#UNITED STATES RAILROAD STORY FREE#

Trains carried coal and lumber to consumers quickly and cheaply. In Pennsylvania and the rest of the nation, the industrial revolution rode on American rails.

In 1844, the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad became the first line in America to carry a million tons of freight in a year. Railroads soon unlocked the raw materials with which Pennsylvania was blessed, allowing manufacturing to flourish. Though canals continued to move substantial material within the state, faster, more versatile railroads soon took over the job of meeting most transportation needs. But it was soon doomed by the coming of the cheaper, all-purpose, all-weather Pennsylvania Railroad. This patchwork of canals, railroads, and inclined planes offered a 3-1/2-day journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Started in 1834, the state-owned Main Line of Public Works was an ingenious solution that used canal boats where possible on relatively level ground and a combination of gravity and stationary steam engines where necessary in the mountains. But this and other early locomotives were too small and unreliable to move significant amounts of freight over the Allegheny Mountains. It first arrived in the United States in 1829 when the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company imported the Stourbridge Lion, the first steam locomotive to operate in America, from England. Harnessing the power of steam to create a movable form of propulsion first took place in Great Britain. Map of Trunk Lines Suddenly Pennsylvanians had to find a way to compete with New York and link their state to Midwestern markets. Or by the sight of Amtrak's high-speed Acela train, capable of sprinting 150 miles an hour before gliding to a smooth stop at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. By the sight of intermodal trains, loaded with double-stacked cargo containers from the North Pacific and now slicing through Erie or Johnstown en route to the East Coast. The symbols of the industry's rich past - the mournful sound of a steam-locomotive whistle, or banjo-plunking ballads about the lonely life of a brakeman - have been replaced by the daily marvel of fleets moving 10,000-ton coal trains out of the bituminous coalfields of Greene County to electric-generating stations across the Northeast.

In Pennsylvania, railroading is not only alive but also thriving. And today, when a train rumbles by -whether it's a two-car freight on a rural line or the silvery, standing-room-only Paoli Local at rush hour - the state's railroading history is still being written. Trains made Pennsylvania an industrial giant. Baldwin’s construction of “Old Ironsides.

Read about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.1883 poster commemorating Matthias W.

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Listen to a recorded reading of this page:.

Take a ten question quiz about this page.

In keeping with the railroad terminology, escaping enslaved people were often referred to as passengers or cargo.

The Mississippi River was called the 'River Jordan' from the Bible.

Canada was often called the 'Promised Land' by the enslaved.

The most common route for people to escape was north into the northern United States or Canada, but some of the enslaved in the deep south escaped to Mexico or Florida.

One hero of the Underground Railroad was Levi Coffin, a Quaker who is said to have helped around 3,000 of the enslaved gain their freedom.

They offered a reward of $40,000 for her capture.

Enslavers really wanted Harriet Tubman, a famous conductor for the railroad, arrested.

Interesting Facts about the Underground Railroad The state of Pennsylvania was the first state to abolish slavery in 1780. The abolitionist movement started with the Quakers in the 17th century who felt that slavery was un-Christian. Now, the enslaved needed to be transported all the way to Canada in order to be safe from being captured again.Ībolitionists were people who thought slavery should be made illegal and all current enslaved people should be set free.

This made it even more difficult for the Underground Railroad.

#UNITED STATES RAILROAD STORY FREE#

This made it a law that runaway enslaved people found in free states had to be returned to their owners in the south. In 1850 the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in the United States. There are estimates that say over 100,000 of the enslaved escaped over the history of the railroad, including 30,000 that escaped during the peak years before the Civil War. Since enslaved people escaped and lived in secrecy, no one is quite sure how many escaped.

United states railroad story