The Rocket, George Stephenson's famous engine, pulled the world's first passenger train on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830. Stephenson created the standard track gauge used worldwide. In the United States in that same year, Peter Cooper invented the Tom Thumb in Baltimore. It raced a horse-drawn coach and lost because a belt broke. The first steam locomotive to carry passengers in America was reportedly the Best Friend of Charleston in 1830. In the 1850s, trains become increasingly popular and efficient and put other means of transport out of business. In 1865, George Pullman unveiled his sleeping car. After it was attached to the funeral train of Abraham Lincoln, the demand for them multiplied and Pullman's business boomed.

Thousands of miles of tracks snaked across the country--over 254,000 in 1916. Then, after World War II, the steam locomotive died out for the most part and diesel-electric locomotives took over. By the 1980s there were just over 167,900 miles of track left. Today, we still have important railroads operating in the United States. The Alaska Railroad, completed in 1923, was the last major railroad to cut through the North American wilderness (Beth Walker, "Trains: Then and Now," Boys' Quest: Feb./Mar. 2001).

Today, Amtrak serves the United States as the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. Amtrak is the blending of the words "American" and "track." Amtrak began service in 1971 with 143 trains. Today, up to 300 trains per day operate in 46 states, every minute of the year.

On this journey across time and space, I discovered that there are myths and historical "discrepancies" in railroad history. Stories that aren't actually true can be passed on for so many years that they are accepted as fact. Did you know there is controversy over where the actual meeting of the rails was when the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869? This might be a great research project for your kids! Find out the real details of the Golden Spike ceremony and let me know. In any case, here is the prayer spoken at the ceremony at Promontory Summit:

 "Our father and God, and our fathers' God, God of Creation and God of Providence, thou hast created the heavens and the earth, the valleys and the hills; Thou art also the God of mercies and blessings. We rejoice that thou hast created the human mind with its power of invention, its capacity of expansion, and its guardian of success. We have assembled here this day, upon the height of the continent, from varied sections of our country, to do homage to thy wonderful name, in that thou hast brought this mighty enterprise, combining the commerce of the east with the gold of the west to so glorious a completion. And now we ask thee that this great work, so auspiciously begun and so magnificently completed, may remain a monument to our faith and good works. We here consecrate this great highway for the good of thy people. O God, we implore thy blessings upon it and upon those that may direct its operations. O Father, God of our fathers, we desire to acknowledge thy handiwork in this great work, and ask thy blessing upon us here assembled, upon the rulers of our government and upon thy people everywhere; that peace may flow unto them as a gentle stream, and that this mighty enterprise may be unto us as the Atlantic of thy strength, and the Pacific of thy love. Through Jesus, the Redeemed, Amen."