Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... The Story About One of the Pirst Chartered Railroads in America. Prepared by DR. J. J. JOHN, of Stiainokin, Pa., and read before the Society, September 26, 1906. ON THE OLD ROAD. "Once in an old forgotten day This by-track was a trodden way, But now, so few the steps that pass, The ruts are carpeted with erass. The careless brambles trail across, The gravel has its garb of moss, And oft the dawn and dusk go by Unnoted of a human eye." The chartering of the Danville and Pottsville Railroad, April 8, 1826, placed it in the honorable column of one of the few corporations that at this early period com menced the experiment of a new and comparatively untried method of transportation. It was a venture--a leap in the dark, --as only two railroads in England, had as yet, resorted to this plan of carriage, and with the short experience of a couple years, the results were unknown. Following in the wake of our mother country, the people of our Commonwealth at this time had become greatly interested in the question of internal improvements. With vigorous energy they entered upon the herculean task to develop the immense resources of our state by a system of inland navigation through the means of canals. With Philadelphia as a base, these arteries of commerce were to extend across the state to connect with Lake Erie and the Ohio River. This was a great undertaking for those times, as great mountain ranges preSented barriers that seemed impossible to pass by water communication. But the ingenuity of our engineers overcame these difficulties by portage railroads with their tunnels and inclined planes. The railroad of this period was an improvement on its ancestors, the tram road, which for several hundred years had been in use in some of its primitive...