ts off the train were quite as striking as those on the
train. A general notice of the contemplated trip had excited not only
the curiosity of those living along the line of the road, but those
living remote from it, causing a large collection of people at all the
intersecting roads along the route. Everybody, together with his
wife and all his children, came from a distance with all kinds of
conveyances, being as ignorant of what was coming as their horses, and
drove up to the road as near as they could get, only looking for the
best position to get a view of the train. As it approached a the horses
took fright and wheeled, upsetting buggies, carriages, and wagons, and
leaving for parts unknown to the passengers if not to their owners, and
it is not now positively known if some of them have stopped yet. Such is
a hasty sketch of my recollection of my first ride after a locomotive."

The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was originally constructed with inclined
planes worked by stationary engines near each terminus, the inclinations
being one foot in eighteen. The rail used was a flat bar laid upon
longitudinal sills. This type of rail came into general use at this
period and continued in use in parts of the country even as late as the
Civil War.

The roads that now make up the New York Central were built piecemeal
from 1831 to 1853; and the organization of this company in the latter
year, to consolidate eleven independent roads extending from Albany
to Buffalo, finally put an end to the long debate between canals
and railroads. The founding of this company definitely meant that
transportation in the United States henceforth would follow the steel
route and not the water ditch and the towpath. Canals might indeed
linger for a time as feeders, even, as in the case of the Erie and a few
others, as more or less important transportation routes, but every one
now realized that the railroad was to be the great agency which would
give plausibility to the industrial organization of the United States
and develop its great territory.

Besides the pioneer Mohawk and Hudson, this consolidation included
the Utica and Schenectady, which had been opened in 1836 and which had
operated profitably for many years, always paying large dividends. The
Tonawanda Railroad, opened in 1837, and the Buffalo and Niagara Falls,
also finished in the same year, were operated with profit until they
were absorbed by the new system. In 1838 the Auburn and Sy