History of Railroads

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Railroads were born in England, a country of dense population, short distances, and

large financial resources. In England problems were very different from those in

America, which in the early 1800s was a nation of great distances, sparse population,

and limited capital. Americans had to learn to build railroads for their own country by

actual experience; they could not copy English methods.

The first American railroads started from the Atlantic ports of Boston, Mass.; New York

City; Philadelphia, Pa.; Wilmington, Del.; Baltimore, Md.; Charleston, S.C.; and

Savannah, Ga. Within 20 years four rail lines had crossed the Alleghenies to reach their

goal on the "Western Waters" of the Great Lakes or on the tributaries of the Mississippi.

Meanwhile other lines had started from west of the mountains, and by the mid-1850s

Chicago, Ill.; St. Louis, Mo.; and Memphis, Tenn., were connected with the East. Still

other lines were stretching westward beyond the Mississippi. An international route

connected New England and Montreal, Que., and another one crossed southern Ontario

between Niagara, N.Y., and the Detroit River.

During the 1850s north-south routes were developed both east and west of the

Alleghenies. It was not until after the American Civil War, however, that a permanent

railroad bridge (as distinguished from a temporary wartime structure) was constructed

across the Ohio River.

After the Civil War the pace of railroad building increased. The two Pacific

railroads-one, the Union Pacific, building westward from Omaha, Neb.; the other, the

Central Pacific, building eastward from Sacramento, Calif.-had been started during the

war to help promote national unity. They were joined at Promontory, Utah, on May 10,

1869, completing the first rail connection across the continent.