History: The Portage Railroad: First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain 1834: Solomon W. Roberts, Blair/Cambria Coa, PA Submitted for use in the USGenWeb archives by: Judy Banja USGENWEB ARCHIVES (tm) NOTICE: All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information are included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. ___________________________________________________________ The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. II. Philadelphia: Publication Fund of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, No. 820 Spruce Street, 1878. [Page 370 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] REMINISCENCES OF THE FIRST RAILROAD OVER THE ALLEGHENY MOUNTAIN. Read before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, April 8, 1878. BY SOLOMON W. ROBERTS, CIVIL ENGINEER The following reminiscences of the First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain, have been prepared at the request of the Council of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. They relate to the Portage Railroad; the building of which was begun by the State in the year 1831; which was opened for use as a public highway in 1834; and was an important thoroughfare for about twenty years, until it was superseded by the opening of a railroad without inclined planes. As the Portage Railroad was considered for years to be a great triumph of civil engineering, and as it has ceased to exist, I embrace this opportunity to give my recollections of its construction, having been employed upon the line, in the service of the State. The undertaking of an extensive system of internal improvements at the expense of the Commonwealth, was an event of no small importance in the history of Pennsylvania. An account of this great enterprise, which increased the State debt to about forty millions of dollars, has never been adequately written. The high hopes with which the work was begun; the large premiums at which the five per cent. loans of the State were for a time sold; the great revulsion of feeling, and the fall of prices, which caused the loans to sell at one time for about thirty-three cents on the dollar; the subsequent sale of the public works to corporations, and the complete recovery of the State credit, are facts well worthy of remembrance. The geographical position of Pennsylvania, so often called "the Keystone State," is peculiar and remarkable. Washed [Page 371 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] on its southeastern border by the Atlantic tides, it extends on the northwest to the shore of Lake Erie, and includes, in Allegheny County, the head of the Ohio River. Various lines of internal improvement were proposed in the early history of Pennsylvania, but the rugged topography of much of its territory delayed their execution. The level character of the country between Albany and Buffalo, enabled New York to construct the Erie Canal, which was opened for use in October, 1825. This stimulated similar action on the part of the legislature of this State, and the Pennsylvania Canal was begun on the 4th of July, 1826. In the following year I entered the service of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. A native of Philadelphia., and educated in Friends' Academy, I witnessed the construction and opening of the Mauch Chunk Railroad in 1827, and of the Lehigh Canal, which was opened from Mauch Chuck to Easton in 1829, having been employed as a rodman and leveller on fifteen miles of the canal. For more than two years I lived in the house of my uncle, Josiah White, who was then acting manager of the company, and had the advantage of receiving instruction from that able, practical engineer; and, in the engineer corps on the canal, I received scientific and technical training under those masters of the profession, Canvass White and Sylvester Welch, who had been employed on the Erie Canal. When the work on the Lehigh was done, in the autumn of 1829, Sylvester Welch was employed by the State of Pennsylvania as principal engineer of the Western Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, and removed to Blairsville, on the Conemaugh, to which place I accompanied him. The canal was then nearly completed from Pittsburgh to Blairsville, and was in progress from Blairsville to Johnstown. Much of the work was badly done, and was not strong enough to withstand the occasional floods to which it was exposed. The Canal Commissioners were politicians, there was great competition for contracts, and work contracted for at low prices often failed to endure the strains to which it was subjected; the laws of nature having no respect for political parties. [Page 372 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] We struggled on with the work, and the canal was opened to Johnstown, at the western base of the Allegheny Mountain, in December, 1830. On my division, there was an aqueduct across the Conemaugh River at Lockport, having five arches, each of sixty feet span, built of cut stone. My intimate friend and colleague in this arduous and thank­less service, was the late Edward Miller, civil engineer, after­wards so well known for his great intelligence, and for his high character as a Christian gentleman. The pay that we received from the State was two dollars per day, for the time actually employed, and we paid our own expenses. The canal being done from Pittsburgh to Johnstown, I returned to my father's house in Philadelphia, on the 23d of January, 1831, far from being pleased with the general results of my experience on the canal in the valley of the Conemaugh. At that time there was much discussion as to the best mode of crossing the Allegheny Mountain, so as to form a con­nection between the canals on its eastern and western sides. Some surveys had been made for a continuous canal, both by the Juniata route and by the West Branch of the Susque­hanna; but the natural obstacles were too great, and the scheme was given up. Several lines for a railroad had also been run, and inclined planes of different kinds had been proposed. On the 21st of March, 1831, the law was passed authorizing the Board of Canal Commissioners to commence the construc­tion of a Portage Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain. The Board appointed Sylvester Welch, the principal engineer of the western division of the Pennsylvania Canal, to the same position in the building of the Portage Railroad, and he nomi­nated me as his assistant. Mr. Welch was an elder brother of Ashbel Welch, the distinguished civil engineer of New Jersey. Sylvester