This is a list of the earliest railroads in North America, including various railroad-like precursors to the general modern form of a company or government agency operating locomotive-drawn trains on metal tracks.
Railroad-like entities (1700s–1810s) 1720: A railroad was reportedly used in the construction of the French fortress in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, Canada. 1764: Between 1762 and 1764, at the close of the French and Indian War, a gravity railroad (mechanized tramway) (Montresor's Tramway) was built by British military engineers up the steep riverside terrain near the Niagara River waterfall's escarpment at the Niagara Portage, which the local Senecas called Crawl on All Fours, in Lewiston, New York.<ref name=PMat-text>Text online of placement commemorating historic railroad., access-date=2017-03-01</ref> Before the British conquest, under French control the portage had employed nearly 200 Seneca porters. However, once the British took control of the area, they installed a cable railway using sledges (heavy sleds without wheels) to hold the track between the rails. The sleds were capable of carrying 12 to 14 barrels at a time (a serious weight capacity even if only small shoulder-hoistable/mule-compatible keg-sized barrels, taken along with its longevity) indicating that it was a funicular design with two tracks. With barrels as the primary Up load's configuration and they also provided a ready-made counterweight with addition of sufficient Niagara River water as the likely mass used to adjust the lifting force. Designed by Captain John Montresor, the new railway replaced manual labor performed by the Seneca and touched off what might be the first labor rebellion in North America when the Seneca became unemployed; in September 1763, the Senecas revolted and killed many British soldiers and workers in what is called the Devil's Hole Massacre. The tramway was in use until the early 1800s 1799–1805: Boston developers began to reduce the height of Mount Vernon before building streets and homes. Silas Whitney constructed a gravity railroad to move excavated material down the hill to fill marshy areas to create new land from the Back Bay.<ref name=WMuir></ref> Frederick C. Gamst, a professor of anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, believed this to be the same railroad equipment as used by Bulfinch on his Beacon Hill railway, given the relations of both men to the land speculation syndicate.<ref name=GamstOnBoston>Gamst, Frederick C.; , Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum; "First, in 1795 on Boston's Beacon Hill, a wooden railway of about a two-foot gauge in the form of a double-track inclined plane took earth removed from the top of the hill to its base. This excavation prepared a level area for the new State House of 1798, designed by the architect and construction engineer Charles Bulfinch." </ref> 1809: A three-quarter-mile wooden tracked railway is built in Nether Providence Township, Pennsylvania by Thomas Leiper to deliver stone from his quarries to market. The track, with a gauge, had a grade of 1½ inches to the yard (1:24 or about 4%) over its total length of and proves satisfactory when tested with a loaded car.Gamst observes Bullfinch probably employed a similar technically-savvy individual familiar with British technologies to oversee construction and the relatively frenetic funicular operations of the Boston Back Bay railroads.
1810: The animal-powered Leiper Railroad followed after the preceding successful experiment – designed and built by merchant Thomas Leiper, the railway connects Crum Creek to Ridley Creek, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It was used until 1829, when it was temporarily replaced by the Leiper Canal, then is reopened to replace the canal in 1852. This became the Crum Creek Branch of the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad (part of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) in 1887. This is the first railroad meant to be permanent, and the first to evolve into trackage of a common carrier after an intervening closure.See the 1826 Granite Railway (pictured) for comparison. 1811: George Magers designed and built a wooden gravity railroad between a gunpowder mill and its powder storage bunker at Falling's Creek, Virginia. 1815: New Jersey granted a charter on February 6, 1815, for a company to "erect a rail-road from the river Delaware near Trenton, to the river Raritan, at or near New Brunswick"—that is, to connect the water ports so boats could ferry riders the last distance connecting Philadelphia & Trenton to (19th-century) New York City and Brooklyn & Queens on Long Island via New York Harbor, as proposed by inventor and railway builder John Stevens (1749–1838). This New Jersey Railroad Company was the first passenger carrier railroad chartered in the United States, but failed to attract investors and was never built. Its rights would be passed to the Camden and Amboy Railroad (below), chartered in 1830 and also having Stevens as president. 1816: A railroad was reportedly used at Kiskiminetas Creek, Pennsylvania. 1818: An iron-smelting furnace at Bear Creek, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, reportedly had a wooden railroad in operation.
