Mike Ashworth, age 14, of Dubuque, Iowa., for his question:
WHEN WAS THE FIRST RAILROAD BUILT?
A railroad is nothing more than a system of roadbeds with tracks or rails that are used for transportation. It was more than 200 years ago that the flanged wheel was invented in England. These wheels were put on vehicles that were pulled over tracks by animals to serve the coal mines.
On Oct. 7, 1826, the Granite Railway Company started to haul granite blocks from a quarry in Quincy, Mass., to a dressing station in Milton, Mass., using horse power to pull the cars. This was the first railroad in the United States to have iron plates or straps on the wooden rails that gave a metal surface for the wheels of the cars to run on.
When the "iron horse" or steam engine was invented, the railroad came into its own. The first British locomotive used in the United States, called the "Sourbridge Lion," made its first run in 1829.
Other early locomotives included "DeWitt Clinton," the first to pull a train in New York state (1831); "Old Ironsides," the first used in Philadelphia (1832); "Best Friend of Charleston," the first to pull a train of cars and to be put into regular service in North America (1830); and "Tom Thumb," the first to be used to transport passengers in America (1830).
Steam power had been proven practical by 1830. And by 1850 more than 9,000 miles of railroad roadbeds were in use in the United States.
Canada's first railway wasn't far behind those in the United States. It ran from Laprairie to St. John's, Quebec, in 1835.
During the Civil War between 1861 and 1865, the railroads proved that an army could be moved quickly. Another discovery was that differences in gauge of track, or the distance between the rails, created countless hours of delays and extra work in transporting passengers and freight.
At least 23 different gauges between three and six feet wide were in use in the United States following the Civil War. It was obvious that standardization of the gauge of tracks was absolutely necessary.
All of the railroad people agreed that a standardization of the gauge of tracks should be set at four 4 feet 8 1/2 inches.
It was necessary to change 100,000 miles of track and there was a great deal of work involved in changing locomotives and cars to fit the new gauge. Hundreds of companies and thousands of workers were involved. The standardization became a reality in 1886.
North America was the only continent that was able to standardize the gauge of its railroads. In other parts of the world even today you can find gauges as narrow as 1 foot 3 inches and as wide as 5 feet 6 inches.
Many countries today still do not have standardization within their own boundaries. Such is the case in Australia, India, Argentina and the U.S.S.R.
Standardization of railroad gauge in North America helped bring about the westward movement and the expansion of Pacific trade.