U.S. Technology: History

Lesson 4: Transportation Revolution

Railroads

In the early part of the 1800's, while steamboats were starting to make their mark, only a few people thought of using steam for transportation over land. One of these people was Oliver Evans.

Evans had been working on an engine that was small and light enough to be installed in what had at one time been a horse-drawn carriage. While Evans' experiments were promising, he was never able to raise enough money to perfect them.

In the year 1813, he wrote an article which Cowan quotes on page 113 discussing the possibility of a railway between Philadelphia and New York to be used, “for the transportation of heavy produce, merchandise, and passengers on carriages drawn by steam engines.” He goes on to say that “carriages propelled by steam will come into general use, and travel at the rate of 300 miles a day.”

The railroad craze hit the United States in the 1820’s and by the time the 1830’s had rolled around it was more than just a craze, it was serious business. Opinions as to who started the railroad boom in America are divided, although most historians agree that the British were about ten years ahead of the Americans as far as railways were concerned.

The honor for first trying to start an American railway would probably go to John Stevens who received a charter to build a railroad across New Jersey in 1821, and a similar charter to go across Pennsylvania in 1823. However, he was not able to attract the type of investment he wanted and was not able to build either of the routes that he selected. But he did construct, with his own hands no less, a fully functional steam locomotive.

As far as the rails go, credit for laying the first rails in the U.S. would go to Granite Railroad. This railroad started in Quincy Massachusetts in 1826, and laid a set of rails two miles long. Open wagons on rails were drawn by horses to haul granite blocks from Quincy to the Boston harbor.

The first steam locomotive was purchased by the managers of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company for the price of $4,000. They intended to use it on a railway they hoped to build that would connect two parts of their canal system, so that freight could be loaded off canal boats and onto railroad carriages for land transport. Unfortunately, their locomotive was put out of service after only its first run as it was too big for the tracks they had built.

The Baltimore and Ohio is generally thought of as the “Oldest Railroad in America”. I place that in capitals with quotations as I presently live in Baltimore and see signs that say that all the time. While their tracks were laid on July 4, 1828 the railroad operated under horsepower for its first two years, and even experimented with sail-powered cars.

Think about the most important advances the railroad provided between its early years and the time at which the Golden Spike was driven in 1869.

Points to Ponder on the early days of the railroad:

1)Of the three forms of transportation mentioned, what was the most efficient from the beginning? 2)Which form of transportation had the most growing pains? 3)Which form of transportation had the most extended outreach?

Bibliography: Cowan, Ruth Schwartz. “A Social History of American Technology” Pages 93-118 “Transportation Revolutions” Oxford University Press (1997)