The Allegheny Portage Railroad was the first
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
constructed through the
Allegheny Mountains
The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...
in central
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States; it operated from 1834 to 1854 as the first transportation infrastructure through the
gaps of the Allegheny
The gaps of the Allegheny,
meaning gaps in the Allegheny Ridge (now given the technical name Allegheny Front) in west-central Pennsylvania, is a series of escarpment eroding water gaps (notches or small valleys) along the saddle between two ...
that connected the midwest to the eastern seaboard across the
barrier range
A barrier or barricade is a physical structure which blocks or impedes something.
Barrier may also refer to:
Places
* Barrier, Kentucky, a community in the United States
* Barrier, Voerendaal, a place in the municipality of Voerendaal, Netherl ...
of the
Allegheny Front
The Allegheny Front is the major southeast- or east-facing escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern West Virginia, and western Virginia, USA. The Allegheny Front forms the boundary between the ...
. Approximately long overall, both ends connected to the
Pennsylvania Canal, and the system was primarily used as a
portage railway
A portage railway is a short and possibly isolated section of railway used to bypass a section of unnavigable river or between two water bodies which are not directly connected.
Cargo from waterborne vessels is unloaded, loaded onto conventional ...
, hauling river boats and
barge
Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
s over the divide between the
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
and the
Susquehanna Rivers. Today, the remains of the railroad are preserved within the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site operated by the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...
.
The railroad was authorized as part of the
Main Line of Public Works
The Main Line of Public Works was a package of legislation passed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1826 to establish a means of transporting freight between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It funded the construction of various long-proposed can ...
legislation in 1824. It had five inclines on either side of the
drainage divide running athwart the
ridge line from
Blair Gap through along the
kinked saddle at the summit into
Cresson, Pennsylvania
Cresson is a borough in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. Cresson is east of Pittsburgh. It is above in elevation. Lumber, coal, and coke yards were industries that had supported the population which numbered 1,470 in 1910. The borou ...
. The endpoints connected to the Canal at
Johnstown on the west through the relative flats to
Hollidaysburg
Hollidaysburg is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Blair County, Pennsylvania, Blair County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is located on the Juniata River, south of Altoona, Pennsylvania, Altoona and is part of ...
on the east. The Railroad utilized cleverly designed wheeled barges to ride a narrow-gauge rail track with steam-powered stationary engines lifting the vehicles. The roadbed of the railroad did not incline monotonically upwards, but rose in relatively long, saw-toothed stretches of slightly-sloped flat terrain suitable to
animal powered towing, alternating with steep
cable railway
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a he ...
inclined planes
An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...
using static steam engine powered windlasses, similar to mechanisms of modern
ski lift
A ski lift is a mechanism for transporting skiers up a hill. Ski lifts are typically a paid service at ski resorts. The first ski lift was built in 1908 by German Robert Winterhalder in Schollach/Eisenbach, Hochschwarzwald.
Types
* Aerial ...
s.
Except for peak moments of severe storms, it was an all-weather, all-seasons operation. Along with the rest of the Main Works, it cut transport time from Philadelphia to the Ohio River from weeks to just 3–5 days. Considered a technological marvel in its day, it played a critical role in opening the interior of the United States beyond the
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...
to settlement and commerce. It included the
first railroad tunnel in the United States, the
Staple Bend Tunnel
The Staple Bend Tunnel, about east of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in a town called Mineral Point, was constructed between 1831 and 1834 for the Allegheny Portage Railroad. Construction began on April 12, 1831. This tunnel, at in length, was the ...
, and its inauguration was marked with great fanfare.
History
![Old Portage Railroad by George W](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Old_Portage_Railroad_by_George_W._Storm.jpg)
Construction of the Old Portage Railroad from Hollidaysburg to Johnstown, thirty six miles long, began in 1831 and took three years to complete. It included a tunnel long as well as a
viaduct over the
Little Conemaugh River
The Little Conemaugh River is a tributary of the Conemaugh River, approximately 30 mi (48 km) long, in western Pennsylvania in the United States.
The main branch rises in eastern Cambria County, along the western slope of the Appalachi ...
upstream from Johnstown. The vertical ascent from Johnstown was . The vertical ascent from Hollidaysburg was . The project was financed by the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...
as a means to compete with the
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...
in New York and the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C. and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Potomac Canal, ...
and
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Maryland. The work was done largely through private contractors. The railroad utilized eleven grade lines and ten
cable inclined planes, five on either side of the summit of the
Allegheny Ridge, to carry loaded canal boats on flatbed railroad cars. Trains of two-three cars were pulled on grade lines by mules. On inclined planes, stationary steam engines pulled up and lowered down cars by hemp ropes switching to wire ropes in 1842.
The entire Main Line system connecting
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
and
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
via the Philadelphia-Columbia railroad, the Columbia-Hollidaysburg canal, the Portage railroad linking Hollidaysburg to Johnstown, and a canal from Johnstown to Pittsburgh, was long. A typical ride took 4 days instead of the former 23-day horse-wagon journey. The Old Portage Railroad was in operation for twenty years being considered "the wonder of America."
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
wrote a contemporary account of travel on the railroad in Chapter 10 of his ''
American Notes
''American Notes for General Circulation'' is a travelogue by Charles Dickens detailing his trip to North America from January to June 1842. While there he acted as a critical observer of North American society, almost as if returning a status r ...
