Watch Al Giannantonio talk about the Pennsylvania Railroad.

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Transcript of the interview with Al Giannantonio:

The Pennsylvania Railroad was charted in 1846. Uh, they took over what we call the mainline of public works in 1857. Now prior to the railroads, uh, the Canal Commission, uh, in Pennsylvania was given the responsibility by the State Legislature to find a canal route between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The engineers for the Canal Commission determined after significant studies that there was no canal route. But there would be a route for a combination of canals and railroads. Ah, so that was what was initially constructed.

A, a passenger back in those days, beginning in Philadelphia might leave the railroad station at Broad and Vine Street, I believe it was, at eight o'clock in the morning and take the train out to the Belmont Plain. The cars would be placed on the plain, or pulled up the plain at Belmont, to the higher ground above the river, and where another locomotive would take those cars from there all the way out to Columbia. And that branch was called the Philadelphia and Columbia. Uh, they then would be winched down the plain to the river, at the Susquehanna River at Columbia, board canal boats and go from there all the way up the Susquehanna to Holidaysburg (about 170 some miles).

At Holidaysburg they would go on what was known as the Portage Railroad. The Portage Railroad had been completed in 1834 and was a series of five plains up the East side of the Alleghenies and five plains down the west side of the Alleghenies. There they would, uh, board another canal boat and go from there to, and that would be Johnstown. The plains ended at Johnstown. They'd go from Johnstown to Pittsburgh on the final canal.

Eventually the Pennsylvania Railroad, after purchasing the mainline of public works, uh, got rid of all of the canals and built rails straight through from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.