Pennsylvania Main Line Map (click to enlarge)

By Larry Holzwarth

With the end of the War of 1812 and the removal of the Indian threat on the western frontier, America’s westward migration began in earnest. The promise of new opportunities in the rich lands of the Ohio, Wabash, and Mississippi Valleys appealed to those whose lives in the east had stagnated. New markets for goods and services were thus opened to the merchants and manufacturers of the eastern cities, and the ability to ship the agricultural produce of the west back to the heavily populated east coast, and even to overseas markets, was hotly competed over. The problem was the lack of a viable means to economically ship large quantities of goods from east to west. In the early decades of the 19^th century the only method available was that of a horse or mule drawn wagon, a process that was slow, unreliable, and expensive.

Although there were rivers which ran from the east coast towards the west, none were navigable for their entire length. These rivers were unsuitable for reliable shipping due to their tendency to flood in the wet months and become too shallow in the dry seasons, not to mention that many had runs of rapids and even waterfalls. The solution to this problem would come from a technology that dated all the way back to the Egyptian empire—canals.

Canals require the water they contain to be as still as possible to prevent currents which would impede travel and erode the banks. They require a constant water level; too much floods the canal and its towpaths, but too little would be insufficient to float the boats which it was meant to carry. The canals of the 19^th century would thus need to follow an existing river to use as a source for water in dry months and a spillway for excessive water during a flood. Rivers traversing the canal route would be crossed by viaducts. Locks would raise and lower the canal level to match the terrain.

In 1825, after eight years of construction, the first east to west canal was completed—New York’s Erie Canal. This effectively connected New York City with Buffalo, and thus the Great Lakes. Within two more years, due to canal projects in Ohio, goods could be shipped from Akron, Ohio, to New York entirely by water: from Akron to Cleveland via canal; on to Buffalo via Lake Erie; and then via the Erie Canal to the Hudson River. New York rapidly supplanted Philadelphia as the east coast’s busiest seaport and was soon on its way to becoming the young nation’s trade capital.

Philadelphia’s businessmen viewed this state of affairs with alarm (as they did the growing threat from the port of Baltimore), and Pittsburgh’s leading businessmen feared their port on the Ohio River would be bypassed in favor of Buffalo. Lobbyists from both cities had been pressuring the legislature to approve a statewide canal system even before the Erie Canal opened for business. In 1824 the legislature established a commission to study improvements within the state and placed John Sergeant, a former congressman, at its head. The commission’s report, issued the following year, recommended the building of a canal from Harrisburg, on the Susquehanna River, via the Juniata River Valley to Hollidaysburg, a small town at the eastern foot of the Allegheny Mountains. A second canal was recommended from Pittsburgh, via the Little Conemaugh River, to Johnstown, a small town on the mountains’ western side. The question as to how to get the cargo over the mountains remained.

A number of proposals were submitted, including one to cut a tunnel through the Alleghenies. However, this was dismissed as impractical because the gap between the two ends of the canal was approximately 32 miles. Another proposal suggested the mountains be crossed by the means of a portage: an incline rail system powered by stationary steam engines that could pull freight loads up one side of the mountain and lower them down the other. This was the solution the state of Pennsylvania decided to go with, one that would become known as the Allegheny Portage Railroad.

In 1826 the legislature authorized the building of the first sections of the canal rather than approving construction of the entire project. This policy would continue throughout the construction. Only specific segments were approved by each successive legislature, and it was not until 1831 that construction began on the Allegheny Portage Railroad. The overall project—both the canals and the portage railroad—was called the Pennsylvania Main Line.

Virginia engineer Moncure Robinson, who had gained experience with railroads and steam engines in England and the United States, was hired to survey the site in 1828. He recommended a series of ten inclines that would be stretched out over 38 miles, varying in grades from six to ten percent and separated by level tiers. Each incline would have a stationary engine at its top to raise and lower rail cars full of cargo. His survey also recommended a mile long tunnel. In 1831, another survey was conducted by Stephen Harriman Long. His recommendation reduced the tunnel length to 900 feet, added a viaduct across the Little Conemaugh River, and reduced the length of the portage to 36 miles. Five inclines on the eastern side from Hollidaysburg would rise 1,398 feet to the apex near Cresson, Pennsylvania, then descend 1,171 feet to Johnstown on the western slope.

