Railroads and their roll in Georgia history
Cullen Huntley
Shorter University
Railroads and their roll in Georgia history
"The time will come when people will travel in stages moved by steam engines from one city to another, almost as fast as birds can fly, 15 or 20 miles an hour.... A carriage will start from Washington in the morning, the passengers will breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup in New York the same day.... Engines will drive boats 10 or 12 miles an hour, and there will be hundreds of steamers running on the Mississippi, as predicted years ago."
--Oliver Evans, 1800
It is hard to believe as early as 1800 people understood the importance of railroads as a vital means of transportation. From the railroads earliest roots in the 1630's to the modern diesel engines that move millions of gross tons annually today, there is one thing that has not changed, the importance of the rail industry in America. To understand the role of railroads in Georgia you must first know the history of the railroad itself.
In 1630, a Englishman named Beaumont designed and built wagon roads for English coal miners using heavy planks on which horses pulled carts and wagons. In 1755 the first steam engine in America is installed to pump water from a mine. In 1804 Matthew Murray of Leeds, England invents a steam locomotive which runs on timber rails. This is probably the first railroad engine, and this was viewed by Richard Trevithick before he builds his locomotive later that year. As news made its way overseas the Americans were soon to jump aboard the Locomotive and Rail craze. In 1812 American Colonel John Stevens published a pamphlet containing documents tending to prove the superior advantages of railways and steam carriages over canal navigation. He also states, " I can see nothing to hinder a steam carriage moving on its ways with a velocity of 100 miles an hour." Colonel Stevens was definitely on to something, although railroads were not as...