1. The Allegheny Portage Railroad in western Pennsylvania
In its heyday during the middle of the nineteenth century, the Allegheny Portage railroad was considered an engineering marvel, built to haul canal passengers, cargoes, and eventually the canal barges themselves over the Allegheny Mountains between disconnected branches of the Pennsylvania canal. Innovations developed in support of the portage included wire rope, engineered by John Roebling and later used to build suspension bridges over the Ohio River and eventually to connect Brooklyn with Manhattan. Both stationary steam engines and animal power were used to haul the loads up and down the slopes which separated the canals, and the first railroad tunnel in the United States – Staple Bend Tunnel – was a part of the system. Following his first American tour Charles Dickens wrote memorably of the system and the boats which were part of the journey in his American Notes.
Before the canal and connecting railroads was in existence a journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was measured in weeks for a typical traveler. Its completion lessened the time to travel between Pennsylvania’s primary cities to four days. Nonetheless the technology which made the portage successful – the steam engine – was also its nemesis, once railroads connected the cities the time to travel between them was less than a day, and the canal gradually fell into disuse, as did canals across the United States. The National Park Service maintains part of the site as a National Historic Site and includes the Lemon House Tavern, which was a popular watering hole among the travelers and workers at the portage.