Early railroad companies (1820s–1830s) Granite, coal and cotton railroads
1826: The Granite Railway in Massachusetts was incorporated by Thomas Handasyd Perkins and Gridley Bryant. Construction began on April 1, and operations began on October 7.Railroads and Canals of the United States of America by Henry V. Poor (New York: John H. Schultz & Co, 1860), p. 85 It later became a branch of the Old Colony and Newport Railway, which was later absorbed into the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. This is often called the first commercial railroad in the U.S., as it was the first to evolve into a common carrier without an intervening closure. See the 1810 Leiper Railroad for comparison. 1826: On April 9, the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was incorporated as the first railroad chartered in New York StateAmerican Railroading Began Here cited 15 October 2009. (marker pictured), and the first railroad in the United States designed to be powered by a locomotive engine as opposed to horse-drawn or gravity railroads. It opened on August 9, 1831, using steam locomotive DeWitt Clinton. 1827: The Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk Railroad, often just called The Switchback or the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railroad, Pennsylvania's first railroad and first anthracite carrier initially a gravity railroad with animal powered return of cars, is built between Summit HillRailroads and Canals of the United States of America by Henry V. Poor (New York: John H. Schultz & Co, 1860), pp. 415, 537 and Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe), Pennsylvania when rails are laid on top of the existing mule-haul road graded to be nearly uniform in grade from its establishment in 1819–20. Designed by founder Josiah White to drop evenly over its lengthBartholomew makes the point this "monotonically even descent grade" over such a length was an engineering first, not only in North America, but also in European road construction of any kind. and superintended in both evolutions by founder Erskine Hazard of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, the railway—as the world's first roller coaster, also became a famous tourist attraction—as were leisure cruises on the company's Lehigh Canal. The road carried cargo as a common carrier back up to Summit Hill almost from the start, but by 1829, the new railed road was carrying passengers flocking out from Philadelphia to enjoy its attractions. It was built to haul anthracite coal from the mines to the Lehigh Canal on the Lehigh River and was the first railroad of this type. 1829: On August 8, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's gravity railroad in northeast Pennsylvania opened using Stourbridge Lion, the first locomotive to run on rails in the United States. It was also a coal railroad. The canal company, chartered in 1823, referred to itself as "America's oldest continually operated transportation company." 1829: The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was chartered December 19, 1827, and was also known as the Charleston & Hamburg Road. An experimental track was installed in February 1829 to haul bales of cotton in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. On April 1, 1830, a double-tracked railroad was in full operation. By 1833, this railroad had been completed to Hamburg, South Carolina for a total length of . At that time, it was the longest railroad in the world. This was the first railroad to use steam locomotives regularly. It later became part of the Southern Railway, now part of Norfolk Southern.in The Transfer of Pioneering British Railroad Technology to North America by Frederick C. Gamst, University of Massachusetts, Boston 1829: The Mill Creek & Mine Hill Navigation & Railroad Company was chartered on February 7, 1828. The main line from Palo Alto, Pennsylvania to Wolf Creek, Pennsylvania was completed in 1829 with branches added in 1829 and 1830 for a total of .Railroads and Canals of the United States of America by Henry V. Poor (New York: John H. Schultz & Co, 1860), p. 459 It was another coal hauling railroad. 1830: The Schuylkill Valley Navigation and Railroad Company was chartered on April 14, 1828. It ran from Port Carbon, Pennsylvania to Tuscarora and was completed in 1830.Railroads and Canals of the United States of America by Henry V. Poor (New York: John H. Schultz & Co, 1860), p. 501 It was built to carry coal from mines to Port Carbon. 1830: The Union Canal Company Railroad was a railroad constructed by the Union Canal (Pennsylvania) Company and was chartered on March 3, 1826. The company was in the canal business, but due to the topography, it could not extend its canal to the coal fields north of Pine Grove, Pennsylvania. Its solution was to build this short coal-hauling railroad, which was completed in 1830.Railroads and Canals of the United States of America by Henry V. Poor (New York: John H. Schultz & Co, 1860), p. 415 1830: The Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad and Coal Company was chartered on February 28, 1826. The LSRR operated between Tamaqua, Pennsylvania and Port Clinton beginning in 1831 using horse-drawn cars. Two steam locomotives were acquired by the railroad in 1833; however, the wooden tracks were unable to support the weight of the engines. Iron "T" rails replaced the wooden ones in 1845, and the locomotives were then returned to regular service. It completed a junction with the Catawissa Railroad at Tamanend, also called Little Schuylkill Junction, in 1854. In 1857, the Lehigh South Pennsylvania Railroad (LSRR) built a roundhouse in Tamaqua, housing 21 locomotives and a turntable. In 1863, the company was leased by the Reading Railroad for 93 years. It formally merged with the Reading in 1952. 1830: The Tuscumbia Railway was chartered on January 16, 1830, and proceeded to build a railroad from downtown Tuscumbia, Alabama to the docks on the Tennessee River west of Sheffield. This was the first railroad chartered/constructed west of the Appalachian Mountains. In 1832, this railroad was renamed the Tuscumbia, Courtland and Decatur Railroad, and was extended to connect the two Alabama cities of Tuscumbia and Decatur.Welcome to Tuscumbia, Alabama – You Should See Us Now!! 1831: The Mount Carbon Railroad was completed in 1831 running from Mount Carbon, Pennsylvania through Pottsville where it split into two branches, one going to what is now Seltzer and the other to the current Wadesville, Pennsylvania. This was a coal-hauling railroad, in length.Railroads and Canals of the United States of America by Henry V. Poor (New York: John H. Schultz & Co, 1860), p. 462