.'' Quoted at length in the
Pennsylvania guide, Dickens "described travel on the Portage in 1842," describing aspects of the Portage Railroad's immediate social and geographic context, as well as mechanical strategies used by the Railroad for coping with the steep grades encountered on the route :
In the 1850s, the Main Line of Public Works and its
portage railroad was rendered obsolete by the advance of railway technology and railroad engineering. Early in 1846 the Legislature chartered the
Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to cross the entire state in response to plans by the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to reach the Ohio Valley through Virginia. In December 1852 trains started to run between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh shortening the travel time from 4 days to 13 hours.
Construction on the New Portage Railroad, a 40-mile realignment to cross the Allegheny Ridge bypassing inclines, started in 1851 and cost $2.14 million. The PRR raised sufficient investment and had enough quick success that they bought the existing Portage railroad and other parts of the Main Line of Public Works from the state on July 31, 1857. The PRR abandoned most of the line and used the rest as local branches; "anything of value was either sold or stripped from the Allegheny Portage Railroad."
Nearly half a century later, the graded roadbeds of the descending section east of the
Gallitzin Tunnel
The Gallitzin Tunnels in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, are a set of three adjacent tunnels through the Allegheny Mountains in western Pennsylvania. They were completed in 1854, 1855, and 1902 by the Pennsylvania Railroad as part of the cross-state rout ...
were re-railed with standard gauge freight tracks. The line reopened as a freight bypass line in 1904.
Pennsylvania Railroad successor
Conrail abandoned this line to
Hollidaysburg
Hollidaysburg is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in and the county seat of Blair County, Pennsylvania, Blair County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is located on the Juniata River, south of Altoona, Pennsylvania, Altoona and is part of ...
and most of the branch trackage along the
Juniata River in 1981 and removed the rails.
The Allegheny Portage Railroad was designated as a
National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark
__NOTOC__
The following is a list of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks as designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers since it began the program in 1964. The designation is granted to projects, structures, and sites in the United State ...
by the
American Society of Civil Engineers
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
in 1987.
National Historic Site
The
National Historic Site was established on in 1964 and is about west of
Altoona,
in Blair and Cambria counties.
The park service operates a
visitor center
A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to visitors.
Types of visitor center
A visi ...
with interpretive exhibits near the old line.
Nearby is the
Samuel Lemon House
Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bi ...
, a
tavern
A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern t ...
located alongside the railroad near
Cresson that was a popular stop for railroad passengers; it has been converted into a historical museum by the National Park Service. The NPS also maintains a length of reconstructed track, an engine house with exhibits, a picnic area, and hiking trails.
A
skew arch
A skew arch (also known as an oblique arch) is a method of construction that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular to its abutments and its ...
bridge, a masterwork of cut stone construction, is another feature of the site near the Lemon House. The bridge is long on the south elevation, long on the north elevation, and high.
It was the only bridge on the line that was built to carry a road.
The Staple Bend Tunnel is preserved in a separate unit of the historic site, east of
Johnstown.
Gallery
Image:Alpo-engine-house-1.jpg, Exterior of Engine House 6 Exhibit Building
Image:Alpo-engine-house-2.jpg, Interior of Engine House 6 Exhibit Building
File:Incline with Skew Arch Bridge visible P6220342.JPG, Incline looking from the Engine house
File:Lemon House, Plane 6, Allegheny Portage RR.jpg, Exterior of the Lemon House
Image:Alpo-lemon-house-1.jpg, Inside the Lemon House
Image:Alpo-lemon-house-2.jpg, Inside the Lemon House
Image:Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site ALPO0279.jpg, North face of the Skew Arch Bridge at the National Historic Site
File:Skew Arch Bridge P6220327.JPG, South face of the Skew Arch Bridge
File:Lilly Culvert.jpg, Lilly Culvert, built 1832, along the APRR
See also
*
Bridge in Portage Township
*
Horseshoe Curve (Pennsylvania)
Horseshoe Curve is a three-track railroad curve on Norfolk Southern Railway's Pittsburgh Line in Blair County, Pennsylvania. The curve is about long and in diameter. Completed in 1854 by the Pennsylvania Railroad as a way to reduce the westbou ...
*
Muleshoe Curve
*
Kittanning Path
The Kittanning Path was a major east-west Native American trail that crossed the Allegheny Mountains barrier ridge connecting the Susquehanna River valleys in the center of Pennsylvania to the highlands of the Appalachian Plateau and thence to ...
*
Lilly Bridge
*
Morris Canal
The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a common carrier anthracite coal canal across northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals at Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its western terminus at Phillipsburg, New Jers ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
*
*
*
*
National Park Service: Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site*
ttp://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/23allegheny/23locate1.htm Map of the Routebr>
''Allegheny Portage Railroad: Developing Transportation Technology,'' a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan*
American Society of Civil Engineers - National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allegheny Portage Railroad
National Historic Sites in Pennsylvania
Defunct Pennsylvania railroads
Pennsylvania Railroad Through-freight Lines
Predecessors of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Portages in the United States
National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania
Railroad museums in Pennsylvania
Railway companies established in 1831
">Railway companies disestablished in 1857
Defunct funicular railways in the United States
Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks
Museums in Cambria County, Pennsylvania
Parks in Blair County, Pennsylvania
Tourist attractions in Blair County, Pennsylvania
Tourist attractions in Cambria County, Pennsylvania
Historic American Buildings Survey in Pennsylvania
Historic American Engineering Record in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania state historical marker significations
Railroad-related National Historic Landmarks
Altoona, Pennsylvania
Cableways on the National Register of Historic Places
Rail infrastructure on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
National Register of Historic Places in Blair County, Pennsylvania
1831 establishments in Pennsylvania
1857 disestablishments in Pennsylvania
American companies established in 1831
Protected areas of Blair County, Pennsylvania
Protected areas of Cambria County, Pennsylvania
American companies disestablished in 1857