Sep 18, 2008

Sept. 18, 1830: Horse Beats Iron Horse, for the Time Being



(Wired) - America's first native locomotive loses a smackdown race to a draft horse. Embarrassment does not alter the course of history.
The city fathers of Baltimore were plenty worried about the financial future of their bustling burg in the late 1820s. The National Road and its eastern connections had linked the city's harbor to Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), on the Ohio River in 1818. The federally financed wagon road was the best, quick link for moving products and raw materials between the young nation's East Coast and the burgeoning interior. Continued


Illustration: The History of the First Locomotives In America

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