Map of the inclines along the Allegheny Portage Railroad

Between the first and second level on the Johnstown side, (the levels were numbered west to east) a 900 foot tunnel called the Staple Bend Tunnel was built. This was the first railroad tunnel in the United States, and only the third tunnel of any type that was cut through a mountain. Construction began in November 1831. Working from both ends with plans to meet in the middle, crews were able to dig the tunnel in 13 months. It would take another six months of work to finish, and in June 1833 the tunnel was ready for business. The two ends were lined with brick to keep rocks from falling, but the rest of the interior is raw stone. Decorative, Romanesque facades were installed at both ends (the eastern entrance facade somehow disappeared in the 1870s).

The tunnel was constructed by blasting with black powder, followed by clearing the rubble which ensued, after which more blasting was done. Workers used hand drills to bore 36-inch holes in the rock. Black powder was packed into the hole until eighteen inches of charge, half the distance, was reached. Nine or ten such holes were cut into the rock face. A fuse was inserted into the hole and the charges were detonated. The explosions were timed to occur just before the midday meal so the crews could eat while the dust settled. After lunch the day’s rubble would be cleared. If a crew cleared 18 inches of tunnel a day it was considered a good day.

West entrance of the Staple Bend Tunnel, Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site

During the construction and early operation of the railroad, the population of Hollidaysburg grew from about 70 people in 1830 to over 2,000 by 1840. The town of Johnstown grew likewise. Ironworkers, blacksmiths, carpenters, railroad maintenance personnel, boat builders, horse wranglers, and warehousemen all found welcome employment with the railroad. Innkeepers and merchants found new customers on both sides of the portage.

The Allegheny Portage Railroad officially opened on March 18^th, 1834, although the first boats had arrived at the western canal basin four days earlier. The first cargo over the portage was, ironically, from the canal boat Dewitt Clinton, named for the father of the Erie Canal. It carried a load of bacon from Pittsburgh. It now only took five days to make the journey, versus nearly a month with a horse and wagon. However, the canal had to close from December until mid-March of the following spring due to the water freezing. This was the schedule the canal followed for the next twenty years.

Traveling on the canal from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, goods would be shipped, or passengers taken aboard, via contract either with a forwarding company that would make arrangements with canal boat owners, or in some cases, directly with the boat owner (this became less of an option as the years went on and large companies monopolized the forwarding of cargo). In addition, user fees were paid to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which had funded the construction of the canal by the sale of bonds.

The boats were pulled along the canal by mule teams, usually three to a boat, that were either owned by the boat captain or rented along the route. Each boat was equipped with two sets of mules, one working while the other rested aboard the boat. The mules were tended by a handler who walked with them so to urge them along their way. Average speed was around 4 miles per hour.

The mules walked along the side of the canal on a level path known as the towpath, (the opposite side of the canal was called the heelpath). Boats travelling in opposite directions would find the mules on the same side. A system by which one boat would slack its towlines while moving farther out into the canal, allowing the oncoming boat to pass over the lines, was implemented.

Typical towpath along a canal (C&O Canal in Maryland)

When a canal boat arrived at either Johnstown or Hollidaysburg, the cargo was removed and put onto railroad cars. Each incline was equipped with a steam engine at the top, housed in what was called an “engine house,” and a hitching shed at the bottom. Between these installations ran a continuous rope made of hemp and approximately three inches in diameter. Rail cars, in sets of three, were hitched to this rope and hauled up the incline. Upon arriving at the top, the beginning of a level stretch of ground called, appropriately, a “level,” the cars were hitched to a team of horses that would pull them to the foot of the next incline where the process would be repeated. Upon reaching the sixth incline at Cresson, the process became one of lowering the rail cars. When they arrived at the bottom, they were unloaded and the cargo was placed in other canal boats, which then continued on to their final destination, either Pittsburgh or Harrisburg / Philadelphia.

