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Allegheny Portage
Railroad
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 Incline Plane No. 6 is located inside the National Historic Site |
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Until the mid 1830's, the United States had no good way of transporting bulk goods from the interior of the country to marketplaces like Philadelphia and New York. Goods had to travel down the Ohio River toward New Orleans, out into the ocean and up the eastern seaboard. Incredibly, goods as close as Pittsburgh, Pa., only 400 miles west from Philadelphia, would take up to six weeks to to reach east coast cities. This was cheaper and easier than crossing the rugged Allegheny Mountains. |
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By 1825, something had to be done to improve the new nations' poor interior trade routes and at the same time, promote growth and commercial development in the heartland of America. Businessmen and the Pennsylvania legislature came up with a new and grand idea. They would build a massive state-owned and operated canal system the entire 400-mile distance from east coast Philadelphia to Pittsburgh at the beginning of the Ohio River. A major piece of the ystem came at a crucial segment located about 300 miles west of Philadelphia at the Allegheny Mountains. At the base of the eastern slope of the mountains, where the canal boats can no longer continue west, the canal engineers designed and built a 36-mile funicular railroad called the Allegheny Portage Railroad. |
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Each engine house had a steam engine of only about 35-horse power |
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| Completed in the spring of 1834, the 36-mile funicular railroad was called one of the engineering marvel of its' day. Ten incline planes employed stationary steam engines. They hoisted three 7,000 lb. rail cars and later canal boats on flat bed cars, up and over the Allegheny Mountains. Between the incline planes, cars were hauled on 11 less steep areas called "levels", at first by teams of horses and then, by 1835, by locomotives. | |
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| A second track was installed in 1835 after the single lane became bogged down with traffic. Besides allowing for traffic in opposite directions at the same time, a second track provided for a counterweight system. The counterbalance of about 7,000 lbs of cargo per car going in each direction proved to be much safer and more economical system. | |
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Official NPS website of Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site
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