Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site

The Allegheny Portage Railroad was the first railroad built through the Allegheny Mountains, operating from 1834 to 1854 as the mountain link in Pennsylvania's state-financed Main Line of Public Works, conceived to compete with New York's Erie Canal. Built between 1831 and 1834 from Hollidaysburg to Johnstown, the 36-mile line lifted loaded canal boats over the divide on flatbed railroad cars, using ten cable inclined planes powered by stationary steam engines — hemp ropes gave way to wire rope in 1842 — while mules pulled the trains across the gentler grade sections between planes. It included the Staple Bend Tunnel, the first railroad tunnel in the United States, and helped cut the Philadelphia–Pittsburgh journey from a 23-day horse-wagon ordeal to about four days; Charles Dickens rode it in 1842 and recounted the trip in his American Notes. The Pennsylvania Railroad's through line, opened in December 1852, rendered the portage obsolete, and the PRR bought it from the state in 1857 and stripped anything of value. The National Historic Site preserving its remains was established on 1,296 acres in 1964, about 12 miles west of Altoona, and the American Society of Civil Engineers designated the railroad a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1987.