In 1804, a British man named Richard Trevithick invented the first steam-powered locomotive. But it was Americans who truly ran with Trevithick’s invention in the decades that followed. In 1830, the 13-mile, horse-powered Baltimore and Ohio Railroad became the first railroad in North America. Just a few decades later, the United States had more railroad tracks for steam-powered engines than the rest of the world combined—more than 9,000 miles.
The 19th century became a heyday of American railroads, as business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt built an empire on the backs of train travel, consolidating much of the Northeast’s railroads. In 1902, the U.S. had built over 200,000 miles of railroad track connecting the country like never before. The United States would never be the same.
Train travel today looks quite different from it did in the 1800s. These seven fascinating images act as a window into a time gone by—when trains, not cars, ruled and shaped America. (Click to expand images to full screen.)
The three-mile-long Granite Railway in Quincy, Massachusetts, was the first commercial railway in the United States. Incorporated in 1826, the railway used horses instead of steam locomotives to move cars along the tracks. It was mainly used to transport granite from Quincy to build the Bunker Hill Monument, a war memorial commemorating the 1775 Revolutionary War battle completed in 1843. Image: Public Domain Library of Congress
The DeWitt Clinton was one of the earliest steam locomotives ever used in the United States and one of the first to regularly offer passenger service in New York. The DeWitt Clinton pulled a unique style of stagecoach converted into passenger cars. The locomotive only ran between 1831 and 1833. Image: Library of Congress / Contributor / Getty Images Library of Congress
By the 1860s, railroads were king in the United States. In 1833, only around 380 miles of railroad tracks were in operation across the country. By 1860, more than 30,000 miles of tracks were in operation. This illustration, completed around 1860, shows off the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad’s four lane track, run by Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt. Image: Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images Bettmann
In 1869, a “Golden Spike” connected the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads in Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. Image: Universal History Archive / Contributor / Getty Images Universal History Archive
By 1875, the era of luxury train travel was upon us. Along the transcontinental railroad, Pullman Palace Railway Cars offered travelers specialty sleeping, dining, and even parlor cars. This illustration is from a Spanish-language travel book full of illustrated engravings called El Mundo En La Mano. Image: Universal History Archive / Contributor / Getty Images Universal History Archive
On May 10, 1893, a steam locomotive traveling between Batavia and Buffalo, New York, hit 112.5 miles per hour—marking the first time a train ever exceeded 100 mph. The speedy locomotive was No. 999 of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Image: Museum of the City of New York/Byron Collection / Contributor / Getty Images Museum of the City of New York
George Pullman, the founder of the Pullman Palace Car Company, introduced the first dining cars on railroads. Black men, known as Pullman porters, usually staffed these luxury dining cars, often working 20-hour shifts back-to-back for little pay. In 1925, the porters founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, one of the first all-Black labor unions in the country. Image: Universal History Archive / Contributor / Getty Images
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