Book Review: Rockville Bridge: Rails Across the Susquehanna
Dan Cupper, Rockville Bridge: Rails Across The Susquehanna (Halifax, Pa.: Withers Publishing, 2002) 112pp., illustrated (some col.), maps, plans, $29.95.
Railroads
Dillsburg and Mechanicsburg Railroad
The Dillsburg and Mechanicsburg Railroad was built with the backing of the Cumberland Valley Railroad primarily to haul iron ore from the vast reserves around Dillsburg to furnaces in the Harrisburg region.
Harrisburg's Unrealized Economic Expectations
It would be inaccurate to say that Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has been an economic failure. For two and a half centuries It has enjoyed relative prosperity, providing livelihoods for most if not all of its residents, and very comfortable livings to many. On the other hand, the community never achieved the economic superstatus among American cities that its entrepreneurs aspired to at various stages in its development.
Hey Ollie, Let's Go Railroading
Reproduced below are a number of the photographs which were displayed at the Cumberland County Historical Society as an exhibit "Hey Ollie, Let's Go Railroading." Over 250 photographs were put on display as a tribute to all the railroaders, both here and gone, who worked in the Cumberland Valley.
James E. Largent Sr.
Interview of James E. Largent Sr. by Randy Watts on July 30, 2015. The interview focuses on the Largent's experiences growing up and his time working for a railroad company.
Lemoyne
Early settlement of Lemoyne began in 1724 when John Kelso and his ferrying partner and putative relative John Harris built a stone house at the east end of the future borough.
Robert Monath
Interview of Robert Monath for the Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Digital Library Memory Bank a part of the Cumberland County Historical Society in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Monath discusses his family's history and connections working on various Railroads in Central Pennsylvania as well his own time as a fireman and engineer for Penn Central, Amtrak, Conrail, and finally Norfolk Southern.
Trains in Song and Poetry
“… All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by …”1
Transportation, Competition, and the Growth of a Town: Carlisle, 1750-1860
Rapid improvements in modes of transportation occurred during the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. These innovations altered the structure of the United States demographically, causing some population centers to flourish, others to die, and still others to be born. Major cities, such as Baltimore and Philadelphia, competed to build more extensive and efficient transportation systems to the hinterlands so that they could become the dominate outlets for the goods of the rural areas. Small towns in the interior of Pennsylvania which became entangled in this transportation web, such as Carlisle, prospered as a result of this competition.