A Century of Railroad Building

By John Moody in 1919

The transformation of the United States into the nation we recognize today is inextricably linked to the proliferation of mechanical innovations, chief among them agricultural machinery and the transformative power of the railroad. The former unlocked the potential of vast, uncultivated lands, converting them into fertile farms capable of sustaining a growing population. The latter, the railroad, provided the crucial transportation network to carry these agricultural yields to burgeoning markets across the country and beyond.

Prior to these inventions, American expansion, while present, was a slower, more arduous process. Settlers had indeed crossed the formidable Allegheny Mountains, ventured into the expansive Mississippi Valley, and even established footholds along the Pacific Coast. However, without these technological advancements, the United States might have evolved into a sprawling, loosely connected entity, more akin to a far-reaching Roman Empire, heavily reliant on its oceans, internal waterways, and rudimentary highways for any semblance of economic and political cohesion.

The true marvel of the 19th century lies in the construction of a unified nation, stretching over 3,000 miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This nation, capable of nourishing over one hundred million free people, and distributing the necessities and comforts of civilization on an unprecedented scale, finds its explanation in the parallel development of harvesting machinery and the railroad.

The A Century of Railroad Building emerged from the fusion of two fundamental concepts: the application of mechanical power to achieve speed, and the utilization of a smooth running surface to minimize friction. While these principles are now intrinsically linked, they initially existed as separate entities. Indeed, railroads existed long before the advent of steam engines and locomotives.

To trace the origins of the modern railroad track, one must journey back three centuries to the coal mines of England. Here, rudimentary wooden rails were employed to guide small carts, facilitating the transport of coal from the mines to the tidewater. The evolution of this invention is quite evident. The movement of heavy coal wagons along public highways created deep ruts in the road surfaces. In response, an innovative individual began to repair the damage by laying wooden planks within these furrows. The coal wagons traversed these makeshift roadbeds with such success that landowners began to construct more permanent planked roadways leading from the mines to the river’s edge. Logs, serving as what we now call "ties," were placed crosswise at intervals of three or four feet. Thin "rails," also crafted from wood, were then laid lengthwise upon these supports.

This ingenious arrangement proved remarkably effective in reducing friction. A single horse could now effortlessly pull a large wagon laden with coal, a task that previously required two or three teams struggling through muddy and uneven roads. To enhance the durability of the road, a thin layer of iron was applied to the wooden rails. Subsequent improvements included the manufacturing of more durable wagons with iron wheels.

The precursor to the modern roadbed appeared in 1767, when the first rails were cast entirely of iron, featuring a flange on one side to maintain the wheel’s position. This occurred a mere two years after James Watt patented his groundbreaking steam engine, and nearly half a century before George Stephenson constructed his first locomotive. The railroad, at this stage, remained entirely independent of steam propulsion, much like ships existed for centuries before the introduction of mechanical power. The railroad had been a familiar sight in the mining regions of England for at least two centuries before Watt’s invention breathed new life into it, expanding its applications. In this regard, the evolution of the railroad mirrors that of the automobile, which existed in rudimentary forms long before the invention of the gasoline engine made it practically viable.

In the United States, the early 19th century witnessed the emergence of three novel modes of transportation: the steamboat, the canal boat, and the rail car. Of these, the rail car was the slowest to gain widespread acceptance. As early as 1812, John Stevens of Hoboken, New Jersey, sparked both interest and amusement by advocating for the construction of a railroad across New York, connecting the Hudson River to Lake Erie, as an alternative to a canal. For several years, Stevens tirelessly promoted his vision from town to town and state to state, but his efforts proved largely fruitless. The overwhelming success of the Erie Canal was ultimately hailed as a decisive argument against the perceived absurdities of the railroad. This triumph ignited a canal-building frenzy that swept across the nation.

Despite these setbacks, railroad proponents remained undeterred. The population soon divided into two distinct factions: those who championed canals and those who favored the "iron highway." Newspapers passionately defended one side or the other, and the debate became a popular topic in debating societies. Public meetings and conventions were organized to promote one mode of transportation while denouncing the other. Proponents of canals argued that their effectiveness was well-established, citing De Witt Clinton’s successful completion of the Erie Canal, which had transformed New York City into the leading metropolis of the Western world. Conversely, they claimed that the railroad was an unproven experiment, and questioned the wisdom of investing resources in an unproven technology when a viable alternative already existed.

