function of the railroad, and so pronounced was the fear of
monopoly that, on certain lines, the roadbed was laid as a state
enterprise and the users furnished their own cars, just as the
individual owners of towboats did on the canals. The drivers,
however, were an exceedingly rough lot; no schedules were
observed and as the first lines had only single tracks and
infrequent turnouts, when the opposing sides would meet each
other coming and going, precedence was usually awarded to the
side which had the stronger arm. The roadbed showed little
improvement over the mine tramways of the eighteenth century, and
the rails were only long wooden stringers with strap iron nailed
on top. So undeveloped were the resources of the country that the
builders of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1828 petitioned
Congress to remit the duty on the iron which it was compelled to
import from England. The trains consisted of a string of little
cars, with the baggage piled on the roof, and when they reached a
hill they sometimes had to be pulled up the inclined plane by a
rope. Yet the traveling in these earliest days was probably more
comfortable than in those which immediately followed the general
adoption of locomotives. When, five or ten years later, the
advantages of mechanical as opposed to animal traction caused
engines to be introduced extensively, the passengers behind them
rode through constant smoke and hot cinders that made railway
travel an incessant torture.

Yet the railroad speedily demonstrated its practical value; many
of the first lines were extremely profitable, and the hostility
with which they had been first received soon changed to an
enthusiasm which was just as unreasoning. The speculative craze
which invariably follows a new discovery swept over the country