not
reached till 1834. The New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad was completed
in 1832, the Philadelphia and Trenton in 1833, and the New Jersey in
1834. In 1835 the Washington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio was
opened, and the entire line had at the end of that year attained an
extent of 115 miles. During the same year three Massachusetts roads,
connecting Boston with Providence, Worcester and Lowell respectively,
were opened. In 1836 the New York Central route was opened to Utica. In
1837 the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad was completed
from Richmond to Fredericksburg. In 1838 the Richmond and Petersburg and
the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore railroads were opened. The
Wilmington and Weldon Railroad was completed in 1840, and the Petersburg
and Roanoke three years later. There was now a continuous line of
railway from the Potomac to Wilmington, North Carolina. In 1842 the
whole line of the Boston and Albany road was completed, which thus
became the first important through route in America.

The construction of railroads in the United States was from the first
carried on without a system. Railroads in an early day were purely local
affairs. Each locality operated its own road in its own interest and
without any supervision from the State which had granted its charter.
Acts of incorporation or charters were granted as a matter of course.
Railroads were looked upon as the natural feeders of canals, and their
future importance was foreseen by very few men. The early roads were a
heavy burden on the capital of the country. A number of small roads were
built that proved unprofitable and had to be abandoned. After the
financial panic of 1837 there was, except in New England, a very
perceptible stagnation in railroad enterprise, which lasted until the
discovery of gold in California, in 1848. The average number of miles of
road constructed per annum during the ten years preceding 1848 was 380,
while it was nearly 1,800 per annum during the seven years following.

It may be said that with the discovery of gold in the West ends the
first or formative period of railroad construction. From the first
opening of the Baltimore and Ohio to the beginning of the year 1848, a
period of eighteen years, there were constructed in the United States
5,205 miles of railroad, or an average of 289 miles per annum. The
discovery of gold on the Pacific gave a new impetus to railroad
construction throughout the country. Rai