It was easy to criticize the railroad, which faced constant opposition, particularly from farmers. This resistance was based on arguments that resonate even today. Opponents claimed that the railroad was a natural monopoly, beyond the reach of private citizens, and therefore a dangerous entity that would inevitably infringe upon individual rights. They also raised concerns about the practicalities of railroad construction, suggesting that rails would be washed away by rain, vandalized by malicious individuals, or rendered unusable by winter weather, effectively halting all transportation.

Canal advocates contrasted these perceived shortcomings with the idyllic image of packet boats gliding along the Erie Canal, complete with comfortable sleeping quarters, dining facilities, and spacious decks where passengers could relax and socialize. They argued that canal travel was inherently more comfortable and enjoyable than anything the railroads could offer. In response, railroad advocates offered a single, irrefutable argument: its unparalleled speed. While a towboat required three or four days to travel from Albany to Buffalo, railroads promised to complete the same journey in less than a day. Ironically, some early predictions overestimated the potential of railroads, suggesting that they would eventually reach speeds of 100 miles per hour, a feat that has never been consistently achieved safely.

A modern observer transported to one of the first railroad lines in the United States might well find themselves siding with the canal enthusiasts. The images that accompany accounts of early railroad days, often depicting trains composed of omnibus-like carriages pulled by locomotives with vertical boilers, represent a relatively advanced stage of development. While Stephenson had demonstrated the practicality of the locomotive in 1814, and John Stevens had constructed an American version in 1826, local skepticism persisted. Farmers feared that sparks from the locomotives would ignite their haystacks and barns, and that the noise would frighten their livestock, disrupting egg and milk production.

Consequently, alternative propulsion methods were often preferred on the earliest railroads. Horses and dogs were used, winches powered by men were sometimes installed, and in some cases, cars were even equipped with sails.

Of these methods, the horse proved the most popular, as it produced no sparks, carried its own fuel, made little noise, and posed no risk of explosion. Its primary drawback was its tendency to stray from the track, a problem that early railroad builders addressed with a unique solution. Some cars were equipped with a treadmill inside, where two horses would patiently propel the vehicle while passengers sat on either side. The lack of a clear understanding of the railroad’s ultimate function, coupled with a fear of monopolies, led some states to construct roadbeds as public enterprises, allowing individuals to furnish their own cars, similar to the system used on canals. However, the drivers of these early railcars were often a rough and unruly bunch, schedules were disregarded, and the single-track lines with infrequent turnouts often resulted in confrontations where the stronger party claimed the right-of-way. The roadbeds were only a slight improvement over the mine tramways of the 18th century, with rails consisting of long wooden stringers topped with strap iron. The country’s underdeveloped resources meant that the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad builders had to petition Congress in 1828 to waive the duty on iron imported from England. Trains consisted of strings of small cars with baggage piled on the roof, and steep hills often required the use of ropes to pull the cars up inclined planes. Ironically, travel in these early days was arguably more comfortable than in the period that followed the widespread adoption of locomotives, when passengers were subjected to constant smoke and hot cinders.

Despite these challenges, the railroad quickly demonstrated its practical value. Many of the first lines proved highly profitable, and the initial hostility gradually gave way to an equally irrational enthusiasm. A speculative frenzy swept the country in the 1830s and 1840s, particularly in the new Western states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. Mass gatherings and public rallies fueled the excitement, with people believing that railroads would not only open up the wilderness and generate revenue to pay off the bonds issued for their construction, but also replenish depleted state treasuries.

The concept of government ownership, often debated in recent years, is not entirely new. Many of the early railroads in these Western states were built as government enterprises, often with disastrous consequences. This mania, along with the accompanying land speculation, was a major contributing factor to the Panic of 1837 and led to the repudiation of debts in some states, damaging the reputation of American investments abroad for many years.