Welch was a man of great ability and integrity, and of untiring industry, as I who was one of his assistants for more than eight years can testify. At his request I joined him at Blairsville, and on the 5th of April, by a resolution of the Board of Canal Commissioners, I was [Page 373 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] appointed to my position, being then, in the twentieth year of my age. On the 8th of April, 1831, just 47 years ago, we began our explorations near the summit of the mountain. The weather was cold, stormy, and unfavorable; there was much snow on the mountain ; and I remember particularly that on the evening of the first day, the wind was so high as to blow heavy pieces of bark from the bodies of dead hemlock trees. On the 12th of April, our party of sixteen persons went into camp near the head of the mountain branch of the Conemaugh, and began to locate the railroad. We had tents owned by the State, and four of us slept on buffalo robes, in what had been used as a surgeon's tent; and to my surprise I did not take cold. It had been intended that another engineer, older than myself, should lead the locating party; but his health failed before the work was begun, and he had to retire. The country was very rough, and the running of the line much obstructed by fallen timber. The general character of the country had been ascertained from the results of former surveys, made by Mr. Moncure Robinson, Colonel Long, and other engineers. It was known that the distance over the Allegheny Mountain, from Hollidaysburg to Johnstown, was about thirty-six miles, and that the summit at Blair's Gap was about 1400 feet above Hollidaysburg, and 1200 feet above Johnstown. The eastern slope of the mountain is much steeper than the western. The slates and sandstones of the bituminous coal measures dip into the mountain on its eastern slope, and show the broken ends of the strata, as if an immense wedge had been driven, in a northwesterly direction, under that part of the earth's crust. At the head of one of the inclined planes on the eastern slope, a well was bored 712 feet, deep, without finding water. The western slope of the mountain is comparatively gentle, and the stratification flattens out as it approaches Johnstown. Modern railroads were in their infancy when this work was begun, and the powerful locomotives that now draw heavy loads up high grades had no existence. It was in October, 1829, about eighteen months before, that the little engine, [Page 374 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] called "the Rocket," the first one built on the modern plan, was tried on the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad. The combination of the tubular boiler with the blast pipe in the chimney was the cause of its success. The general design for the Portage Railroad was this: The principal part of the elevation was to be overcome by inclined planes, which were to be straight in plan and profile; to be on an average somewhat less than half a mile long; and to have an angle of elevation of about five degrees, or about the same as moderately steep hills on turnpike roads; so that the average height overcome by each plane might be about 200 feet. These planes were to be worked by stationary steam engines and endless ropes. As ultimately constructed there were ten inclined planes, five on each side of the mountain; and their whole length was four miles and four-tenths, with an aggregate elevation of 2007 feet. Their angles of inclination ranged from four degrees and nine minutes to five degrees and fifty-one minutes. The railroad between the planes was located with very mode­rate grades, and the minimum radius of curvature was about 442 feet, but only a small proportion of the curvature had a less radius than 955 feet. The gauge, or width of the track, was four feet nine inches. In locating the line, our levelling instruments were good, as perfect levelling had been required on the canals, where water tested the work; but our instruments for running curves were poor, and the work was mostly done with a surveyor's compass. At that time the importance of straightness on a railroad was not adequately appreciated. When the weather became warmer we were annoyed by multitudes of gnats, and resorted to the smoke of burning leaves to mitigate the evil. We also tried greasing our faces to, keep the insects from biting them. It occurred to me that this might be one of the reasons why Indians often paint their faces. Rattlesnakes were numerous and of course dangerous, but none of us were bitten by them. They are usually sluggish reptiles, and will let men alone if they are not trodden on or [Page 375 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] attacked. They also give warning with their rattles before they strike. Our axemen made a collection of live rattlesnakes, and kept them in a box. They were easily caught by an expert hand. To the end of a stick about four feet long, a short piece of strong twine was tied, so as to form a slip knot. The snake when defending itself, would lie partly coiled on the ground, or on a rock, with the rattles on its tail at the outside of the coil, and its head upraised in the middle. The man approaching with the stick would slip the loop of the twine over the snake's head, and round its neck; and, by giving a little jerk, would draw the slip knot tight, and lift the snake from the ground. The snake would then writhe in vain, and would be powerless to strike. To carry it to camp, it was put into a tube made of the bark of a sapling, or small tree, peeled off for the purpose, which was readily done by an expert woodman. Catching snakes was the amusement of our men, and eating maple sugar was our luxury. I remember that George Wolf, then Governor of Pennsylvania, visited our camp while we had the box of snakes. When we reached the Horse-shoe-bend of the Conemaugh, about eight miles from Johnstown, I was in charge of the locating party. The line was made to cross the stream, and cut across the bend, so as to save distance, which made a high bridge necessary. The Horse-shoe-bend, or Conemaugh viaduct, is still standing, and is used by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as a part of its main line; and it is I believe almost the only structure of the old Portage Railroad now in use. It is a substantial and imposing piece of masonry, about seventy feet high, and with a semi-circular arch of eighty feet span. The chief engineer had prepared a plan for a bridge of two arches, each of fifty feet span, but afterwards adopted the