RAILROADS. 



road from Buffalo to Toledo, the last link of which, 



n Cleveland and Toledo, was opened : 

 Of the lines running cast and west throuch that State 

 tlu- first to bo constructed was the ( Vni nil ( Hiio, which 

 ; ctied from Wheeling to Columbus. KIT miles, in 

 I i. M irietta ana Cincinnati Railrn;i<l was 

 begun in the spring of 1851, and six years later was 

 completed from Marietta, on the Ohio River, to Love- 

 laml, 17.1 miles ; entrance into Cincinnati, r. miles be- 

 vond l/ivelaiid. Ix'ing made over the tmeks nf the 

 Little Miami Railroad. In IS.'iT, the same year that 

 the Marietta and Cincinnati was completed, the lialti- 

 uioro and Ohio reached the Oliio River at Parkcrs- 

 hure by the construction of its Parkcrsburg branch, 

 mid two years I iler a branch of the Marietta and Cin- 

 cinnati was linilt to meet the latter line, thus forming 

 a tlii.nivh line from lialtiinore and Washington to 

 Cincinnati. In 1858 the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne, and 

 Chicago Railroail Company opened its important line 

 fnun Pittshurg t" Chicago. :i distance of 4ti8 miles, 

 completing tin: >econd great trunk Hue from New York 

 to Ch 1 



As in Ohio there wore no railroads of importance 

 constructed in the other Western Stall's of the I nimi 

 previous to I >)'.>. In Indiana the Madis<m and Indian- 

 n|H>lis (now a part of the Jeffersonville, Madison, and 

 Indianapolis), one of the roads first constructed in the 

 Wot. was opened in Is47. This line was originally 

 begun by the State and 2t> miles opened in 1841. It 

 was tran.sferred to a private corporation in 1843 and 

 Completed between Madison and Indianapolis in 1847. 

 The first line running east and west through the State, 

 made up of the Indiana Central and the Indianapolis 

 and Torre Haute. was o|K>ned in IS").'?. The next line, 

 having a similar direction, was the Ohio and Mississippi, 

 opened in 1S.J7. The New Albany and Salem, now 

 the Ijouisvillc. New Albany, and Chicago, the first line 

 Mntiectinir Lake Michigan and the Ohio, and lying 

 wholly in Indiana, was opened in 1854. 



In Illinois the first line undertaken was the Sanga- 

 inon and Morgan, a portion of which was opened as a 

 State work in 1839. This road now forms a part of 

 the Wabash line. The second line opened in Illinois 

 was the Galena and Chicago Union, which was com- 

 menced in 1849, and opened for a distance of 10 miles 

 in June, 1850. The railway lirst opened in this State 

 from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River was the 

 Chicago and Rock Island, in February, 1854. This 

 connection marked a very important extension of the 

 railway system of the country. The second line to the 

 Mississippi, made up of the (ialrna and Chicago and 

 the Illinois Central, was opened early in 1855. The 

 Chicago and Alton was opened in 1855; the Chicago, 

 Burlington, and Quincy to the Mississippi Hivcr in 

 tin- Milwaukee and St. Paul in 1X58; and the 

 Western I'nion in 18o Both of the latter now form 

 jiart of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul system. 

 The Chicago branch of the Illinois Central was opened 

 from Chicago to Cairo in 1856. At this time the 

 Illinois Central, with its 700 miles of road, was con- 

 Siilcred the most stupendous undertaking in the world. 



The next important extension westward was the 

 Hannibal and St. Joseph, which carried the railway 

 system to the Missouri River in 18.V.I. 



Of the lines constructed through Central and 

 Southern Illinois the Terre Haute and Alton waa 

 d in 1854 and the Ohio and Mississippi in Is.VT. 

 Prom St. Louis, westward, the Pacific Railroad of 

 Muuouri, the beginning of the present Missouri Pacific 

 system, waa completed to Scdalia, 189 wiles, in 1^.1 

 before the outbreak of the war. 



The railroads whose progress has been here sketched 

 formed at this date, geographically and commercially, 

 one system, of which the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 

 road and its connecting lines may be Kiid to constitute 



tin 1 -oiiihi-rn boundary Of member. Snub of'lialii re 



there was no important commercial cilv upon the A(- 

 lauitc uua*t, and the Made of all the i.iien.u nonh ..I 



a line coincident with the lower Ohio naturally sought 

 eastern outlets through (he railways that had ) 

 opened. Ill consci|uciicc, the niilroail development of 

 the Southern States during the earlier periods was slow 

 and of local importance only. 



