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Written by Paul Marston
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Saturday, 08 March 2008 19:08 |
RAILROAD TRACK CONSTRUCTION FROM 1826 TO 1830
| RAILROAD |
ST |
1826 |
1827 |
1828 |
1829 |
1830 |
TOTALS |
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|
|
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|
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| Baltimore & Ohio RR (MD) |
MD |
|
|
|
|
14.00 |
14.00 |
| Charleston & Hamburg Road |
SC |
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|
|
1.00 |
9.00 |
10.00 |
| Delaware & Hudson Canal CO RR |
PA |
|
|
|
16.50 |
|
16.50 |
| Granite RR |
MA |
2.79 |
|
|
|
|
2.79 |
| Mauch Chunk RR |
PA |
|
9.00 |
|
|
|
9.00 |
| Mill Creek & Mine Hill Navigation & RR C |
PA |
|
|
|
4.49 |
3.80 |
8.29 |
| Schuylkill Valley RR & Navigation CO |
PA |
|
|
|
|
9.23 |
9.23 |
| Tuscumbia RWY CO |
AL |
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|
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2.10 |
2.10 |
| Union Canal CO's RR |
PA |
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3.50 |
3.50 |
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| TOTAL FOR TIME PERIOD |
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2.79 |
9.00 |
0.00 |
21.99 |
41.63 |
75.41 |
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If you have looked at the Table of Track Mileage, you may have noticed that the U.S. Census Bureau does not list any railroads built prior to 1830, but we do. Indeed, they only list four of the above railroads, Baltimore and Ohio (15 miles), Mill Creek & Mine Hill (3.80 miles), Schuylkill Valley (11 miles) and South Carolina (10 miles) and show them as being constructed in 1830. The historical record says otherwise as pointed out by Frederick C. Gamst, University of Massachusetts, Boston in The Transfer of Pioneering British Railroad Technology to North America which lists all of the other railroads we show prior to 1830 that meet our criteria given in Definition of a Railroad except for Tuscumbia. Given the excellent documentation supplied by Professor Gamst, we feel justified in including these additional railroads and correcting the year of construction. Additional information on the years of construction and mileage was obtained from the book: Railroads and Canals of the United States of America by Henry V. Poor (the Poor in the Standard and Poor's 500 stock index) published in 1860.
The figures for all of the Pennsylvania railroads appear on page 415 and the Baltimore & Ohio figures are on page 584 of that book. The Granite Railway information appears on page 85. Unfortunately, volume one of Mr. Poor's work covered only New England and the Mid-Atlantic states and he never got around to publishing volumes 2 and 3 so the Charleston and Hamburg information comes from Professor Gamst. The details on the Tuscumbia Railway can found the website devoted to it, at the website for the City of Tuscumbia and on Wikipedia.
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Last Updated on Friday, 29 August 2008 15:48 |
