172 HAUPT— TRANSPORTATION IN THE UNITED STATES. [April 19, 



The discovery of coal in Pennsylvania in 1792 greatly stimulated 

 the opening of canals in the middle and eastern states under corpo- 

 rate control, and in a few instances the government became inter- 

 ested by subscribing to the stock of the companies, as in the case 

 of the Dismal Swamp, the Chesapeake and Delaware, the Louis- 

 ville and Portland canals. 



Thus fostered and encouraged the mileage of the canals in- 

 creased rapidly and on safe commercial routes, so that up to the 

 date of the Civil War there were over 5,000 miles in operation 

 estimated to have cost $150,000,000 while in the same time the 

 general government had expended less than $15,000,000 on its 

 waterways. 



With the incoming railroad epoch, in 1830, the trend of in- 

 vestments changed and as the roads soon discovered their inability 

 to compete with the cheaper water routes, maintained by the states, 

 and also to pay a tax on their tonnage, a war of extermination was 

 waged and in time these ancient servitors of the public were forced 

 to the wall. 



These primitive railways, operated at first by horses and later 

 by small wood-burning engines, followed the canal routes as being 

 those of least resistance and greatest traffic, but carried very little 

 freight, and efforts were made to restrict their business exclusively 

 to passengers, but it was not successful. 



Thus along the line of the Erie Canal there were nine indepen- 

 dent railroads; the first of which extended from Albany to Sche- 

 nectady, opened in September, 1831, or six years after the canal. 

 These links were subsequently united and in 1851 the Hudson 

 River road was completed and an all rail connection made over 

 this route with the lakes. 



Similarly the Pennsylvania Railroad was built from Columbia 

 up the Susquehanna and Juniata to Hollidaysburg, thence crossing 

 the mountain on the old Portage Railroad to the Conemaugh at 

 Johnstown and thence to Pittsburg via. the Kiskiminitas and Alle- 

 gheny. The total distance from Philadelphia was about 395 miles 

 by this route. The railroad was opened through to Pittsburg, 

 December 10, 1852, and soon after, the improvement of the Ohio 

 was urged by the president of the company as the best method of 

 increasing the traffic of his lines. 



