Oldest railroads in North America facts for kids

This Gilded Age train station sits at the summit terminus of what was arguably the most important nine miles of railroad in the United States in the 1830s: the Mauch Chunk & Summit Hill Railroad, later the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway. The Victorian building replaced the original offices, one of the first train stations to host travelers. The first documented passenger traffic arrived in the later half of 1827 when the area and down to Mauch Chunk was billed as "The Switzerland of America"; regular passenger trains brought urban tourists from 1829 until early 1932.

This is a list of the earliest railroads in North America, including various railroad-like precursors to the general modern form of a company or government agency operating locomotive-drawn trains on metal tracks.

Railroad-like entities (1700s–1810s)

• 1720: A railroad was reportedly used in the construction of the French fortress at Louisburg, Nova Scotia, Canada.
• 1764: Between 1762 and 1764, at the close of the French and Indian War, a gravity railroad (mechanized tramway) (Montresor's Tramway) was built by British military engineers up the steep riverside terrain near the Niagara River waterfall's escarpment at the Niagara Portage (which the local Senecas called "Crawl on All Fours.") in Lewiston, New York. Before the British conquest, under French control the portage had employed nearly 200 Seneca porters. However, once the British took control of the area, they installed a cable railway using sledges (heavy sleds without wheels) to hold the track between the rails. The sleds were capable of carrying 12 to 14 barrels at a time (a serious weight capacity even if only small shoulder-hoistable/mule-compatible keg-sized barrels, taken along with its longevity) indicating that it was a funicular design with two tracks. With barrels as the primary Up load's configuration and they also provided a ready-made counterweight with addition of sufficient Niagara River water as the likely mass used to adjust the lifting force. Designed by Captain John Montresor, the new railway replaced manual labor performed by the Seneca and touched off what might be the first labor rebellion in North America when the Seneca became unemployed; in September 1763, the Senecas revolted and killed many British soldiers and workers in what is called the Devil's Hole Massacre. The tramway was in use until the early 1800s
• 1799–1805: Boston developers began to reduce the height of Mount Vernon before building streets and homes. Silas Whitney constructed a gravity railroad to move excavated material down the hill to fill marshy areas to create new land from the Back Bay. Frederick C. Gamst, a professor of anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, believed this to be the same railroad equipment as used by Bulfinch on his Beacon Hill railway, given the relations of both men to the land speculation syndicate.
• 1811: George Magers designed and built a one-mile (1.6 km) wooden gravity railroad between a gunpowder mill and its powder storage bunker at Falling's Creek, Virginia.
• 1815: New Jersey granted a charter on February 6, 1815, for a company to "erect a rail-road from the river Delaware near Trenton, to the river Raritan, at or near New Brunswick"—that is, to connect the water ports so boats could ferry riders the last distance connecting Philadelphia & Trenton to (19th-century) New York City and Brooklyn & Queens on Long Island via New York Harbor, as proposed by inventor and railway builder John Stevens (1749–1838). This New Jersey Railroad Company was the first passenger carrier railroad chartered in the United States, but failed to attract investors and was never built. Its rights would be passed to the Camden and Amboy Railroad (below), chartered in 1830 and also having Stevens as president.
• 1816: A railroad was reportedly used at Kiskiminetas Creek, Pennsylvania.
• 1818: An iron-smelting furnace at Bear Creek, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, reportedly had a wooden railroad in operation.

Early railroad companies (1820s–1830s)

Historical Marker of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, incorporated in 1826 and opened in 1831