Illustration of a typical engine house used on the Allegheny Portage Railroad

Due to the necessity of using horses to haul cars along the level areas which separated the inclines, ordinary wooden railway ties were not installed (the horses would trip over them). Instead, large rocks were cut and shaped into sleeper stones that were then be buried so that the top surface was flush with the ground. Cast iron “chairs” were bolted to the stones, and the rails were held in place by these chairs. Each sleeper stone took 24 hours of labor to cut and shape, and workers created approximately 200,000 stones for the project. Since animals would not be pulling rail cars up the inclines, wooden ties were used for those sections of the track.

Rails used on the level sections of the Allegheny Portage Railroad were bolted to sleeper stones, Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site

Rails on the inclines of the Allegheny Portage Railroad were attached to traditional wood ties, Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site

When the incline railroad opened in 1834, locomotive engines had been ordered to replace the horses on the levels, but none had yet arrived. The delay was caused by the expanding railroad boom across the nation, which caused competition for new locomotives. The first arrived in December 1834 and replaced the horses on the first level when the Portage Railroad opened for its second season. Before the season was over there were three more locomotives; horses were gradually replaced on all levels as newly ordered locomotives arrived. The locomotives proved to be too heavy for the sleeper stones, and at the end of the season the stones were replaced with standard wooden cross ties.

Horses pulled rail cars along the level of the Allegheny Portage Railroad to the next incline

The first season revealed several areas that needed to be improved. Hemp ropes were expensive, wore out quickly, and were subject to stretching and rotting. Loading and unloading cargo was time consuming, and cargo was frequently damaged or misplaced due to rough handling. Furthermore, only one set of track was built, which created a situation in which rail cars met head on, and although a system had been created to establish rights-of way, its guidance was often ignored by handlers on the scene, instigating numerous angry confrontations and delays.

By the opening of the second season, two sets of track were in place. This alleviated congestion, plus created a counter-balance system for raising and lowering rail cars. With the single track system, the steam engines were completely responsible for raising and lowering the rail cars up and down the inclines, weights that taxed the limits of the primitive engines of the time. Now, with two tracks, as one rail car was going down, another was coming up, and the weight of the descending car was used to help pull up the ascending car. In fact, if the car going down weighed more than the one coming up, the steam engine was disengaged and a water-based breaking system was used to slow the descent of the heavier car.

The new counter-balance system created an unexpected boom for those who owned taverns at the top of inclines (there were taverns at the top of every incline). If a rail car arrived and there was no car going in the opposite direction, hungry and thirsty passengers and crew had to sit around and wait for one to arrive (the system required two cars, one going in each direction). That is the true definition of a “captive audience.” Even without an unexpected delay, stops at most inclines amounted to 10 to 20 minutes while the rail cars were unhitched from the incline railroad and re-hitched to the team of horses, or later, a steam locomotive. Furthermore, transportation companies scheduled stops for meals along the way, which might give passengers an hour to relax at a tavern. In the overall scheme of things, the real money makers were the ones who owned the taverns, serving food and drinks, including alcohol, to tourists and workers on their journeys across Pennsylvania.

The tavern area of the Lemon House at Incline 6, Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site

In October 1834, a boat owner named Jesse Christman arrived at the portage. Unable to take his boat over the mountain, Chirstman sought to sell it, transport his cargo, and buy another boat on the other side. Unfortunately, he had no buyers. Christman met with the forwarding agent for the Reliance Transportation Line, “Forwarding” John Dougherty. The size of Christman’s boat, at 29 feet long and 7 feet wide, was a size that would fit onto one of Dougherty’s rail cars. Dougherty prepared a car to accept Christman’s boat, and the entire boat, along with Christman and his family, was hauled across the portage. It was the first time a boat had traversed the portage, and it caused quite a stir in the papers the next day.

