A railway is a road made by placing on the ground on a specially prepared track, continuous parallel lines of iron or steel rails, on which carriages with flanged wheels are run with little friction and consequently at high velocity. The necessity for railways originated in the requirements of the coal-traffic of Northumberlandshire, where the first railways were constructed. In 1676 near Newcastle the coals were conveyed from the mines to the banks of the river by laying rails of timber straight and parallel; and bulky carts were made, with four rollers fitting those rails, whereby the carriage was made so easy that one horse could draw four or five chaldrons of coal.
The first railway (railroad) constructed in America was projected by Gridley Bryant in 1825, and extended from Quincy, Massachusetts, to the nearest tide-water. It was four miles long. The second railway extended from mines near Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania to the Lehigh River. It was begun in 1827. Stephenson's locomotive came into use in 1829, and by 1830 there were twenty-three
miles of railway completed in the United States.
Abbreviations
General Information
Research Railway