In the more established regions of the country, railroad building proceeded on a more solid foundation. However, the railroad map of the 1840s reveals that railroad development in this early period was fragmented and disorganized.

The A Century of Railroad Building was largely an individual enterprise. The builders typically envisioned it as a line connecting two specific points, usually within a short distance of each other. Roads began and ended seemingly arbitrarily. A few miles of iron rail connected Albany and Schenectady.

A road existed from Hartford to New Haven, Connecticut, but not from New Haven to New York. A line connected Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Columbia; Baltimore had a road to Washington; Charleston, South Carolina, had similar connections with Hamburg in the same state. By 1842, New York State, from Albany to Buffalo, possessed several disconnected stretches of railroad. It was not until 1836, when work began on the Erie Railroad, that a plan was adopted for a single line stretching hundreds of miles from New York to Lake Erie. Even then, only a few visionary individuals could foresee a future where trains would cross the plains and the Rockies, linking the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. As of 1850, nearly all the railroads in the United States were located east of the Mississippi River, and even those that were physically connected were separately owned and managed.

Despite the success of many railroads, they had not yet fully established themselves as the dominant mode of transportation. Canals, while losing ground in the overall competition, continued to thrive, particularly the Erie Canal. River steamboats also experienced significant growth in the early decades of the 19th century. The Mississippi River served as the primary highway for the products and passenger traffic of the South Central States, transforming New Orleans, Louisiana, into one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the country. In the 1850s, cotton planters would have scoffed at the notion that the "floating palaces" plying the Mississippi would ever relinquish their prominence to the struggling railroads that ran along its banks.

This initial phase of American railroad development concluded in the mid-19th century. It was an era of considerable progress, but not of guaranteed success. While some lines generated substantial profits, the railroad business was generally viewed with skepticism, and railroad investments were often met with suspicion. The dire state of many railroads is exemplified by the fact that the directors of the Michigan & Southern Railroad had to borrow chairs from a neighboring office for their 1853 annual meeting because the sheriff had seized their own to settle a debt. Even the Hudson River Railroad, which possessed a potentially invaluable asset in its route from New York to Albany, existed in a state of chronic disrepair, and the New York and Harlem, with its access to New York City, was primarily seen as a vehicle for Wall Street speculation.

Simultaneously, the increasing demand for transportation of farm products, mules, and cattle from the Northwest to the Southern plantations spurred the development of north-south railway lines. Some of these projects received land grants from the Federal Government. The Illinois Central was the first to receive a substantial land grant in 1850, and it eventually reached the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile by connecting with the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, which had also received Federal assistance. However, the Panic of 1857, followed by the Civil War, brought a halt to all railroad endeavors. In 1856, approximately 3,600 miles of railroad had been constructed; by 1865, only 700 miles were added. The war devastated Southern railroads, and north-south lines lost all but local traffic.

The A Century of Railroad Building began a rapid recovery after the war, ushering in the era of the great railroad magnates, led by Cornelius Vanderbilt, a shrewd businessman. Although he had built his fortune in steamboats, Vanderbilt recognized that the balance of power between these two transportation methods was about to shift, with water transportation declining and rail transportation rising. Around 1865, Vanderbilt acted on this conviction, selling his steamboats and investing in railroads, despite warnings from his friends that he was jeopardizing his life’s work. Vanderbilt understood that the Civil War had fundamentally altered the railroad landscape.

The period from 1860 to approximately 1875 marks the second phase of railroad development in the United States. This era was characterized by the emergence of major trunk lines and the construction of a transcontinental route to the Pacific. The Civil War brought an end to the Mississippi River’s dominance as the primary transportation route of the West. The fact that the river ran through hostile territory forced Western farmers to seek alternative outlets for their goods. By this time, the region from Chicago and St. Louis eastward to the Atlantic ports was largely connected by railroads. The necessities of war spurred significant improvements in railroad construction and equipment. The flow of business shifted eastward, diminishing the importance of New Orleans and elevating St. Louis and Chicago as major commercial hubs.