For the next five years, Dougherty worked on plans for a boat designed to be hauled from the water and over the portage, eliminating the need to shift its cargo to rail cars. In designing the boat, he adopted the previously developed use of sections, essentially two or three hulls connected by flexible couplings. Dougherty’s plan was an improvement on a patent held by Baltimore merchant John Elgar (which was a way to convert rail cars to boats, versus Dougherty’s plan to adapt canal boats to rail cars).

Dougherty’s sectional canal boats would allow passengers and freight to be loaded at the terminal in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh and travel across the state without once leaving the boat. While more convenient for passengers and more reliable for shippers—freight less handled is less likely to be damaged—this innovation also threatened the livelihood of freight handlers and boat owners who were committed to the old system of unloading at the base of the portage. Competing shipping companies had large investments in warehouses and unloading facilities, and dozens of men relied on the work of loading and unloading canal boats.

Model of sectional canal boats used to transport people and cargo along the Allegheny Portage Railroad

Dougherty was operating two-piece sectional canal boats by 1837 and now began a six year political campaign to make the sectional boats the standard boats operated on the Allegheny Portage Railroad, thus ensuring they were the only boats capable of traveling the entire length of the canal. Dougherty also wanted the state to purchase only rail trucks (chassis and wheels) for the railroad which were capable of supporting the dimensions of his boats, which were narrower and longer than standard canal boats.

Dougherty attracted investors into his Reliance Transportation Line, but despite new capital, equipment, and a novel idea, the company folded in 1839. His partners purchased the rights to build three piece sectional boats and started the Reliance Portable Boat Line. Dougherty proceeded with a plan for a four-section boat, and while litigation between he and his former partners slowed progress, he had his four-section boats ready in the spring of 1840. He did not run them himself, but instead leased them out. His ultimate goal was to sell his patent to the state of Pennsylvania so that publicly owned sectional boats would be available to everyone—the current transportation situation on the Main Line was one of a near monopoly run by a few forwarding companies.

Opposition to the conversion of sectional boats was substantial. As mentioned, the large forwarding companies had millions invested in traditional boats and cargo handling facilities. They argued that their boats could carry 40 tons of cargo while the sectionals could only carry 7 tons per section; that the Main Line was already $34 million in debt and didn’t need to spend more money; and finally, if the sectionals were so great, why did Dougherty want to sell off the rights?

In 1842 the state legislature passed a bill to spend up to $40,000 on state sectional boats and rail trucks, payable to Dougherty only out of rental fees, to test the usefulness of the sectionals. Dougherty’s patent was not purchased, much to his disappointment. He even threatened to prohibit the State from using his boats, to which the State countered that it would pass laws to prevent his boats from using the State’s rail lines at the Portage if he did not agree to the new proposal. Dougherty relented, and during the winter of 1842-1843, the State contracted for 18 four-section boats. It also had to build new boat slips at Hollidaysburg and Johnstown.

Dougherty later learned that the state boats would receive preferential treatment over his and the Reliance Portable Boat Line’s boats. As a result, he could not compete on the costs of shipping, and his boats remained idle. His relationship with the State Canal Commissioners deteriorated even further. The lower fees charged by the state also infuriated the traditional forwarding companies, which brought a lawsuit against the Commission in May 1843. They wanted additional fees attached to the use of state boats so that theirs and the State’s fees would be equal. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in favor on the State.

Dougherty now mounted a full out attack on the Commission, effectively dismissing the state-run system that he had once championed. He went to the papers with his story of how he was forced to comply with the 1842 legislation or else be banned from moving his boats over the state tracks of the Portage. The following spring the State changed its policy so that private sectional boats could pass over the state rail lines on equal terms with the state-run boats.

As Dougherty had predicted, the state’s test of sectional boats proved that the sectional boats would rival traditional boats (which always remained in use on the canal). Boat “trains” became a common site on the canal from the late 1840s until the mid 1850s. In 1849, over 800 sectional boats were making the trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, with many more making partial runs. Unfortunately, just as the boats surged in popularity, the canal began to decline as private railroads were being completed. The railroad would soon supplant the canals as the preferred mode of transportation in the United States.

