The Railroad Builders | Page 4

a mechanical means of developing speed, the
other the use of a smooth running surface to diminish friction. Though
these two principles are today combined, they were originally
absolutely distinct. In fact there were railroads long before there were
steam engines or locomotives. If we seek the real predecessor of the
modern railroad track, we must go back three hundred years to the
wooden rails on which were drawn the little cars used in English
collieries to carry the coal from the mines to tidewater. The natural
history of this invention is clear enough. The driving of large coal
wagons along the public highway made deep ruts in the road, and some
ingenious person began repairing the damage by laying wooden planks
in the furrows. The coal wagons drove over this crude roadbed so
successfully that certain proprietors started constructing special planked
roadways from the mines to the river mouth. Logs, forming what we
now call "ties," were placed crosswise at intervals of three or four feet,
and upon these supports thin "rails," likewise of wood, were laid
lengthwise. So effectually did this arrangement reduce friction that a
single horse could now draw a great wagon filled with coal--an
operation which two or three teams, lunging over muddy roads,
formerly had great difficulty in performing. In order to lengthen the life
of the road, a thin sheeting of iron was presently laid upon the wooden
rail. The next improvement was an attempt to increase the durability of
the wagons by making the wheels of iron. It was not, however, until
1767, when the first rails were cast entirely of iron with a flange at one
side to keep the wheel steadily in place, that the modern roadbed in all
its fundamental principles made its appearance. This, be it observed,
was only two years after Watt had patented his first steam engine, and
it was nearly fifty years before Stephenson built his first locomotive.
The railroad originally was as completely dissociated from steam
propulsion as was the ship. Just as vessels had existed for ages before
the introduction of mechanical power, so the railroad bad been a

familiar sight in the mining districts of England for at least two
centuries before the invention of Watt really gave it wings and turned it
to wider uses. In this respect the progress of the railroad resembles that
of the automobile, which had existed in crude form long before the
invention of the gasoline engine made it practically useful.
In the United States three new methods of transportation made their
appearance at almost the same time--the steamboat, the canal boat, and
the rail car. Of all three, the last was the slowest in attaining popularity.
As early as 1812 John Stevens, of Hoboken, aroused much interest and
more amused hostility by advocating the building of a railroad, instead
of a canal, across New York State from the Hudson River to Lake Erie,
and for several years this indefatigable spirit journeyed from town to
town and from State to State, in a fruitless effort to push his favorite
scheme. The great success of the Erie Canal was finally hailed as a
conclusive argument against all the ridiculous claims made in favor of
the railroad and precipitated a canal mania which spread all over the
country.
Yet the enthusiasts for railroads could not be discouraged, and
presently the whole population divided into two camps, the friends of
the canal, and the friends of the iron highway. Newspapers
acrimoniously championed either side; the question was a favorite topic
with debating societies; public meetings and conventions were held to
uphold one method of transportation and to decry the other. The canal,
it was urged, was not an experiment; it had been tested and not found
wanting; already the great achievement of De Witt Clinton in
completing the Erie Canal had made New York City the metropolis of
the western world. The railroad, it was asserted, was just as
emphatically an experiment; no one could tell whether it could ever
succeed; why, therefore, pour money and effort into this new form of
transportation when the other was a demonstrated success?
It was a simple matter to find fault with the railroad; it has always been
its fate to arouse the opposition of the farmers. This hostility appeared
early and was based largely upon grounds that have a familiar sound
even today. The railroad, they said, was a natural monopoly; no private
citizen could hope ever to own one; it was thus a kind of monster which,
if encouraged, would override all popular rights. From this economic
criticism the enemies of the railroad passed to details of construction:

the rails would be washed out by rains; they could be destroyed by
mischievous people; they would snap under the cold of winter or