Several railroads have been called the oldest in North America. Those, as well as other railroads chartered or opened during that time period, are listed below.
1795: A wooden railway on Beacon Hill in Boston carried excavations down the hill to clear the land for the State House.
1799: Boston developers begin to reduce the height of Mount Vernon, prior to building streets and homes. Silas Whitney constructs a gravity railroad to move excavated material down the hill to fill marshy areas to create new land from the Back Bay.[2]
1809: In September an experimental railroad was built next to a Philadelphia tavern by a millwright named Somerville. The track, built for Thomas Leiper, has a grade of 1-1/2 inch to the yard (about 4 %) over its total length (60 yards) and proves satisfactory when tested with a loaded car.[3]
1811: George Magers designs and builds a 1-mile wooden gravity railroad between a gunpowder mill and its powder storage bunker at Falling's Creek, Virginia.[4]
1815: New Jersey grants a charter on February 6, 1815 for a company to "erect a rail-road from the river Delaware near Trenton, to the river Raritan, at or near New Brunswick", as proposed by John Stevens (1749-1838). This was the first railroad chartered in the United States, but the New Jersey Railroad Company never built the railway due to an inability to attract financial investors.
1830: The Camden and Amboy Rail Road and Transportation Company was chartered on February 4, 1830, to connect the Delaware River, serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the Raritan River, for access to New York City. This was done in conjunction with the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company. The C&A was organized on April 28 in Camden, and surveys began June 16. Construction began December 4, 1830 at Bordentown on the Delaware River, with rails and locomotives imported from England.
1830: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was chartered February 23, 1827, and construction began July 4, 1828. The first 1.5 mile section opened January 7, 1830; the line opened to Ellicott's MillsMay 22, 1830, with regular passenger service beginning May 24.[1] This was the first railroad that evolved into a major system rather than being gobbled up by another, and was probably the first passenger railroad.
1832: The Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad is opened, with 10 miles of track between Brooklyn and Jamaica. It would become part of the LIRR within 4 years.
1834: The Long Island Rail Road is opened, but actual operations do not begin until 1836. Due to this date, it is the oldest continually operating railroad in the world.
