Railroads

The first railroad constructed in America was projected by Gridley Bryant in 1825, and extended from Quincy, Ma ,, to the nearest tidewater. It was four miles long. The second railroad extended from mines near Mauch Chunk, Pa., to the Lehigh River. It was begun in 1827. Stephen son’s locomotive came into use in 1829, and by 1830 there were twenty-three miles of railroad completed in the United States. The New York Central road was projected in 1825; the Boston and Albany in 1827; the Baltimore and Ohio in 1828; the Pennsylvania in 1827; the Maryland and South Carolina in 1828. In 1840 there were 2,200 miles completed; in 1850, 7,500; in 1860, 29,000; in 1870, 49,000; in 1880, 93,671, and in 1893, 171,805 miles, showing total a ets of €11,482,000,000. The consolidation of railway companies began in 1853, forming a germ of the grand trunk system. Government aid was first extended to railroads in 1850, in the case of the Tllinois Central, by a large land grant. In 1862 the Union Pacific Company was granted both land and pecuniary aid. To the Northern Pacific were granted 47,000,000 acres; to the Atlantic and Pacific 42,- 000,000 acres. These roads were begun in 1864 and 1866 respectively. In 1869 Vanderbilt consolidated the Hudson River and New York Central roads, forming a trunk line to the West. The United States now contains about one-half of the railway mileage of the world. Rail-Splitter, a nickname for Abraham Lincoln, who in his youth earned money to educate himself by splitting rails for a neighbor. 149