Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site (Pennsylvania)

… was authorized on this date in 1964.

Allegheny Portage

The Allegheny Portage Railroad was a great achievement in early travel. Charles Dickens, Jenny Linn, and Ulysses S. Grant traveled over the Allegheny Mountains. They braved a system that injured passengers on a weekly basis. A system of inclined planes and a nine hundred foot tunnel carved through solid rock by Welsh coalminers made this feat possible. For twenty years, it was the fastest way to transgress the rough and wild terrain of Pennsylvania.

Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site