plan of the present structure. It was designed, and its erection superintended by me, and the work was done by an honest Scotch stone-mason, named John Durno, who was afterwards killed by falling from another high bridge. The arch is three and a half feet thick at the springing line, and three feet at the crown; the arch stones are of light-colored sandstone, and the backing of silicious limestone, found near the spot. The [Page 376 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] sandstone was split from erratic blocks, often of great size, which were found lying in the woods, on the surface of the ground. The contract price for the masonry was $4.20 per perch of twenty-five cubic feet, and the work was remarkably well done. The face stones were laid in mortar from the silicious limestone, without the addition of any sand. The cost of the viaduct was about fifty-five thousand dollars, and by building it a lateral bend of about two miles was avoided. The embankment at the end of the viaduct was sixty-four feet high. Since that work was done, iron bridges have taken the place of such structures. At the staple bend of the Conemaugh, four miles from Johnstown, a tunnel was made through a spur of the Allegheny, near which the stream makes a bend of two miles and a half. The length of the tunnel was 901 feet, and it was twenty feet wide, and 19 feet high within the arch; 150 feet at each end being arched with cut stone. Its cost was about $37,500. This was the first railroad tunnel in the United States. Inclined plane No. 1, being the plane nearest to Johnstown, was located at the western end of the tunnel. The western terminus of the Portage Railroad, at the canal basin at Johnstown, 21 miles from the starting point, was located on the 14th of May. Johnstown, in Cambria County, is now a large town, and the seat of the great Cambria iron works. When I first saw the place, it was a very quiet village, with tall elder bushes growing in the streets. It had been at first called Conemaugh, and I remember to have seen the original plan of the place, with its title marked: "The town of Conemaugh, the only port for boating on the western waters, east of the Laurel Hill." It had been practicable, at times of high water, to run rafts and small flat boats from there to Pittsburgh. W. Milnor Roberts joined the engineer corps in the month of May, as principal assistant, and located the eastern portion of the Portage Railroad, from the point where we began, over the summit of the Allegheny Mountain, and down to Hollidaysburg, a distance of about sixteen miles; which included the steep eastern slope of the mountain, and most of the inclined planes. He has since distinguished himself as [Page 377 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] the engineer of many important works, and continues to be one of my most intimate friends, as he has been since we were together in the engineer corps on the Lehigh in 1827. Proposals from contractors having been invited, the grading and masonry of the twenty-six miles from the summit of the mountain to Johnstown, were contracted for at Ebensburg, the county seat of Cambria County, on the 25th of May, and the work on the eastern slope of the mountain, at Hollidaysburg, on the 29th of July, 1831. It was determined to grade the road at once for a double track, and to build all the bridges and culverts of stone. There was no wooden bridge upon the line. In the case of one small bridge of two spans, which had to be built at an oblique angle, I proposed an iron superstructure, but the plan was not approved. The principal office was established at Ebensburg, although it was several miles from the railroad, because it was on the turnpike, and readily accessible. Before our office windows the Conestoga wagons loaded with emigrants, with their baggage and furniture, slowly wended their way to the West. We had to travel on foot along the line of the work, and very bad travelling it was for a long time. A large part of the line ran through a forest of heavy spruce or hemlock timber, many of the trees being over 100 feet high; through this a space 120 feet wide was cleared, which was difficult work. Immense fires were made, but the green timber did not burn well, and many of the trees were rolled down the mountain slopes, and left to decay. In looking back at the location that was thus made about forty-seven years ago, it appears to me that it was about as well done as could be expected, under the circumstances as they then existed. Railroad construction was a new business, and much had to be learned from actual trial; but it was known at the time, that the location was too much hurried, which arose from the great impatience of the public. A good deal of curvature might have been saved by a careful revision of the line; but the reduction of the height of the summit by a tunnel, as has since been done, the legislature had refused to permit. [Page 378 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] After the grading and masonry of the Portage Railroad were put under contract, the line was divided; the western half being in my charge, and the eastern in charge of my friend, W. Milnor Roberts. The work was pushed forward with energy, a force of about two thousand men being at one time employed upon it. Whilst our office was in Ebensburg, which was for about a year, the most noted person in the neighborhood was the Rev. Dr. Demetrius Augustine Gallitzen, whom I well remember. The summit station on the Pennsylvania Railroad is named after him. He called himself Parish Priest of Loretto and Vicar-General. He was a Russian nobleman, born in 1770; and he left the Greek Church, and became a zealous Roman Catholic Missionary. He founded the town of Loretto near Ebensburg, and died there in 1840. He is believed to have expended about $150,000 at that place; but, having been deprived of his estate in Russia, he became poor. He was a small man, of an olive complexion, with very bright eyes, and I considered him to be the most perfect example of a religious enthusiast that I had ever seen. He was deservedly held in very high esteem for his self-denying earnestness. He spent much money in building a church at Loretto, and tried hard to make the rough people on the mountain behave as he wished, when they visited it. The country was very poor, and he became involved in debt, which troubled him much. It was currently reported, and I believe it to be true, that he had made a vow that he would not ride on horseback or in a carriage until his debts were paid, so that when his services were needed