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In May, 1838, goods were sent from Baltimore to Pittsburg via the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad and the Pennsylvania Canal for $1 per hundredweight. In October, 1838, the engineers reported the route of the proposed railway to Chambersburg practicable without the use of inclined planes.

"Pennsylvania Improvements. -- By an official account recently rendered it appears that this State has expended in canals and railroads $22,229,000. The works produced a net revenue of nearly five per cent the last year, which will be increased at least six per cent the present year. The money to make these improvements was procured at five per cent interest, and notwithstanding the immense amount the State is already relieved from all burden on this great scale of improvement and at the same time reaping the immense advantage resulting from them; add to which it had increased the value of property in the State at least $100,000,000" (Niles National Register, February 3, 1838).

In February, 1839, a large meeting concerning the Chambersburg and Pittsburg Railway was held here, Mayor William Little presiding. The meeting was addressed by William McCandless, George Darsie, H. H. Van Amringe, E. D. Gazzam, A. W. Foster, Jr., and George W. Jackson. The following resolutions were passed:

"Resolved, That the project of a railroad from Pittsburg to St. Louis, as presented by the Governor to the Legislature of this State, evinces a liberal and patriotic spirit worthy of the chief magistrate of the Keystone State; and that, imposing and magnificent as the work may seem, the project is nevertheless entirely feasible and the improvement one on which the public interests depend.

"Resolved, That Pennsylvania in recommending this improvement to her sister States, should present an earnest of her cordial cooperation by passing a law for extending the Chambersburg Railroad to Pittsburg, as thereby only could the road from St. Louis be rendered fully effective and accomplish the chief object which the Western States would have in view, namely: An easy and uninterrupted communication with the Atlantic seaboard.

"Resolved, That E. D. Gazzam, R. M. Riddle and H. H. Van Amringe be a committee to draft a memorial to the Legislature, and that Thomas Bakewell, James Findlay and George Darsie be a committee of correspondence." (Advocate, 1839)

An amendment to the appropriation bill pending in the Legislature in February, 1839, provided that $250,000 should be spent on the Chambersburg and Pittsburg Railroad. A called meeting of citizens in this city recommended the passage of this amendment. Great pressure was brought to bear upon the Legislature in the winter of 1840-41 to secure a continuous railway from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. The line soon began to be called the Central Railroad, and afterward the Pennsylvania Railroad. Little was done on railroad projects from 1840 to 1846, except to discuss them, though as fast as the charters expired they were renewed upon demand. By September, 1840, the number of railroads opened in Pennsylvania was thirty-six, having a total length, including those projected, of 850 miles. The amount of capital thus far spent was $15,640,450 (Niles Register, September, 1840).

"Pittsburg and Cumberland. -- The whistle of locomotives among the mountains within 100 miles of Pittsburg makes the wealthy burghers prick up their ears, and already the subject of a railroad from Pittsburg to Cumberland is exciting no little interest. Build the road, Mr. Pittsburgers, and then we will see what can be done between Cleveland and the Iron City" (Cleveland Herald, March 1843).

"We are going to build it, Mr. Herald, and that quick, too, and we trust if our life is spared but a very few years, to take a locomotive trip to Cleveland on our way to Niagara Falls, Green Bay, or to some other summer resort on the Great Lakes. We will give you a call, then, Mr. Herald" (Pittsburg American, April, 1843).

On June 9, 1846, books were opened here for subscriptions to the stock of the Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad. In two days 6,325 shares were sold (Commercial Journal, June 10, 1846). This seems to have been an extremely popular enterprise at that time. It is claimed that Pittsburg, angered at the apathy of Philadelphia in withholding its consent to the construction of the Central Railroad year after year, turned eagerly to any railroad that would give it an outlet through Baltimore or otherwise than through Philadelphia to the Atlantic. This claim will account for the following notice:

"Central Railroad. -- The books were opened yesterday at the St. Charles Hotel. We understood that not a dollar of stock had been subscribed when the books were closed" (Commercial Journal, July 9, 1846).

The act to permit the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to cross into this State and extend its line to Pittsburg was passed in 1843 and reaffirmed early in 1846. About this time, also, Philadelphia, at last perceiving that Pittsburg was determined to have an outlet by rail with the Atlantic Coast, began to stir herself and affect to take great interest in the commercial prosperity of this city. However, the citizens continued to work hard for the Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad, believing that in the end such action would result in an outlet over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to Baltimore and the Atlantic. In fact, the Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad, while ostensibly an independent project, was regarded as a continuation to Pittsburg of the northern branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and was, therefore, warmly favored by the citizens of this vicinity.

An early railway project was the construction of the Hempfield Railroad, as it was called, which was designed to cross the State from east to west and thus parallel the Central Railroad from thirty to forty miles south of the latter. Its design was to avoid Pittsburg and strike the Ohio River at Wheeling, and occasionally, when it seemed likely to succeed, the inhabitants here were frightened into spasms.

"We are sure they are in earnest now, and we rejoice that it is so, for the interests of Philadelphia and Pittsburg are so blended that Philadelphia cannot suffer a decline without injury to Pittsburg, and she must suffer unless soon connected with the Ohio River by railroad" (Commercial Journal, January 1, 1846).

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Source document: "Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania" edited by Erasmus Wilson. Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co., 1898.