The Railroad Question / A historical and practical treatise on railroads, and remedies for their abuses

by William Larrabee

In no country in the world has the growth of railroads been so rapid as in the United States. With a population less than one-fifth as large as that of Europe this country has a larger number of miles of railroad than that continent. While European countries generally opposed the introduction of the new system of transportation, our people extended to it a hearty welcome. This difference of sentiment can easily be accounted for. At the time of the invention of railroads Europe had a system of turnpikes and canals which, at least for the time being, answered every purpose. It became necessary for the railroads to enter into competition with these well-established agencies of transportation, which had the test of time, popular prejudice and governmental sanction in their favor. Moreover, the railroad as a new and unknown quantity caused a feeling of uneasiness in all conservative circles. It seemed to make war against time-honored principles of statecraft and society, and threatened to bring about a revolution the outcome of which no one could foresee.

The condition of things was entirely different in the United States. There were but few good roads and still fewer turnpikes and canals. A vast territory in the interior awaited cultivation. Excepting the coast and a few cities situated on the large navigable rivers, the East and the West and the North and the South were practically without commercial relations, and were only held together by a community of political traditions and the artificial cement of a common constitution. Even had the country had a system of turnpikes and canals, the Mississippi River would still have been a forty days', and the extreme Northwest a three months' journey distant from New York. It seems extremely doubtful whether the different sections of so large a realm, having so little community of commercial interests, could long be kept together under a republican system of government. The settlement of the central portion of the country and the development of its resources seemed to be the task of future centuries. The railroad under these circumstances made its appearance at a most opportune time for America, and the American people were not slow to make the best of the opportunities presented to them.

In the United States, as in England, the railroad was preceded by the tram-road. The first tram-road in this country was opened in 1826. It connected the granite quarries of Quincy with the Neponset River, and was operated by horsepower. The second road of this kind was the Mauch Chunk tramway, in Pennsylvania, opened in 1826, for the transportation of coal. The trains were drawn up an inclined plane by stationary engines and were moved down by their own weight. During the same year the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company opened the Carbondale and Homesdale tramway, connecting their mines with the Delaware and Hudson Canal. It appears that an English locomotive was imported for use on this line in 1828, but that it did not answer its purpose.

During the same year was commenced the construction of the first line of importance in this country, the Baltimore and Ohio. The line was opened for traffic in 1830, having then an extent of fourteen miles. In 1831 it was extended sixty-one miles, and the year following sixty-seven miles. For a year the road was operated by horsepower, but in 1831 the company purchased for its road an American locomotive.

The first road upon which a locomotive engine of American manufacture was used was the South Carolina Railroad, which was commenced in 1830. The engine was manufactured at West Point and was placed upon the road in December of the same year. The line had then an extent of ten miles. In 1832 it had increased to sixty-two miles, and in 1833 to 136 miles. The construction of the Mohawk and Hudson was commenced in August, 1830, and the road was opened in September of the following year. Its first locomotive engine was also imported from England, but, being found too heavy, was soon replaced by an American engine of half its weight. In 1831 two other New York roads were commenced, the Saratoga and the New York and Harlem. A small portion of the latter was opened during the same year, and the former in July, 1832. The Camden and Amboy Railroad in New Jersey was likewise commenced in 1831, but its completion was not reached till 1834. The New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad was completed in 1832, the Philadelphia and Trenton in 1833, and the New Jersey in 1834. In 1835 the Washington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio was opened, and the entire line had at the end of that year attained an extent of 115 miles. During the same year three Massachusetts roads, connecting Boston with Providence, Worcester and Lowell respectively, were opened. In 1836 the New York Central route was opened to Utica. In 1837 the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad was completed from Richmond to Fredericksburg. In 1838 the Richmond and Petersburg and the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore railroads were opened. The Wilmington and Weldon Railroad was completed in 1840, and the Petersburg and Roanoke three years later. There was now a continuous line of railway from the Potomac to Wilmington, North Carolina. In 1842 the whole line of the Boston and Albany road was completed, which thus became the first important through route in America.

The construction of railroads in the United States was from the first carried on without a system. Railroads in an early day were purely local affairs. Each locality operated its own road in its own interest and without any supervision from the State which had granted its charter. Acts of incorporation or charters were granted as a matter of course. Railroads were looked upon as the natural feeders of canals, and their future importance was foreseen by very few men. The early roads were a heavy burden on the capital of the country. A number of small roads were built that proved unprofitable and had to be abandoned. After the financial panic of 1837 there was, except in New England, a very perceptible stagnation in railroad enterprise, which lasted until the discovery of gold in California, in 1848. The average number of miles of road constructed per annum during the ten years preceding 1848 was 380, while it was nearly 1,800 per annum during the seven years following.