at a distance from home, he was sometimes hauled on a sled. In 1831, my friend, Edward Miller, went to England to obtain the most recent information on the subject of railroads, and he returned about the close of that year. He was soon after appointed principal assistant engineer, in the service of the State, and was given the charge of the machinery of the inclined planes of the Portage Railroad. The machinery was designed by him, and it worked well. At the head of each plane were two engines of about thirty [Page 379 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] five horse-power each; and each engine had two horizontal cylinders, the pistons of which were connected with cranks at right angles to each other, which gave motion to the large grooved wheels, around which the endless rope passed, and by which the rope was put in motion. The engines were built in Pittsburgh, and could be started and stopped very quickly. One engine only was used at a time, but two were provided for the greater security. Hemp ropes were at first used, and gave much trouble, as they varied greatly in length with changes in the weather, although sliding carriages were prepared to keep them stretched without too much strain; but wire ropes were afterwards substituted, and were a great improvement. The laying of the first track and turnouts, with a double track on the inclined planes, was contracted for on the 11th of April, 1832. The rails used weighed about forty pounds per lineal yard, and they were rolled in Great Britain. The hauling of them in wagons from Huntingdon, on the Juniata, was a laborious work. The rails were supported by cast-iron chairs, weighing about thirteen pounds each; the chairs being placed three feet apart from centre to centre, with a wrought iron wedge in each chair. In most cases, these chairs rested upon, and were bolted to blocks of sandstone, containing three and a half cubic feet each, and imbedded in broken stone. These stone blocks were required to be two feet long, 21 inches wide, and 12 inches deep. They cost about 53 cents each. On high embankments a timber foundation was used, with cross-ties, and mud sills, which stood much better than the stone blocks. On the inclined planes, which were to be worked by means of ropes, fiat bar rails were laid upon string-pieces of timber. Great care was taken in the drainage of the road-bed, and a large number of culverts and drains were built, there being 159 passages for water under the railroad. It was found by experience, that the track must be tied across with cross-ties, or it could not be kept from spreading, and many such ties were put in between the stone blocks. The attempt to construct a permanent railroad track, containing no perishable [Page 380 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] material, was in this case a failure. We were striving to build a great public work to endure for generations, and, as it turned out, it was superseded by something better in about twenty years. On the 26th of November, 1833, about two years and a half from the beginning of the work, the first car passed over the road, carrying a committee from Philadelphia, among whom were Josiah White and Thomas P. Hoopes, representing the Board of Trade. They were returning from Ohio, where they had been inspecting the proposed lines for connecting the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canals. On the 18th of March, 1834, when canal navigation opened, the Portage Railroad was opened for use as a public highway, the State furnishing the motive power on the inclined planes only; and it continued in use until the end of the year, when the canals were closed for the winter. The railroad was again opened on the 20th of March, 1835; shortly after which the second track was completed. The experiment of working the road as a public highway was very unsatisfactory. Individuals and firms employed their own drivers, with their own horses and cars. The cars were small, had four wheels, and each car would carry about 7000 lbs. of freight. Usually four cars made a train, and that number could be taken up, and as many let down, an inclined plane at one time, and from six to ten such trips could be made in an hour. The drivers were a rough set of fellows, and sometimes very stubborn and unmanageable. It was not practicable to make them work by a time-table, and the officers of the railroad had no power to discharge them. My memory recalls the case of one fellow, who would not go backward, and could not go forward, and so obstructed the road for a considerable time. It resembled the case of two wild wagoners of the Alleghenies, meeting in a narrow mountain pass, and both refusing to give way. Our nominal remedy was to have the man arrested, and taken before a magistrate, perhaps many miles off, to have him fined according to the law, a copy of which I used to carry in my pocket. When the road had but a single track between the turnouts, [Page 381 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] a large post, called a centre post, was set up half way between two turnouts, and the rule was made that when two drivers met on the single track, with their cars, the one that had gone beyond the centre post had the right to go on, and the other that had not reached it must go back to the turnout which he had left. The road was in many places very crooked, and a man could not see far ahead. The way the rule worked was this: When a man left a turnout, he would drive very slowly, fearing that be might have to turn back; and, as he approached the centre post, he would drive faster and faster, to try to get beyond it, and thus to drive back any cars that he might meet, and in this way cars have been driven together, and a man killed by being crushed between them. We had no electric telegraphs in those days. The evils of this system were so great, that I resolved that, for one, I would not continue to be responsible for its administration; but to get it changed was no easy matter, as it required an act of the legislature. The State government was Democratic, and this was considered to be the popular way to work a railroad, every man for himself. The opposition party in the legislature was led by a very able man, the late Thaddeus Stevens, of Lancaster County; and they were opposed to increasing the power and patronage of the Democratic Board of Canal Commissioners, which would be done if locomotives were bought, and all the motive power furnished by the State. I went to Harrisburg, and obtained an introduction to Mr. Stevens. I tried to do my best to explain