Railroads
During the heyday of the Steel industry, Pittsburgh was among the largest rail centers not only in the nation, but the world. For many years, the multiple rail crossings in the Pittsburgh suburb of Port Perry along the Monongahela River was the highest concentration of freight traffic in the world. Even today, with river traffic included, Port Perry is often very near or at the top of the list. From the beginning of the industrial era in America through it's collapse in the 1980's and 1970's, Pittsburgh was a key market for the nation's largest and most important railroads (most notably the Pennsylvania Railroad, but also for the New York Central, Baltimore & Ohio and Pittsburgh & West Virginia). Despite the near complete collapse of heavy industry in the Northeast, Pittsburgh still remains an extremely important link in the nation's rail network, perhaps only second to Chicago. Current railroads in Pittsburgh include:
Read more about this topic: Pittsburgh Transportation
Famous quotes containing the word railroads:
“Indeed, I believe that in the future, when we shall have seized again, as we will seize if we are true to ourselves, our own fair part of commerce upon the sea, and when we shall have again our appropriate share of South American trade, that these railroads from St. Louis, touching deep harbors on the gulf, and communicating there with lines of steamships, shall touch the ports of South America and bring their tribute to you.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“We noticed several other sandy tracts in our voyage; and the course of the Merrimack can be traced from the nearest mountain by its yellow sand-banks, though the river itself is for the most part invisible. Lawsuits, as we hear, have in some cases grown out of these causes. Railroads have been made through certain irritable districts, breaking their sod, and so have set the sand to blowing, till it has converted fertile farms into deserts, and the company has had to pay the damages.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Shall the railroads govern the country, or shall the people govern the railroads? Shall the interest of railroad kings be chiefly regarded, or shall the interest of the people be paramount?”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)