The Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mountjoy & Lancaster Rail-Road (HPMtJ&L) was an early American

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 ...

built to connect three main population centers in east-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, ...

History

In 1834, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania chartered the Portsmouth and Lancaster Rail-Road, one of the earliest in the United States being organized only six years after the first, the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

. The following year, the company changed its name to the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mountjoy and Lancaster Rail-Road Company.

Simon Cameron Simon Cameron (March 8, 1799June 26, 1889) was an American businessman and politician who represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate and served as United States Secretary of War under President Abraham Lincoln at the start of the Americ ...

of Middletown (who later became Secretary of War under President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

) and

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...

of Lancaster (who later became President of the United States) were among the founders. The HPMtJ&L followed the east side of the Susquehanna River, surveyed and located in 1834 to connect the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

valley communities of Harris Ferry (now

Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the List of c ...

), Portsmouth (now a part of Middletown), Mount Joy, and

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...

. The HPMtJ&L also connected with the

Cumberland Valley Railroad The Cumberland Valley Railroad was an early railroad in Pennsylvania, United States, originally chartered in 1831 to connect with Pennsylvania's Main Line of Public Works. Freight and passenger service in the Cumberland Valley in south central Pe ...

at Harrisburg, the

Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad (P&CR) (1834) was one of the earliest commercial railroads in the United States, running from Philadelphia to Columbia, Pennsylvania, it was built by the Pennsylvania Canal Commission in lieu of a canal from Col ...

at Lancaster, and to the Portsmouth Canal Basin in Middletown. Construction work began in 1835 and the main line completed in 1838, concluding with a tunnel built just outside of Elizabethtown. The first track laid of the new railroad ran from Harrisburg to the Portsmouth section of Middletown, becoming one of the first sections of the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

(PRR) built. The line opened with horse-drawn cars. A branch line was completed in 1850, built from Middletown (Royalton) to Columbia, connecting with the terminus of the Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad. This branch included a very short tunnel outside of Columbia, named Point Rock Tunnel. Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster RR 1857

Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster RR 1857

Several improvements to the entire line were made. Beginning in 1886, the tunnel outside Elizabethtown was eliminated with an

open cut Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

. Between 1892 and 1903, 23 curves were eliminated and easement of several others. By 1917, all wooden bridges were replaced with permanent structures.

Pennsylvania Railroad operation and control

The PRR first operated the HPMtJ&L under contract for 20 years starting September 1, 1849, whereby the PRR was to purchase all the equipment of the HPMtJ&L for use on both lines. The PRR next arranged a more-favorable lease of the HPMtJ&L for 999 years from January 1, 1861. This lease brought the last piece of railroad between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia under the control of the PRR. The HPMtJ&L was finally merged into the PRR on April 25, 1917.

History

Pennsylvania Railroad operation and control

References

See also