the matter to him; and it was a great satisfaction to me to find that he allowed the bill to pass without opposing it. The feeling of the people living on and near the lines of the two railroads owned by the State, the Portage, and the Philadelphia and Columbia, was very strong against the measure, for a reason which the following anecdote will show: - Whilst I was advocating the change, I came to Philadelphia, and then returned to Harrisburg. On my return, I was riding in a horse car on the Columbia Railroad, near Downingtown, which was divided into small compartments, somewhat like the interior of an old-fashioned stage coach. Two [Page 382 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] gentlemen were sitting opposite to me who were members of the legislature from Chester County, one being a Senator. The car stopped, and a man spoke to my travelling companions, saying that he hoped that they would oppose the bill to authorize the Canal Commissioners to put locomotives on the road, and control the motive power. The Senator said that it should never be done with his consent. Thereupon, as the car drove on, I proceeded to argue the matter, but with poor success; the reply being that the people were taxed to make the railroad, and that the farmers along the line should have the right to drive their own horses and cars on the railroad, as they did their wagons on the Lancaster turnpike, to go to market in Philadelphia; and that, if they were not permitted to do it, the railroad would be a nuisance to the people of Lancaster and Chester Counties. It required time to overcome this feeling; and, in 1834, that good man, and excellent mechanic, M. W. Baldwin, of Philadelphia, built three locomotives for use on the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. The law having been passed, locomotives were bought, and the State began to furnish motive power on the grade lines between the planes on the Portage Railroad. The first locomotive used on the mountain was called the "Boston," from its having been built in that city, in 1834. It was a light engine, with one pair of driving wheels, which were made of wood, with iron hubs and tires. The front end of the frame rested on a truck, having very elastic steel springs. The fuel used was wood, and the, engine ran readily around short curves, and, although its power was not great, the machine worked well, and gave satisfaction. It ran on what was called the long level, thirteen miles in length, between planes numbers one and two, and it did not pass over the planes. The number of locomotives was gradually increased, and that of horses diminished, and on the 11th of May, 1835, the State began to furnish the whole motive power. In that year I had the charge of the working of the Allegheny Portage Railroad, and acted as superintendent of motive power, although called principal assistant engineer. In October, 1835, Joseph Ritner was elected Governor of [Page 383 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] Pennsylvania having been nominated by the Anti-Masonic party; and with his inauguration the control of the State government passed out of the hands of the Democratic party, which had long held it. At that time the feeling against secret societies was very strong, and to be connected with them was very unpopular. It is remarkable that such a change should have taken place in this respect, as secret societies are now so numerous, and their membership so very large; which seems to me to be a curious instance of the strange fluctuations of popular feeling. The Portage Railroad was a great thoroughfare in 1835; and towards the close of the year Joseph Ritner passed over it on his way to Harrisburg as Governor-elect. He was attended by Joseph Lawrence, of Washington County, who was his confidential adviser. In the same train were Henry Clay and Felix Grundy, on their way to Washington, for the opening of Congress. There was a large party, and we dined together on the summit of the mountain. Joseph Ritner sat at the head of the table, with Henry Clay at his right hand. I remember saying that I had both masonry and anti-masonry entrusted to my care. After dinner, I walked down one of the inclined planes with Joseph Lawrence, and was gratified at being told by him, that the new administration wished me to remain in charge of the railroad; but I had already concluded to resign, and to sail for Liverpool as inspector of the manufacture of railroad iron, in South Wales, for the Reading and other railroads. I had taken no active part in politics, and was weary of the service of the State. The highest pay received by me had been four dollars per day, paying all my own expenses, and carefully abstaining from all speculative interests. It is true that living was cheap; in the best hotel in Johnstown, with a good table, fuel, and light, the price of board was only $2.62 1/2 per week. We had venison and wild turkeys in season. Venison was sometimes as low as three cents per pound, and bituminous coal for domestic use cost, I think, about one dollar per ton. Clothing was, however, comparatively dear, and its wear and tear on the mountain [Page 384 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] was great; besides which it cost a good deal to keep a saddle horse. My experience in the State service has convinced me, that our form of government is badly adapted to the successful management of public works. Civil service reform might make some improvement, but so long as the tenure of office depends upon frequently recurring popular elections, and the nominations are made by majorities in a party caucus, other considerations than those of honesty and fitness will very often determine the result. For the proper management of a railroad, strict discipline is necessary, and the power of discharging employs is needed to insure prompt obedience. In the service of a corporation this is understood, but in that of the State other considerations are apt to interfere. It is my desire to record my belief, that James Clarke, the President of the Board of Canal Commissioners, was a man of good intentions, and of upright character, who occupied a very difficult position. His home was in Western Pennsylvania, and I knew him well. The Secretary of the Board was Francis R. Shunk, who was afterwards Governor of the State. He was noted for his quaint humor, was an admirable penman, and for a long time Clerk of the House at Harrisburg. In the official history of the Pennsylvania Railroad, published by the Passenger Department of that Company in 1875, it is stated that, "The