Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site

Built between 1826 and 1834 across the Allegheny Mountains, the Allegheny Portage Railroad was a 36-mile route linking the eastern and western divisions of the Pennsylvania Canal between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown. Its ten inclined planes, five on each side of the summit, were powered by stationary steam engines that hauled cars on endless ropes, with four cars raised and lowered at once. Between the planes, horses and later steam locomotives moved the cars along a 13-mile long-level. Engineer John Dougherty's sectional boat system let canal boats ride on railroad flat cars over the mountain, allowing travelers to pass from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh without changing. The Staple Bend Tunnel, which may have been America's first railroad tunnel, and the Lemon House, where travelers spent the night at the summit, are the most significant surviving remains. The railroad was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1857.