Dougherty never received more than a few thousand dollars from the state for the use of his invention. In fact, he never saw much income from sectional boats, for many people started building their own despite infringing on his patent. He eventually sold off his equipment as the canal inched towards obscurity, but he always remained an inventor, though an unsuccessful one. He died in Pittsburgh in the early 1880s.

Dougherty, one of the canal’s most innovative personalities, had a chance to witness another one of the Allegheny Portage Railroad’s most important improvements. In 1843 when he attended a test of the State’s newly installed boat slips built for pulling the sectionals out of the canal, he discovered that the sectionals were being pulled from the water by means of a wire rope. John Roebling, a German immigrant living in Saxonburg, had for several years been experimenting with manufacturing rope made from steel wires. Working from a ropewalk he had built on his farm, he discovered that he could build a cable from steel wires which, although only 1.5 inches in diameter, exceeded the strength of a hemp cable more than twelve times thicker. Aware of the problems with the hemp ropes encountered by the portage, Roebling was soon demonstrating the superiority of wire cable. Not long after this, the Allegheny Portage Railroad converted to steel cable.

However, when the portage shifted to Roebling’s cable it encountered a new problem. Wire was heavier than the hemp rope, which necessitated the replacement of the stationary engines’ foundations and the reinforcement of attaching points. But it was safer and lasted longer. Roebling earned enough money to continue his work building cable supported bridges in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and eventually Brooklyn.

Hemp rope was used to pull the trains up the incline on the Allegheny Portage Railroad until replaced by steel cable

Despite the yearly improvements in safety and procedure, accidents were inevitable. Most were attributed to human error, often drunkenness in that hard drinking age. Men fell from canal boats and were drowned, or upon the portage tracks and were run over. Accidents with cables snapping and cutting men down, or with steam boilers exploding, were not uncommon.

In addition to moving freight, the canal provided the ability to travel for the sake of pleasure, and numerous celebrities of the day reported on it favorably. The portage became a tourist attraction in its own right, a celebrated engineering feat as well as a sort of nineteenth century amusement ride. Charles Dickens traveled the canal from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh in 1841, a trip he chronicled in his American Notes, published the following year.

The experience with the stationary steam engines as well as the fleet of locomotives operating on its levels contributed much to locomotive development in the 1840s, thus the Allegheny Portage Railroad helped hurry along its own demise. By 1844, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was pulling freight up slopes that rivaled the Portage inclines as it pushed west towards the Ohio River.

The state of Pennsylvania began construction of a New Portage railroad in the early 1840s. Cargo was still shipped to Johnstown and Hollidaysburg by the canal, but a new route through the Allegheny Mountains completely bypassed the inclines. Cargo or sectional boats could now be loaded onto rail cars and transported to the other side entirely by more powerful locomotives (the new route used portions of the old portage’s Level tracks). However, many saw this investment as a waste of money, for it was clear that the railroads would soon eliminate the need for the canals altogether. (The bike portion of Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site’s 6 to 10 Trail follows the route of the New Portage Railroad).

In 1847 construction began on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Mainline, a private venture that would connect Pittsburgh with Philadelphia, with a branch line to Erie. By the end of 1852, tracks connected the two cities using a temporary connection with the Allegheny Portage Railroad while a bypassing tunnel was completed. By 1854 the railroad was complete, double tracked for more than two thirds of its length—the end was near for the canal system. The railroad was faster, more reliable, less expensive, didn’t freeze over in winter, and was in general more comfortable for passengers.

In 1857 the Pennsylvania Railroad purchased the Allegheny Portage Railroad, using some of its track for a freight bypass line (this line remained in use until Conrail abandoned it in 1987). Included in the purchase was the New Portage Railroad, which had been open less than a year. Though the canal portion of the Pennsylvania Main Line was still used for a time for local transportation, inns, taverns, merchants, towns, and communities that were well established along its length saw their steady growth come to an end.

The combined canals and portage never recouped the investment into them made by the Commonwealth, returning about seven eighths for each dollar spent. However, it did contribute significantly to the growth of Pennsylvania, particularly Pittsburgh, as well as provide innovative contributions to the transportation, construction, and railroad industries nationwide.

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