Portage Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain was, during all the time it remained in operation, one of the wonders of America." In 1838 was published in London a book called "A Sketch of the Civil Engineering of North America," by David Stevenson, civil engineer. The author was a son of the distinguished engineer of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. In his sixth chapter, when speaking of the Portage Railroad, he says that America "now numbers among its many wonderful artificial lines of communication, a mountain railway, which, in boldness of design, and difficulty of execution, I can compare to no modern work I have ever seen, excepting perhaps the passes of the Simplon, and Mont Cenis, in Sardinia; but even these remarkable passes, viewed as engineering works, did not [Page 385 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] strike me as being more wonderful than the Allegheny Railway in the United States." In another part of the book, he gives an account of his passage over the road. Micbel Chevalier, the distinguished French engineer, and political economist, visited the railroad, and gave a description of it in his book on the public works of the United States, which was published in Paris in 1840. He is now a leader in the project for a railway tunnel under the sea from France to England. One thing that was considered to be a great curiosity, was the carriage of canal boats over the mountain, which was done to a considerable extent. The road being, as its name implied, a Portage Railroad, a, transhipment of some sort was required at both ends of the, line, which caused expense and delay. Different firms, engaged in the transportation business, tried different plans to diminish the evil. One plan was the use of boats built in sections, and carried on trucks over the railroad. Another mode of carrying freight was in cars, having movable bodies, which could be lifted off the wheels, and transferred to canal boats fitted to receive them. The wear and tear of the sectional boats, and movable car bodies, and the amount of dead weight, that had to be carried, were found to be serious objections to both these plans. For the prevention of accidents, safety cars were used upon the inclined planes. They were devised by Mr. Welch, the chief engineer, and they worked well. The cars were attached to the endless ropes by small ones called stopper ropes. In case of the failure of any of the fastenings, or the breaking or giving way of a splice in the main rope, the safety car prevented any serious accident, by acting as a brake-shoe or drag, so as to stop the cars, and prevent them from running down the plane. Thus the communication was kept up between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, until the time came for something better to be provided. The time required for passenger cars to pass over the road was reduced to about four hours. Many distinguished persons visited the line, the travel was very safe, VOL. II. ­ 27 [Page 386 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] and the business of 1835 amounted to about fifty thousand tons of freight, and twenty thousand passengers. The Portage Railroad crossed the Allegheny Mountain at Blair¹s Gap, a point nearly due east from Pittsburgh; and the excavation or cut made to reduce the summit was only about twelve feet deep, the natural summit being somewhat flat and wet. This summit, as ascertained by recent railroad surveys, was 2322 feet above mean tide, or 161 feet higher than Gallitzin Station on the Pennsylvania Railroad, which is at the western end of the summit tunnel, at Sugar Run Gap, about two miles from Blairs¹ Gap. There were eleven levels, so called, or rather grade lines, and ten inclined planes on the Portage; the whole length of the road being 36.69 miles. The planes were numbered eastwardly from Johnstown; and the ascent from that place to the summit was 1171.58 feet in 26.59 miles, and the descent from the summit to Hollidaysburg was 1398.71 feet in 10.10 miles. The planes were all straight, and their lengths and elevations are given in the note at the conclusion of the paper. The descent on each plane was regular from the top to a point 200 feet from the bottom; the last 200 feet having a gradually diminishing inclination, equal to that of 100 feet of the upper portion. Part of the track, generally 300 feet long, adjoining the head and foot of each plane, was made exactly level. The object of this was to facilitate the handling of the cars. The cost of the road at the close of the year 1835 was $1,634,357.69, at the contract prices. This did not include office expenses, engineering, or some extra allowances made to contractors, in a few instances, by the legislature, after the work was completed; nor did it include the cost of locomotives and cars. The cost of the rails for the second track, imported from Great Britain, was $48.51 per ton, when landed in Philadelphia. Acting for the State, I audited the accounts of the importers at the time. Many of the final estimates of the work were made out by me, but I will not encumber this paper with their details. [Page 387 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] I may here mention the fact that in 1851, the State began the construction of a road to avoid the inclined planes, with a maximum grade of 75 feet per mile, and a summit tunnel about 2000 feet long. Parts of the old line were used, and the road was lengthened about six miles. A single track was laid down, and was in use in 1856; but in the following year the whole work, as a part of the main line, was sold by the State to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Antes Snyder, the youngest son of Governor Simon Snyder of Pennsylvania, had been inspector of railroad iron in Wales for the State. He was an engineer of good abilities, and of excellent character, and a graduate of the West Point Military Academy. After his return from Wales, he was employed in the State service in Western Pennsylvania. He was offered an engagement to go abroad again, to inspect rails for the Reading Railroad, and other lines, but was unwilling to accept it, so I took his place. He was afterwards in the service of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company on the Lebanon Valley line. He has been dead for some years, and it gives me pleasure to record my high respect for his memory, and for the Christian graces that adorned his character. As the State works were not directly profitable, it has been too much the fashion to assume that the management was