Main Line of Public Works

<p>The Main Line of Public Works was a package of legislation passed by the <a href="/facts/Pennsylvania/HGqC5bBm">Commonwealth of Pennsylvania</a> in 1826 to establish a means of transporting freight between <a href="/facts/Philadelphia/2bFFCCTU">Philadelphia</a> and <a href="/facts/Pittsburgh/42yPHyS0">Pittsburgh</a>. It funded the construction of various long-proposed canal and road projects, mostly in southern Pennsylvania, that became a canal system and later added railroads. Built between 1826 and 1834, it established the <a href="/facts/Pennsylvania_Canal_System/v3kIjMId">Pennsylvania Canal System</a> and the <a href="/facts/Allegheny_Portage_Railroad/x5CpLWCY">Allegheny Portage Railroad</a>.
</p><p>Later amendments substituted a new technology, <a href="/facts/Rail_transport/9nJQbsDV">railroads</a>, in place of the planned but costly 82-mile (132 km) canal connecting the <a href="/facts/Delaware_River/7uFoPlAI">Delaware River</a> in Philadelphia to the <a href="/facts/Susquehanna_River/wfJRM2YD">Susquehanna River</a>.  The route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh remained a patchwork of canals and railroads until the <a href="/facts/Pennsylvania_Railroad/ajhjU4KH">Pennsylvania Railroad</a> was built in the 1850s.
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Main Line of Public Works open-in-new

Main Line of Public Works