First US railroad charterIn 1826, the first chartered railroad in the U.S. was chartered as the Granite Railway in Quincy, Mass. It was organized to transport granite blocks from quarries in the Blue Hills that were used to build the Bunker Hill monument. The Granite Railway was an inclined plane built to carry granite to Neponset wharf and thence to Charlestown via barges for construction of the Bunker Hill Monument.The Granite Railway also carried stone to Boston Harbor for shipping, as well as for the Minot's Ledge lighthouse at the entrance to Boston Harbor. The three-mile track was powered by gravity in one direction and beast-powered in the other. A pioneer in the American railroad industry, Gridley Bryant, engineered its design and construction and many of his inventions are still in use today. The Railway is a Civil Engineering Landmark. |
