Author: Paul J. WesthaefferPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
History of the Cumberland Valley Railroad 1835-1919
Author: Paul J. WesthaefferPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
The Pennsylvania Railroad, Volume 1
Author: Albert J. ChurellaPublisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812207629
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 970
Book Description
"Do not think of the Pennsylvania Railroad as a business enterprise," Forbes magazine informed its readers in May 1936. "Think of it as a nation." At the end of the nineteenth century, the Pennsylvania Railroad was the largest privately owned business corporation in the world. In 1914, the PRR employed more than two hundred thousand people—more than double the number of soldiers in the United States Army. As the self-proclaimed "Standard Railroad of the World," this colossal corporate body underwrote American industrial expansion and shaped the economic, political, and social environment of the United States. In turn, the PRR was fundamentally shaped by the American landscape, adapting to geography as well as shifts in competitive economics and public policy. Albert J. Churella's masterful account, certain to become the authoritative history of the Pennsylvania Railroad, illuminates broad themes in American history, from the development of managerial practices and labor relations to the relationship between business and government to advances in technology and transportation. Churella situates exhaustive archival research on the Pennsylvania Railroad within the social, economic, and technological changes of nineteenth- and twentieth-century America, chronicling the epic history of the PRR intertwined with that of a developing nation. This first volume opens with the development of the Main Line of Public Works, devised by Pennsylvanians in the 1820s to compete with the Erie Canal. Though a public rather than a private enterprise, the Main Line foreshadowed the establishment of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1846. Over the next decades, as the nation weathered the Civil War, industrial expansion, and labor unrest, the PRR expanded despite competition with rival railroads and disputes with such figures as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. The dawn of the twentieth century brought a measure of stability to the railroad industry, enabling the creation of such architectural monuments as Pennsylvania Station in New York City. The volume closes at the threshold of American involvement in World War I, as the strategies that PRR executives had perfected in previous decades proved less effective at guiding the company through increasingly tumultuous economic and political waters.
The Railroad That Never Was
Author: Herbert H. HarwoodPublisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253001552
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
This account of a doomed enterprise is “an important contribution to both rail and road history, as well as to business history”—photos and maps included (The Lexington Quarterly). Stretching over two hundred miles through Pennsylvania’s most challenging mountain terrain, the South Pennsylvania Railroad would form the heart of a new trunk line, from the East Coast to Pittsburgh and the Midwest. Conceived in 1881 by William H. Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and a group of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia industrialists, it was intended to break the rival Pennsylvania Railroad’s near-monopoly in the region. But the line was within a year of opening when J.P. Morgan brokered a peace treaty that aborted the project and helped bolster his position in the world of finance. The railroad right of way and its tunnels would sit idle for sixty years—before coming to life in the late 1930s as the original section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Based on original letters, documents, diaries, and newspaper reports, The Railroad That Never Was uncovers the truth behind this mysterious railway, one of the most infamous construction projects of the late nineteenth century.
The Station Agent and the American Railroad Experience
Author: H. Roger GrantPublisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 025306435X
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 227
Book Description
Before the widespread popularity of automobiles, buses, and trucks, freight and passenger trains bound the nation together. The Station Agent and the American Railroad Experience explores the role of local frontline workers that kept the country's vast rail network running. Virtually every community with a railroad connection had a depot and an agent. These men and occasionally women became the official representatives of their companies and were highly respected. They met the public when they sold tickets, planned travel itineraries, and reported freight and express shipments. Additionally, their first-hand knowledge of Morse code made them the most informed in town. But as times changed, so did the role of, and the need for, the station agent. Beautifully illustrated with dozens of vintage photographs, The Station Agent and the American Railroad Experience, brings back to life the day-to-day experience of the station agent and captures the evolution of railroad operations as technology advanced.
Hidden History of Cumberland County
Author: Joseph David CressPublisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625840586
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 159
Book Description
The rolling fields and quiet towns of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, belie its dynamic history. From slaves who escaped to freedom through Underground Railroad stations in Shippensburg and Boiling Springs to a telephone-like invention created by Lower Allen's Daniel Drawbaugh a full decade before the patent of Alexander Graham Bell, the pages of Cumberland County's history conceal long-forgotten but true tales. There are numerous but often-overlooked contributions from county residents--from 1920 to 1923, Newville hosted the first state police academy in the nation, and during World War II, a humble bandage invented in Carlisle saved countless lives. With an engaging collection of vignettes, author Joseph David Cress explores these and other hidden tales from the history of Cumberland County.
