642 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
The consideration to be paid by the P. R. R. Co. for these improvements 
was $7,500,000 and $1,500,000 in consideration of a release of tax on tonnage. 
The length of the "levels," I am not able to give at present. They were 
not "dead levels," but had, generally, an inclination of from ten to fifteen feet 
per mile. Those nearest Hollidaysburg and Johnstown had steeper gradients. 
Sylvester Welch was engineer in charge of the construction of the Allegheny 
Portage Railroad. In October, 1834, Jesse Chrisman started from Luzerne Co., 
Pennsylvania, with a small boat containing tenor eleven persons, with provisions, 
cooking utensils, etc., en route for the west. At Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, 
he intended to dispose of the boat, but at the suggestion of John Dougherty, 
who constructed a railroad car for the purpose of carrying Mr. Chrisman's boat 
over the Alleghany Mountains, the boat was again launched in the canal at 
Johnstown and proceeded on its way to Pittsburg. 
The Portage Railroad was completed in the fall of 1883. In transporting 
freight from Philadelphia to Pittsburg it required the bulk to be broken three 
times, first at Columbia, to which point the railroad ran from Philadelphia, when 
it was transfered from the cars to the canal-boats; then again at Hollidaysburg it 
had to be transferred from the boats to the cars; and again at Johnstown, on the 
western side of the Alleghany Mountains, it had to be transferred from the cars 
to the boats. 
Mr. Dougherty invented the trucks for the purpose of conveying what were 
called section boats, (also his invention). These boats he placed on the canal 
in 1836; some were made in three and some in four sections. These boats were 
loaded in Philadelphia and carried on the railroad on trucks, or flat-cars, to 
Columbia, then run into the canal. The sections hooked or fastened together 
ran to Hallidaysburg and were then loaded upon the trucks again. By having 
the track laid into the water the cars were run in under the boats, and again 
the boats were run into the canal at Johnstown, and sent to Pittsburg, and 
returning eastward they were operated in the same way. Prior to placing the 
section boats on the main line of the Pennsylvania Canal, freight had been ship- 
ped from Philadelphia to Pittsburg without breaking bulk, by means of what 
were called "car-bodies," — large boxes — that were constructed like a small box- 
car with wheels : they were carried on flat-cars and were carried on the canals in 
open boats constructed for that purpose that plied between Columbia and Holli- 
daysburg, and between Johnstown and Pittsburg. These boats were long enough 
to admit from four to six car-bodies ; the latter were placed on trucks loaded at 
Philadelphia and carried by rail to Columbia, there by huge windlasses they were 
lifted from the trucks and placed in the open boats, and transported to Hollidays- 
burg ; again placed on the trucks and at Johnstown again put in the open boats, 
etc., and returning eastward the operation was reversed. James O'Conner was 
the originator of the car-body method of transportation. Mr. O'Conner was an 
Irishman by birth, and a man of some education, and this was called O'Conner's 
Line of boats. I may say that while Mr. Welch was the engineer in charge of 
construction of the Portage Railroad, Moncure Robinson is entitled to the credit 
of conceiving the plan. 
