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nect one side or me state to me other, and it had a mountain in the way,” national park Ranger Doug Bosley said.The Allegheny Portage Railroad was the state’s $2 millionthe canal and its Portage Railroad la; years, but in reality, ready outdated 10 ye opened. Bosley said.New developmen rail industry’s captai locomotives suddenl enough to climb gr enough that the Pe Railroad could bypa: system - and, of con time.“The state tried pace,” Bosley said.“They put in anoti lion to bypass the t by 1855, all of the Portage incline was But it didn’t matter.’ The state couldn while still relying c of slow-moving c after accruing a hea build and support thlt; couldn’t afford to k mg, given that the the entire eastern I trying to recover frc economic downturn accounts show.By 1857, the ent was sold to the Pe Railroad for $7.5 mi than it cost to build earlier.The railroad only i gain the special cha sary to haul freight v risburg, Bosley said.“They immediate! whole tiling down. Tanswer.Constructed as a more than 36-mile-long system of rails and inclines, it served as the first true transportation system through the Allegheny Mountains’ rugged terrain, serving as a vital link in a direct east-to-west passage for passengers, merchants and millions of pounds of goods annually.It did so in what then seemed like a rapid pace, up to 18 miles per hour, that allowed goods to travel from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh in four days, rather than four weeks by wagon, Bosley said.A nearly 1,300-acre Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site park near the Cresson-Blair County border preserves that story today.Canal competition and creativityPennsylvania’s Mam Line Canal system was actually a mix of rail and waterways.It also was a reaction to New York’s Erie Canal, a game-changing 360-mile-long man-made system that allowed Pennsylvania’ s northern neighbor to quickly move goods across the state and to parts beyond.Pennsylvania would spend aeach side of the mountain path, 10 in all, and run flat stretches in between.At the top of each incline, coal-fired stationary engines lifted or lowered canal boats and engines - often a few rail cars at a time - from one level to the next, Bosley said.By today’s standards, it was a slow process that often caused bottlenecks in Cresson and Hol-hdaysburg. But m those days, it was nothing compared to theduring the railroad system’s height.Trams carried it by the barrelful.Flour was also a common shipment, he said.The lustoric site’s visitor center displays a life-sized model of the type of Lafayette locomotive that might have hauled such goods.Visitors can watch a film of a fictional character’s story of his time on the canal andLemon House.Built around 1832, it’s not known how many travelers - or which historical figures - might have stepped into Samuel Lemon’s stone-built family home and tavern for a rest on their way through the Alleghenies, Bosley said.Plans, contracts and documents are so elusive that period artwork and accounts from guests had to be relied upon instead during the home’s res-steam locomotives.And when they stumbled across a coal seam on their properly', they were more than happy to sell it to the state to fuel their engine houses, he said.Colors, consequenceThe now-restored Lemon House offers a glimpse into the family’s lives, Bosley said, noting that the family occupied much of the house’s second floor, while operating their tav-♦L ✓-v-iU 1 An 1 f it 7L rt 1 rt i i » ____4-1- ~ ' 1
Newspaper Details
Gettysburg Times
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, US
Sat, Aug 20, 2016
Page 24
Full Page
Clipped by
Altoona A.
PA, USA 05 Sep 2018
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