-
Railways existed as early as 1550, in Germany. These pathways of wooden rails called “wagonways” were the beginning of modern rail transport, making it easier for horse-drawn wagons or carts to move along dirt roads. -
The Middleton Railway is the oldest railroad still in use. It was invented in 1758. -
The invention of the steam engine, credited to James Watt in 1774, would prove to be a crucial improvement to rail transportation. -
The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built in the United Kingdom in 1804 by a British engineer born in Cornwall. This used high-pressure steam to drive the engine by one power stroke -
The American railroad mania began with the founding of the first passenger and freight line in the nation of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1827. -
The first railroad locomotive built in the United States that served on a railroad was built in 1830 by the West Point Foundry Association of New York City for the South Carolina Railroad at Charleston, South Carolina -
In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act, which authorized the construction of a transcontinental railroad. -
The transcontinental railroad was finished on May 10, 1869, when CPRR President Leland Stanford ceremonially drove the gold "Last Spike" (later often referred to as the "Golden Spike") at Promontory Summit in Utah. -
When the railroads were shut down during the great railroad strike of 1894, the true importance of the railroads was fully realized.