accidents were frequent and gained widespread and detailed coverage in the press. One such incident was the 1888 collision of two trains on the Erie railway line near Avoca, New York. A mistake in track orders resulted in two trains being assigned to the same track approaching each other at a fast speed. A horrific crash occurred that caused injuries to several passengers and the death of one of the engineers whose head was completely severed from his body and found in the snow beside the track. His body was so wedged in that it took more than an hour to remove it from the wreckage. His left hand still gripped the lever that had applied the air brakes in an attempt to stop the train from the head on collision. Both locomotives were used for scrap metal, and the cost to repair the track and peripheral damage was estimated at $25,000.23
World History