It may be said that with the discovery of gold in the West ends the first or formative period of railroad construction. From the first opening of the Baltimore and Ohio to the beginning of the year 1848, a period of eighteen years, there were constructed in the United States 5,205 miles of railroad, or an average of 289 miles per annum. The discovery of gold on the Pacific gave a new impetus to railroad construction throughout the country. Railroads now ceased to be local works and became interstate or national thoroughfares. Extensive new lines were built and through routes were formed by the coalition of local roads. It was during this period that railroad companies first became conscious of the importance of their mission and that they commenced to compete with river and canal carriers. In 1848 a through route was completed between Cincinnati and Lake Erie. A more direct line, the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati road, was opened in 1851. During the same year the Erie Railroad reached Lake Erie and connected the lake with the Hudson, and a year later Chicago received railroad connection with the East by the completion of the Michigan Central and Michigan Southern. In 1854 the Chicago and Rock Island reached the Mississippi River, and in 1855 the Chicago and Galena was opened. One year later the Illinois Central reached the Mississippi at Cairo, and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was opened to Quincy. The Ohio and Mississippi, between Cincinnati and St. Louis, was completed at about the same time. The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago, an extension of the Pennsylvania road, was completed to Chicago in 1858. At the beginning of 1859 the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad reached the Missouri River, and eight years later the Cedar Rapids and Missouri was completed to the Missouri at Council Bluffs.

To encourage the extension of railroads into new and thinly settled territories, and to thus hasten their settlement and the development of their resources, the people of the United States began at the commencement of this period to favor the policy of land grants. Such grants had repeatedly been made to roads and canals prior to the crisis of 1837. The first railroad that received a land grant was the Illinois Central. The scheme was proposed as early as 1836, but the act making the grant was not passed until September 20, 1850. Other grants followed in 1852 in Missouri, in 1853 in Arkansas, in 1856 in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Florida and Louisiana. As a rule these lands were granted by the National Government to the States, and by them to the railroads. The land grants made during President Fillmore's administration amounted to eight million, and those made during Pierce's administration to nineteen million acres. The financial crisis of 1857 and the War of the Rebellion again checked railroad building, but this period developed a new phase of railroad enterprise as well as of the land grant policy. In those times of national trial a railroad to the Pacific Coast seemed a political necessity. The project of connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by a line of railroads was first brought prominently before the American people by Asa Whitney of New York. At a meeting held under his auspices in Philadelphia on the 23d day of December, 1846, a movement was inaugurated for the purpose of interesting the people in this enterprise and securing the aid of the government for its accomplishment. Various plans were urged, and earnest discussions followed, in which the ablest minds of the nation participated. The continual agitation of the subject finally led, on the 1st of July, 1862, to the passage by Congress of an act incorporating the Union Pacific Railway Company and the adoption of the central route. The Union and the Central Pacific companies received a virtual money subsidy of $30,000,000 and a land grant aggregating nearly twenty-three million acres, a domain almost equal to the State of Indiana. Other direct grants of territorial lands soon followed. The Northern Pacific received, just before the close of the war, a grant of forty-seven million acres of land. In the Southwest public lands were also freely given to new Pacific lines. The various grants made to railroads comprise no less than 300,000 square miles, equal to four and a half times the area of New England, or six times that of the State of New York, or equal to the total area of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Where these grants were not deemed sufficient inducement for the construction of roads, counties, cities and towns freely voted subsidies, while private citizens made donations to or subscribed for the securities of the new railroads.

As has already been stated, the consolidation of connecting lines and their transformation into a few large through routes was one of the characteristic features of this period. As through traffic, and particularly through freight, grew in importance, it became more and more apparent that frequent transhipment was an expense to the railroads as well as a burden to the public. The system of railroad ownership and management soon adapted itself to the necessities of business. The change seems to have been inevitable, for it occurred in all parts of the world at about the same time. Sagacious men early recognized the importance of railroads as national lines of communication. This idea no doubt controlled the projectors of the Baltimore and Ohio, of the Erie, and of the Boston and Albany roads. The first consolidation of any importance took place in 1853, when eleven different roads between Albany and Buffalo were united to form the New York Central. Five branch roads were added to the system between 1855 and 1858. In 1864 Cornelius Vanderbilt secured control of the Hudson River road, and in 1867 of the New York Central, which lines he consolidated in 1869. By gaining soon afterward control of the Lake Shore and Michigan Central and Southern Canadian roads, he united under one management over 4,000 miles of railroad between New York and Chicago, and thus created the first through line between the East and the West.

As has already been stated, the Pennsylvania road gained control of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago in 1858 and thus extended its system as far as Chicago. Through the absorption of other lines it reached an extent of over 7,000 miles. The creation of this through route was chiefly the work of Thomas A. Scott, at that time vice-president, and later president, of the Pennsylvania railroad.