to the Juniata River, crossing the Susquehanna 

 at the mouth of the Juniata, and following the 

 Juniata to Hollidaysburg (total length, i 71 miles). 



(3) Allegheny Portage, from Hollidaysburg to 

 Johnstown (total length, 37 miles). 



(4) Western Division Canal, commencing at 

 Johnstown, proceeding by way of the Conemaugh, 

 Kiskiminetas, and Allegheny Rivers to Pittsburgh 

 (total length 104 miles). 



Covering a distance of 394 miles, the passage 

 required from 4% to 6 days. There were 1 1 5 

 locks in the eastern and 65 locks in the western 

 division canals. 



The Philadelphia terminus of the Philadelphia 

 and Columbia Railroad was at Broad and Vine 

 Streets, a few blocks north of the Center Square. 

 The railroad proceeded west and then north- 

 west, 179 crossing the Schuylkill near Peters Island 

 on the first Columbia Bridge, a 1 000-foot long 

 wooden structure near the foot of the inclined 

 plane. 



The inclined plane, employing stationary 

 steam engines and hemp ropes to wind the cars 

 up and down two parallel tracks, rose 187 feet in 

 a distance of slightly more than half a mile. The 

 graded railroad proceeded from the head of this 

 plane by way of Downington, Coatesville, and 



Lancaster to Columbia, where it ended at the 

 head of another, somewhat shorter inclined plane, 

 which eased the cars down to the town of Colum- 

 bia, on the east bank of the Susquehanna. 



Several rail and tie configurations were used on 

 the railroad. A few miles of the road consisted 

 of flat iron bars, 2% inches wide by % inch thick, 

 fastened to continuous longitudinal granite sills; 

 there were a few miles of wooden string-pieces, 

 plated in the same manner; most of the way had 

 English rolled "Clarence" rail, not unlike the 

 present rail pattern except for the absence of the 

 bottom flange. The rails rested in vertical 

 notches at the top of cast-iron chairs, or support- 

 ing brackets, to which they were secured by 

 wedges; the chairs were supported on stone blocks 

 2 feet square and 1 foot thick, spaced 3 feet on 

 centers. The gauge, 4 feet 8% inches, was main- 

 tained by wooden crossties spaced 15 feet apart. 180 



The railroad was, according to a contemporary 

 observer, "almost a continuous series of curves," 181 

 due mainly to the locating engineers' attempts to 

 avoid extensive earthwork in order to keep the 

 cost of the line as low as possible. When the line 

 was located, it was expected to be merely a public 

 way for privately owned horse-drawn cars subject 

 to tolls collected by the state. The early use of 

 locomotives was not anticipated. 



While mr. trautwine 182 was superintending the 

 laying of the first T-rail that ever came to America, 

 and was then called the Stephenson wrought iron 

 rail, 183 in contradistinction to the cast iron fish-belly 

 rail then in use, the same kind of work was going on 

 beyond the head of the inclined plane. The rails 

 were being laid and keyed in cast iron chairs, secured 

 to large square blocks of lime stone, and partly on 

 long stone cross-ties, the chairs being fastened to the 



stone by iron bolts, leaded in holes drilled in them. 

 This work and that on the wooden truss bridge across 

 the Schuylkill, the inclined plane with the engine 

 house and machinery at the head of the plane, were 

 all sources of great interest and attraction to the 

 Philadelphians and the people of the surrounding 

 country. 



On one occasion, in company with Mr. Trautwine 

 and his associate Elwood Morris, we crossed the 



U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers. This information is 

 from a very short sketch of his life in the introductory matter 

 of his son's (W. Hassell Wilson's) Notes on The Internal Im- 

 provements of the State of Pennsylvania (cited in the preceding note). 



,T9 The present Reading Railroad line follows, west of Broad 

 Street, the route of the Philadelphia and Columbia. 



I8U Stevenson (cited in note 177, above), p. 240, wrote: 

 "There are hardly two railways in the United States that are 

 made exactly in the same way, and few of them are constructed 

 throughout their whole extent on the same principles . . . ." 

 He illustrated (pp. 240-248) two of the constructions used in 

 the Philadelphia and Columbia, as well as those used in several 



other roads. 



"I American Railroad Journal (June 20, 1835), quoted in Wat- 

 kins (cited in note 177 above), vol. 1, p. 129. After inspecting 

 the road in 1836, the editor of American Railroad Journal wrote: 

 "The unfortunate location of the road is very evident, frequent 

 and short curves are introduced so uniformly, that it would be 

 supposed that such a location was to be preferred to a direct 

 one" {American Railroad Journal, July 30, 1836, vol. 5, pp. 

 465-466). 



|S2 John C. Trautwine (1810-1883) is best known for The 

 Cuil Engineer's Pocket-Book (Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & 

 Haffelfinger, 1872; 21st ed., 1937). Sellers described an inci- 



148 