This dramatic shift in traffic routes occurred during the war, the consolidation of small railroads into major trunk lines did not begin until after the war ended. The establishment of five major railroads extending continuously from the Atlantic seaboard to Chicago and the West was perhaps the most significant economic development of the decade following the war. By 1875, these five trunk lines – the New York Central, Pennsylvania, the Erie, the Baltimore & Ohio, and the Grand Trunk – had consolidated their disparate units and created complete through systems.

All the inconveniences that had plagued railroad traffic in the days of disconnected lines disappeared. Grain and meat products from the West flowed rapidly and continuously to the Atlantic seaboard, and passengers began to experience the pleasures of railroad travel for the first time. Alongside the unification of routes, significant mechanical changes and reconstruction programs transformed the American railroad system. The haphazard nature of the early railroads is evident in the existence of eight different track gauges, making it virtually impossible for rolling stock to operate on different lines. However, within a few years after the Civil War, the standard gauge of four feet eight and one-half inches became universally adopted throughout the United States.

The unsanitary "eating cribs" of the 1850s and 1860s began to disappear, replaced by modern dining cars. The old, uncomfortable sleeping cars gave way to the Pullman cars. The absence of bridges across major rivers, such as the Hudson and the Susquehanna, was a significant impediment to antebellum travel.

Passengers crossing the Hudson River at Albany were ferried across in the summer and transported by sleigh in the winter, sometimes even forced to walk across the ice. It was not until after the Civil War that a massive iron bridge, 2,000 feet long, was built across the Hudson at this location. On the trains, flickering oil lamps were replaced by gas lighting, and the wood-burning stoves were gradually replaced by steam heating.

Accidents, which were commonplace in the 1850s and 1860s, were significantly reduced by the introduction of the Westinghouse air brake in 1868 and the block signaling system shortly thereafter. In the decade following the Civil War, the physical appearance of the railroads underwent a complete transformation. New and larger locomotives were built, and freight cars, which had a capacity of approximately eight tons during the Civil War, were now built to carry 15 or 20 tons.

The flimsy iron rails were replaced with steel rails. In the early 1870s, when Cornelius Vanderbilt replaced iron rails with steel on the New York Central, he had to import the new material from England. During the Civil War, almost all American railroads were single-track lines, which severely limited traffic. Vanderbilt laid two tracks along the Hudson River from New York to Albany and four tracks from Albany to Buffalo, two for freight and two for passengers. By 1880, the American railroad, in all its essential details, had arrived.

The A Century of Railroad Building had even more sensational developments. Soon after 1865, the vision of American railroad builders extended far beyond the existing horizons. Until then, the Mississippi River had marked the western terminus of the railroad. Occasionally, a road would extend a few miles beyond this barrier into eastern Iowa and Missouri. The vast territory from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean was traversed only by the old trails. The annexation of California in 1848 played a critical role in making the transcontinental railroad a reality. The subsequent gold rush highlighted the potential of the Pacific coast but also revealed its inaccessibility.

California’s loyalty to the Union cause during the Civil War further emphasized the need for closer connections. In the decade leading up to 1860, Congress frequently discussed the importance of a transcontinental line. However, the project sparked rivalry between the North and the South, as each region sought to control the eastern terminus. With the end of the Civil War, this obstacle was removed, and President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill authorizing the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. The name "Union Pacific" was significant, as it symbolized the union of the East and the West and reflected the sentiment of loyalty that the project was intended to promote. The construction of this railroad, along with the Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, Northern Pacific, and Great Northern, brought the Pacific and Atlantic coasts closer together. These transcontinental roads represented the culmination of the westward expansion. Columbus had set sail to discover a western route to Cathay but found his path blocked by a continent. The first train that crossed the plains, ascended the Rockies, and reached the Golden Gate ensured a rapid and uninterrupted westward passage from Europe to Asia.

Compiled and edited by Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated January 2025.

Also See:

• Completion of the Railroad
• Penetrating The Pacific Northwest
• The Railroad Crosses America
• Railroad Lines
• Railroads & Depots Photo Gallery

About the Author: John Moody wrote The Railroad Builders, A Chronicle of the Welding of the States in 1919. A Century of Railroad Building is the first chapter of the book.