U.S. railroads in 1835

• 1826: The Granite Railway in Massachusetts was incorporated by Thomas Handasyd Perkins and Gridley Bryant. Construction began on April 1, and operations began on October 7. It later became a branch of the Old Colony and Newport Railway, which was later absorbed into the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. This is often called the first commercial railroad in the U.S., as it was the first to evolve into a common carrier without an intervening closure. See the 1810 Leiper Railroad for comparison.
• 1826: On April 9, the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was incorporated as the first railroad chartered in New York State (marker pictured), and the first railroad in the United States designed to be powered by a locomotive engine as opposed to horse-drawn or gravity railroads. It opened on August 9, 1831 using steam locomotive DeWitt Clinton.
• 1827: The Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk Railroad, often just called The Switchback or the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railroad, Pennsylvania's first railroad and first anthracite carrier initially a 9-mile (14 km) gravity railroad with animal powered return of cars, is built between Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe), Pennsylvania when rails are laid on top of the existing mule-haul road graded to be nearly uniform in grade from its establishment in 1819-20. Designed by founder Josiah White to drop evenly over its length and superintended in both evolutions by founder Erskine Hazard of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, the railway—as the world's first roller coaster, also became a famous tourist attraction—as were leisure cruises on the company's Lehigh Canal. The road carried cargo as a common carrier back up to Summit Hill almost from the start, but by 1829 the new railed road was carrying passengers flocking out from Philadelphia to enjoy its attractions. It was built to haul anthracite coal from the mines to the Lehigh Canal on the Lehigh River and was the first railroad of this type.
• 1829: On August 8, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's gravity railroad in northeast Pennsylvania opened using Stourbridge Lion, the first locomotive to run on rails in the United States. It was also a coal railroad. The canal company, chartered in 1823, called itself "America's oldest continually operated transportation company".
• 1829: The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was chartered December 19, 1827 and was also known as the Charleston & Hamburg Road. An experimental track was installed in February, 1829 to haul bales of cotton in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. On April 1, 1830 a double-tracked 3,800-foot (1,200 m)-long railroad was in full operation. By 1833, this railroad had been completed to Hamburg, South Carolina for a total length of 137 miles (220 km). At that time, it was the longest railroad in the world. This was the first railroad to use steam locomotives regularly. It later became part of the Southern Railway, now part of Norfolk Southern.
• 1829: The Mill Creek & Mine Hill Navigation & Railroad Company was chartered on February 7, 1828. The 4.09-mile (6.58 km) main line from Palo Alto, Pennsylvania to Wolf Creek was completed in 1829 with branches added in 1829 and 1830 for a total of 8.29 miles (13.34 km). It was another coal hauling railroad.
• 1830: The Schuylkill Valley Railroad & Navigation Company was chartered on April 14, 1828. It ran 9.23 miles (14.85 km) from Port Carbon, Pennsylvania to Tuscarora and was completed in 1830. It was built to carry coal from mines to Port Carbon.
• 1830: The Union Canal Company Railroad was a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) railroad constructed by the Union Canal (Pennsylvania) Company and was chartered on March 3, 1826. The company was in the canal business, but due to the topography, it could not extend its canal to the coal fields north of Pine Grove, Pennsylvania. It's solution was to build this short coal-hauling railroad, which was completed in 1830.
• 1830: The Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad and Coal Company was chartered on February 28, 1826. The LSRR operated between Tamaqua, Pennsylvania and Port Clinton beginning in 1831 using horse-drawn cars. Two steam locomotives were acquired by the railroad in 1833, but the wooden tracks did not support the engines. Iron "T" rails replaced the wooden ones in 1845, and the locomotives were then returned to regular service. It completed a junction with the Catawissa Railroad at Tamanend (also called Little Schuylkill Junction) in 1854. In 1857 the LSRR built a roundhouse in Tamaqua, housing 21 locomotives and a turntable. In 1863 the company was leased by the Reading Railroad for 93 years. It formally merged with the Reading in 1952.
• 1830: The Tuscumbia Railway was chartered on January 16, 1830 and proceeded to build a 2.1-mile (3.4 km) railroad from downtown Tuscumbia, Alabama to the docks on the Tennessee River west of Sheffield. This was the first railroad chartered/constructed west of the Appalachian Mountains. In 1832, this railroad was renamed the Tuscumbia, Courtland and Decatur Railroad, and was extended 41.9 miles (67.4 km) to connect the two Alabama cities of Tuscumbia and Decatur.
• 1831: The Mount Carbon Railroad was completed in 1831 running from Mount Carbon, Pennsylvania through Pottsville where it split into two branches, one going to what is now Seltzer and the other to the current Wadesville. This was a coal-hauling railroad, 6.26 miles (10.07 km) in length.
• 1831: The Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven Railroad completed the first part of its railroad from Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania to Minersville with a branch line up the West Branch of the Schuylkill River, a distance of 13.5 miles (21.7 km).
• 1831: The Room Run Railroad was completed along the path of an unsuccessful gravity road, running a distance 5.26 miles (8.47 km) from Nesquehoning to the Lehigh Canal loading docks at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania.
• 1831: The Chesterfield Railroad (sometimes called the Manchester Railroad) began operations by September 1831 in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
• 1839: Albion Railway serving coal mines around Stellarton, Nova Scotia, first railway in Canada to use iron rails and run year-round; home of Samson, the oldest surviving locomotive in Canada.

