19th Century Locomotive History

In the early years of the 19th century locomotives powered by steam were thought to be impractical, and the first railroads were actually built to accommodate wagons pulled by horses.

Mechanical refinements made the steam locomotive an efficient and powerful machine, and by the middle of the century the railroad was changing life in profound ways. Steam locomotives played a role in the American Civil War, moving troops and supplies. And by the end of the 1860s both coasts of North America had been connected by the transcontinental railroad.

Less than 40 years after a steam locomotive lost a race to a horse, passengers and freight were moving from the Atlantic to the Pacific over a rapidly growing system of rails.