utterly corrupt and bad. That such was the case in many instances cannot be denied, but there were many bright exceptions. Having retired from my position on the Portage Railroad in January, 1836, I sailed soon after from New York for Liverpool. To show the great changes which have occurred in traveling since then, I may mention, that on the 14th of February, 1836, I left Philadelphia at 5 P.M., and was fourteen hours going to New York, with the great Southern mail, although the sleighing was good. We rode in an open sled, or box on runners, and the four passengers sat on the mail bags. The fare from Philadelphia to New York was six dollars. It is now two dollars and a half, and the time is reduced to less than two hours and a half, being less than one-fifth of the time, and less than one-half of the price. My recollection is [Page 388 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] that we rode fourteen miles in a railroad car, from Elizabethtown to Jersey City. Having remained abroad until October, 1837, I examined many public works, and superintended the manufacture of a large amount of railroad iron, and railroad equipments. At the time of my going abroad, anthracite coal was nowhere used for smelting iron ore; but in May, 1837, I saw the problem successfully solved by means of the hot blast, by the late George Crane, of the Yniscedwin Iron Works, near Swansea, in South Wales. About the same time, at Bristol, England, I walked over the keel of the steamship Great Western, which had been laid not long before. Her success as a transatlantic steamer was then a question keenly contested, but it turned out to be complete. The length of my return voyage from Liverpool to Philadelphia, in a packet ship, was forty-one days. The competition which existed between Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore for the trade of the West, led to the passage of an Act to incorporate the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, on the 13th of April, 1846; but the conditions contained in the Act were so stringent, that the Charter was not issued by the Governor until the 25th of February, 1847. A joint special committee of the City Councils of Philadelphia made a report in July, 1846, recommending a subscription to the stock on the part of the city. The committee submitted letters on the subject from a number of engineers, which were printed with the report. In one of these letters written by me, I urged the adoption of the Juniata route, and the use of the Portage Railroad, temporarily, as part of the line. The Charter, however, did not authorize the use of the Portage Railroad, as the legislature was afraid of the competition of the Pennsylvania Railroad with the main line of the public works. There was also a tonnage tax imposed, to protect the business of the main line, during the season of canal navigation, which was at the rate of five mills, or half a cent, per ton per mile, between the 10th of March and the 1st of December in every year, but the railroad was to be free from the tonnage tax in what was considered to be the winter sea- [Page 389 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] son. Although this tax was modified, it was not abolished until after the purchase of the main line by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. On the organization of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1847, Samuel V. Merrick was chosen President; John Edgar Thomson, chief engineer; William B. Foster, Jr., associate engineer of the eastern division; and Edward Miller, associate engineer of the western division. These gentlemen, so eminently fitted for their positions, as I know from personal knowledge, they having been my intimate friends, are all dead. In my opinion, the location of the Pennsylvania Railroad deserves great praise; and, as now constructed, it is an admirable road. It has become the main artery of the trade and travel of the Commonwealth, and the population of Philadelphia is about three times as great as when it was begun. On the 17th of September, 1850, the Pennsylvania Railroad was opened from Harrisburg to a point of connection with the Portage Railroad, at Duncansville, near Hollidaysburg, portions of the line having been opened previously. About that time, Thomas A. Scott, who is now the distinguished President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, entered the service of the company as station agent at Duncansville; where he had charge of the transfer of cars between the road of the company and that of the State. He was soon after transferred to the western division as its superintendent, where he distinguished himself by his remarkable energy, and great executive ability. On the 15th of February, 1854, the mountain division of the Pennsylvania Railroad was opened for use, with a summit tunnel, and no inclined planes, and the company ceased to make use of the Portage Railroad. There had been much difficulty in obtaining the legislation to authorize the use of the Portage Railroad by the company. The original act of incorporation, passed in 1846, was very defective, and the efforts made to amend it, in the following year, were not successful. The necessary legislation was not obtained until 1848. In that year I was a member of the House of Repre- [Page 390 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] sentatives of Pennsylvania, having been elected from the city of Philadelphia, as one of the five members chosen to represent the old city proper, on a general ticket. The railroad bills in which the city was interested were placed in my hands. A supplement to the Charter of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was obtained, which conferred many valuable privileges. It provided a more just and equitable mode of assessing land damages; it confirmed the city subscription to the stock; it authorized the county of Allegheny to subscribe for stock to the amount of a million dollars, which was afterwards done; and it authorized the connection with the Portage Railroad. It also made some reduction in the tonnage tax. Legislation was obtained in another bill for the survey of a line to avoid the inclined plane near Philadelphia. At the same session a charter was obtained for a railroad from Pittsburgh westward, on the line towards Fort Wayne and Chicago. I was afterwards the chief engineer of it, from Pittsburgh to Crestline, a distance of 188 miles. I had charge of the location, construction, and working of the road as far west as Crestline, from 1848 to 1856, and the towns of Alliance and Crestline were