Several railroads were Contrasted at an early day 

 in Virginia, the more important of which were thoM 

 now forming the line traversing the' State from North 

 to South, and made up of the Richmond, l-'ivl. ri.-ks- 

 luirg. and Potomac, completed from Richmond to 

 lYc'lerieksburg in 1837, and to the Potomac in IS41 ; 

 the Richmond and Petersburg, opened in ls:;s; ami 

 the Petersburg and Roanoke, in 1843. But the great 

 line of Virginia, prior to the civil war. was the railway 

 traversing the State diagonally from Alexandria to the 

 boundary line of Tennessee, .';>!! miles, made up of the 

 Orange and Alexandria and the Virginia and Ten- 

 nessee Railroads. The former of these roads was 

 opened in IS.V.l and the latter in 'S5i>. At the boun- 

 dary it connected with East Tennessee and Virginia, 

 exlcndinir to Kno.xville. Tenn., which was opened in 

 ls.">8. From Knoxville this line was extended to Dai- 

 ton, on the line of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, 

 by the Kast Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, opened 

 in 1856. 



From Wcldon the Virginia F.vstem was extruded to 

 Wilmington. N. C., by the opening of the Wilming- 

 ton and Wcldon Railroad in 1840. It was not till 

 1853 that a connection was formed with the svstcm 

 of South Carolina by the opening of the Wilmington 

 and Manchester Railroad. The South Carolina Rail- 

 road, as before remarked, was opened to Augusta. 

 Ga., in 1833. From Augusta the' Georgia Railroad 

 was opened to Atlanta in 1S39. The Central Railroad 

 of that State was opened from Savannah to Macon in 

 Is li>. From Atlanta the railway systems ot South 

 Carolina and Georgia were extended to the Tennessee 

 River at Chattanooga, Tenn., by the completion of the 

 Western and Atlantic Railroad of Georgia, a State 

 work, in Is'id. From Atlanta n line of railway was 

 opened to Montgomery. Ala., in lsj:i. and from Mont- 

 gomery to Mobile, in the same State, in ISi'iU. 



From Chattanooga to Nashville the Nashville and 

 Chattanooga was opened in 1854, and the Memphis 

 and Charleston in 1857. The Mobile and Ohio Rail- 

 road was opened to Columbus, on the Mississippi 

 River, near the mouth of the Ohio River, in Js.V.i. 

 The line from New Orleans, made up of the New 

 Orleans. Jackson, and Great Northern, and the Mis- 

 sissippi Central, was opened to a connection with tho 

 Mobile and Ohio, at Jackson, Tenn.. the same year. 

 '1 he I/onisville and Nashville was opened to a connec- 

 tion with the roads lust named in 1861, and with .Nash- 

 ville in 1 s.V.i. 



In the first period of 19 years there had been con- 

 structed in the United States, as already shown. .V.i'.'o 

 miles of railroad, only 4 HI miles of which were in the 

 \\ . -:, ni States. In the second period, covering the 

 12 years from 1849 to I860, there were added 24.C39 

 miles of new railroad, making the total nt the end of 

 the latter year 30,635 miles, tbc increase over 1848 es- 

 Mig 4iK) per cent., and averaging annually over 

 2000 miles, as against an average of 310 in the experi- 

 mental period. 



The t/n'i-il \i< ri<*l of the history of railroad construc- 

 tion was the first period of inactivity dining the civil 

 war. From Isdl to ISO-1 railroad construe lion was vir- 

 tually suspended, the total additions (luting that time 

 U'liii.' only ".U'T.'J miles, of which K'.M miles were in New 

 England, 1236 in the .Middle St-.tes. I l.::; in thcW, 

 cm States. 1 l:; in the Pacific States, and 32'J in the 

 Southern S: 



/'^in-ill r.riml. The next period is that from 18C5 

 (the close of the war) to the panic of 1ST:'.. In it tho 

 railroad mileage of the country expanded more than 

 KKl per cent., increasing from Ji.'J.'.ius miles at llie close 

 id' Ix'.l tn Ji.'.'ov miles in 1ST:',. This period eoveis 

 what may U- termed I he Pacific Railroad eia of the 



