Old Portage Railroad Line

Pennsylvania, 1905

For some time prior to 1800 travel across Pennsylvania had been in canoes and in river barges propelled by poles or along the shores of rivers by horse and foot and by intervening portages on Indian trails, connecting points on the different rivers. The Philadelphia-Pittsburg national pike was built upon such a substantial basis that wherever undisturbed one still finds the gracefully modeled arches of solid masonry almost intact, after more than a century has passed. The completion of the Old Portage railroad by the state of Pennsylvania in 1834 put an end to the time-honored "coach and six," with the many picturesque and commodious inns and taverns along the line of this broad macadamized toll road, which with its substantial construction was, in point of endurance, second only to the Roman military roads of Great Britain.

This Old Portage road was constructed from material brought from England. The British government sent over experienced engineers to instruct the Americans in the running of the stationary steam engines used upon the inclined planes of the road in the Allegheny mountains. The railroad's highest point was about 2,700 feet above sea level; being only 200 feet lower than the neighboring hill, which is the highest point of the Allegheny mountains in Pennsylvania. The road consisted of ten planes, five of which were on either side of the mountain, and intervening levels. In 1835 the canalboats were so constructed that they could be taken in sections and hauled over the mountain on flat cars, without disturbing their cargoes. The rails were secured to stone sleepers twenty inches square, which were sunk in the ground.

On the Old Portage road the best time for the forty miles between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown was twelve hours. Express trains on the Pennsylvania railroad now run a closely parallel distance over the Allegheny mountains in a trifle over one hour. The passenger traffic on the road in those days was usually limited to one car each way a day, with a capacity of thirty passengers.

In 1854 the Pennsylvania Railroad company bought the Portage road from the state of Pennsylvania. Common rumor says that at this time the state legislature was "greased" and that not a cent of the $47,000,000 which was to have been paid for the road was ever received into the treasury of Pennsylvania.