Targeted Tracks
Author: Scott L. MingusPublisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1611214629
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 345
Book Description
“Anyone who is interested in Civil War logistics, wartime railroads, and the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania needs to read this study.” —Eric J. Wittenberg, award-winning historian and author The Civil War was the first conflict in which railroads played a major role. Although much has been written about their role in general, little has been written about specific lines. The Cumberland Valley Railroad, for example, played an important strategic role by connecting Hagerstown, Maryland to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Its location enhanced its importance during some of the Civil War’s most critical campaigns. Because of its proximity to major cities in the Eastern Theater, the Cumberland Valley Railroad was an enticing target for Confederate leaders and an invaluable resource for the Union Army. In October 1859, abolitionist John Brown used the CVRR in his fateful Harpers Ferry raid. The line was under direct threat by invading Confederates during the Antietam Campaign, and the following summer suffered serious damage during the Gettysburg Campaign. In 1864, Rebel raiders burned much of its headquarters town, Chambersburg, including the homes of many CVRR employees. The railroad was as vital to residents of the bustling and fertile Cumberland Valley as it was to the Union war effort. Targeted Tracks is grounded on the railway’s voluminous reports, the letters and diaries of local residents and Union and Confederate soldiers, official reports, and newspaper accounts. The primary sources, combined with the expertise of the authors, bring this largely untold story to life. “Mingus and Wingert have done a splendid job telling the story of the industrial, economic, social, and military history of the CVRR . . . engaging.” —Ted Alexander, chief historian (ret.), Antietam National Battlefield
Cavalryman of the Lost Cause
Author: Jeffry D. WertPublisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743278240
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 522
Book Description
Now in paperback, this major biography of J.E.B. Stuart—the first in two decades—uses newly available documents to draw the fullest, most accurate portrait of the legendary Confederate cavalry commander ever published. • Major figure of American history: James Ewell Brown Stuart was the South’s most successful and most colorful cavalry commander during the Civil War. Like many who die young (Stuart was thirty-one when he succumbed to combat wounds), he has been romanticized and popular- ized. One of the best-known figures of the Civil War, J.E.B. Stuart is almost as important a figure in the Confederate pantheon as Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. • Most comprehensive biography to date: Cavalryman of the Lost Cause is based on manuscripts and unpublished letters as well as the latest Civil War scholarship. Stuart’s childhood and family are scrutinized, as is his service in Kansas and on the frontier before the Civil War. The research in this biography makes it the authoritative work.
Porter, Steward, Citizen
Author: Royal A. ChristianPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190645210
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 201
Book Description
In 1917, the year the United States entered the Great War, Colonel Moorhead C. Kennedy, one of the most powerful men in the state of Pennsylvania and now the Deputy Director General of Transportation for the American Expeditionary Force, asked his African American valet if he would like to accompany him on an overseas mission. The valet's reaction was "Yes, sir." And he, as he recounted years later, "at once had visions of France." So began Royal Christian's odyssey in Europe. After a tumultuous crossing of the Atlantic as a third class steward on board a British steamship, he survived London's aerial bombing and then celebrated the end of the war in that city's streets. At last, he reached the long anticipated Paris, where he could admire the Eiffel Tower and the astonishing windows of Notre Dame. Royal Christian chronicled his extraordinary experiences in a memoir, Roy's Trip to the Battlefields of Europe, that was privately published in 1919. Rich in historical details, cultural observations, and political reflections, this book is a vital testimony to the history of African American men participating in World War I. After almost a century, Pellom McDaniels III has unearthed this gem, providing an elegantly annotated edition of Christian's memoir. Porter, Steward, Citizen nods both directly and indirectly to the challenges that African Americans encountered in their efforts to serve the cause of freedom and democracy, even as they were denied access to those rights by Jim Crow laws at home. Christian's unique story vividly illustrates how the war helped African American men claim a sense of manhood tied to their military service, and their efforts to transform themselves and their families into full-fledged American citizens. While race often served as a barrier in the army, this book suggests that some black men managed to take advantage of their outsider-within status and thrive: elevating not only themselves but also their community within a society that maintained a deep and abiding attachment to the myth of white supremacy.
Railroad History
Author: Harrisburg Industrializes
Author: Gerald G. EggertPublisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271041668
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436
Book Description
In 1850, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was a community like many others in the U. S., employing most of its citizens in trade and commerce. Unlike its larger neighbors, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Harrisburg had not yet experienced firsthand the Industrial Revolution. Within a decade, however, Harrisburg boasted a cotton textile mill, two blast furnaces and several iron rolling mills, a railroad car manufactory, and a machinery plant. This burst of industrial activity naturally left its mark on the community, by within two generations most industry had left Harrisburg, and its economic base was shifting toward white-collar governmental administration and services. Harrisburg Industrializes looks at this critical episode in Harrisburg's history to discover how the coming of the factory system affected the life of the community. Eggert begins with the earliest years of Harrisburg, describing its transformation from a frontier town to a small commercial and artisanal community. He identifies the early entrepreneurs who built the banking, commercial, and transportation infrastructure, which would provide the basis for industry at mid-century. Eggert then reconstructs the development of the principal manufacturing firms from their foundings, through the expansive post-Civil War era, to the onset of deindustrialization near the end of the century. Through census and company records, he is able to follow the next generation of craftsmen and entrepreneurs as well as the new industrial workers&—many of then minorities&—who came to the city after 1850. Eggert sees Harrisburg's experience with the factory system as &"second-stage,&" or imitative, industrialization, which was typical of many, if not most, communities that developed factory production. At those relatively few industrial centers (Lowell and Pittsburgh, for example) where new technologies arose and were aggressively impose on workers, the consequences were devastating, often causing alienation, rebellion, and repression. By contrast, at secondary centers like Harrisburg (or Reading, Scranton, or Wilmington), industrialization came later, was derivative rather than creative, was modest in scale, and focused on local and regional markets. Because the new factories did not compete with local crafts, few displaced artisans became factory hands. At the same time, an adequate supply of local native-born workers forestalled an influx of immigrants, so Harrisburg experienced little ethnic hostility. Ultimately, therefore, Eggert concludes that the introduction of an industrial order was much less disruptive in Harrisburg than in the major industrial sites, primarily because it did not alter so profoundly the existing economic and social order.