located, and their names selected by me. This line was originally called the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad, as it was chartered by both of those States, and was the first line to connect their railroad systems. It has become a most important feeder to the Pennsylvania Railroad. On the 6th of January, 1852, the road was opened from Pittsburgh to Alliance, 82 miles, where it connected with a railroad to Cleveland; and, very shortly after, I took Louis Kossuth and his party of Hungarians over it, which was the occasion of a great ovation. The road was opened to Crestline on the 11th of April, 1853, where it connected with a direct railroad to Columbus and Cincinnati. This road thus opened has now been in use for about twenty-five years, and has been of great public utility. The completion of the line between Crestline and Chicago was delayed by financial difficulties for some years; but it was opened throughout in December, 1858, mainly by the efforts of John Edgar Thomson. [Page 391 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] The competition which was for some time carried on between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the main line, owned by the State, was found to be injurious to both; and, after protracted negotiations, the State sold its line to the company. On the 20th of July, 1857, a meeting of the stockholders of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was held at Sansom Street Hall, to act upon the purchase of the main line, of canals, and railroads between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Having been selected for the purpose, I offered the resolutions, and spoke in their favor. The measure was adopted with but little opposition, and on the first of the following month, August 1st, 1857, the Governor, by proclamation, transferred the main line to the railroad company. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company thus became the owner of the Portage Railroad, and, as it was not the interest of the company to keep it up and work it, it soon went out of use. It had had its day, and something better had taken its place; and, instead of lasting for many generations, the time of its existence was but about twenty-five years. The great improvements made in locomotive engines have enabled them to work to advantage on steep grades, so as to supersede stationary power, and to draw long and heavy trains continuously for many miles, without stopping for any change. Railroad tracks have also been greatly improved. The foundations are better; the rails are longer and stronger; the joints are fewer and much safer; and the switches and signals are much better than they were. Steel rails, and steel tires on locomotive driving wheels, have come into extensive use, and add much to the durability and safety of the roads. Switch rails were at first of cast iron; and afterwards of rolled iron, with a pivot, or hinge, welded on at the heel of the switch. On the Portage Railroad I introduced the plan of holding the switch rail fast in a chair, and bend the rail by the switch lever, as is now done in the common stub switch. Improved safety switches have since been invented, and are now extensively used. When I went to the iron works in Wales in 1836, the rails were allowed to get cold, after coming from the rolls, and the [Page 392 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] ends were afterwards reheated, and the fag ends cut off by hand. While I was there, the circular saws were brought into use, by which the ends of the rails are now cut off when hot from the rolls. The iron rails made under my direction, at the Ebbw Vale Iron Works, for the Reading Railroad, were unusually good for that time; but good steel rails of American manufacture can now be bought for less than those cost in Wales. Fifty years have passed since I rode on the Mauch Chunk Railroad, on the first train of cars that ever rain in Pennsylvania, and during that long period my interest in the growth of our railroad system has never ceased. Four years later, when I led the locating party on the Allegheny Portage Railroad, it was with a feeling of enthusiasm for my professional employment, which it gives me pleasure to recall. To be useful to my native State and city, and to help promote the prosperity of Pennsylvania, were my lively hope and strong desire, for it is a State of which we may well be proud. The strong foundations of her history were laid by William Penn, in principles of truth and justice which must endure forever. Although the railroad of which I have spoken has ceased to exist, yet I need not say, "So fades, so perishes, grows dim and dies, All that this world is proud of." Or, "What profit hat a man of all his labor, which he taketh under the sun?" The present is the child of the past, and will be the parent of the future, and to keep the past from being forgotten, and to preserve its lessons for our instruction, is the highly useful office of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, which I trust it will continue to fill, for the benefit of those who may come after us, for many generations. NOTE. The following Table gives the profile of the Portage Railroad. The grade lines between the inclined planes, and between the planes and the terminal stations, which were worked by horse power, or by locomotives, were called "levels." There were some minor variations in the grades on the levels, [Page 393 - The First Railroad over the Allegheny Mountain] made to suit the ground, which are omitted from the Table; but from the lengths and heights here given, the average grade of each "level" may be obtained correctly. Length Rise. Level No. 1 From Johnstown to Plane No. 1 4.13 miles 101.46 ft. Plane No. 1 Ascending eastward 1607.74 feet 150.00 ft. Level No. 2 " " Long Level 13.06 miles 189.58 ft. Plane No. 2 " 1760.43 feet 132.40 ft. Level No. 3 " 1.49 miles 14.50 ft. Plane No. 3 " 1480.25 feet 130.50 ft. Level No. 4 " 1.90 miles 18.80 ft. Plane No. 4 " 2195.94 feet 187.86 ft. Level No. 5 " 2.56 miles 25.80 ft. Plane No. 5 " 2628.60 feet 201.64 ft. Level No. 6 " Summit Level at Blair's Gap 1.62 miles 19.04 ft. 1171.58 Fall. Plane No. 6 Descending eastw'd 2713.85 feet 266.50 ft. Level No. 7 " .15 miles 0.00 ft. Plane No. 7 " 2655.01 feet 260.50 ft. Level No. 8 " .66 miles 5.80 ft. Plane No. 8 " 3116.92 feet 307.60 ft. Level No. 9 " 1.25 miles 12.00 ft. Plane No. 9 " 2720.80 feet 189.50 ft. Level No. 10 " 1.76 miles 29.58 ft. Plane No. 10 " 2295.61 feet 180.52 ft. Level No. 11 " to Hollidaysburg 3.72 miles 146.71 ft. 1398.71 ft.