Early common carriers (1820s–1830s)

While private railroads are legally free to choose their jobs and customers, common carriers must charge fair rates to all comers.

Any effort to arrange early common-carrier railroads in chronological order must choose among various possible criterion dates, including applying for a state charter, receiving a charter, forming a company to build a railroad, beginning construction, opening operations, and so forth.

New Orleans & Carrollton Rail-Road in 1835

Selected railroads chartered since 1832:

• 1835: The New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad began operation after 4 years of work; rail route still in operation as the St. Charles Streetcar Line in New Orleans.
• 1836: The Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Canal and Railroad Company was the first steam railroad in Florida, opening on September 5.
• 1836: The Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad opened in Quebec, Canada.
• 1838: The Northern Cross Railroad opens in Central Illinois; to this day, part of the NCR still operates under the Norfolk Southern Railway.

Tunnels and bridges

The expanded Park Avenue Tunnel in 1941

• 1829: Carrollton Viaduct built of stone for Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 312 ft (95 m) over Gwynns Falls River in Baltimore, Maryland
• 1831 Farnsworth Avenue Stone Arch Carriage Bridge over the Camden & Amboy RR. Bordentown NJ: First bridge completed over Stevens' newly-designed rolled iron inverted T-rails made in Wales. Today trains still pass under the arch on new rails of similar design. Roadway is still used above the stone arch. Designed by Wilson. Keystone date 1831. Made of Stockton Sandstone
• 1833 (June): The Staple Bend Tunnel, the first railroad tunnel in the U.S., completed in June 1833 as part of the Allegheny Portage Railroad which opened in March 1834. Trains stopped running through the Staple Bend Tunnel in 1857, and it is now part of the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site.
• 1833 (December): Wadesville Tunnel, built by Danville and Pottsville Railroad at Wadesville, Pennsylvania.
• 1835: Thomas Viaduct built of stone for Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 614 ft (187 m) over Patapsco River in Relay, Maryland
• 1835: Canton Viaduct built of stone for Boston & Providence Railroad, 615 ft (187 m), over Canton River in Canton, Massachusetts
• 1837: The Yorkville Tunnel opened on October 26, for the New York and Harlem Railroad. It was absorbed in the 1870s by the longer and wider Park Avenue Tunnel, and is used by all Metro-North Railroad commuter trains. The old tunnel carries the two center tracks, and two new tunnels carry outer tracks.
• 1837: The Taft Tunnel opened in 1837 for Norwich and Worcester Railroad in Lisbon, Connecticut, north of Norwich, Connecticut. This is the oldest tunnel still in use in its original form in the U.S.
• 1837: The Howard Tunnel in York County, Pennsylvania. Considered the second-oldest tunnel still in use in its original form in the U.S.
• 1842: The Potomac Creek Bridge, 400 ft (120 m) long, was built across the Potomac Creek in Stafford County, Virginia.
• 1848: Starrucca Viaduct built of stone for the Erie Railroad 1,040 ft (320 m) over Starrucca Creek in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania
• 1850: The Henryton Tunnel on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
• 1850: The Chetoogeta Mountain Tunnel on the Western and Atlantic Railroad, Tunnel Hill, Georgia. 1,477 feet long and the first major railroad tunnel in the south.
• 1856: The Blue Ridge Tunnel, 4,263 ft (1,299 m), considered a world marvel of engineering when opened.
• 1872: The Hauto Tunnel 3,800 ft (1,200 m) enabled a saving of over 14.5 miles (23.3 km), most (12.5 miles (20.1 km)) with steep grades, of the former Nesquehoning & Mahanoy Railroad for the several millions of tons/annum of anthracite shipped by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company from its Lansford and Coaldale breakers in the Panther Creek Valley. The tunnel allowed retirement and conversion of the famous Switchback Railroad (the Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad) into a tourism-only railroad owned by the Mauch Chunk, Summit Hill Switch-Back Railway Company

West of the Mississippi River

• 1841: The Red River Railroad between Alexandria and Cheneyville in Louisiana was operational by 1841.
• 1852: The first section of the Pacific Railroad, later part of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, opened near St. Louis, Missouri.