THE HORSESHOE CURVE—

First you hear the roar of the powerful diesel engines as you look down the side of the mountain, then, they and their burden of some 100 hopper cars come into view. The train pictured (far left) is westbound; perhaps hauling its payload of coal to the hungry furnaces of Pittsburgh’s steel mills.

The Curve shaped like a horseshoe, naturally, was an engineering marvel in the 1850s when it replaced a series of canals and cable powered platforms that previously provided a way for people and commerce to cross the Allegheny Mountains.

While the country’s westward expansion was well underway this railroad vastly accelerated the process.

A history of the Curve reminds us wagon transportation from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh took about 20 days. The canal and Portage Railroad took about 4 days—when the canals were not frozen.

When the Curve opened in 1854 that same trip was reduced to an average of 15 hours.

It conquered the spine of the mountain range that was a huge barrier for the first 350 or so years of our nation’s history.

The length of the curve is 2375 feet and a train climbs a total of 122 feet while it is in view.

When I was a youngster I clearly recall visits to the curve where it was then possible to see the train come into sight, round the bend at the top of the horseshoe shape then go on with the engines disappearing around the other side of the mountain before the caboose came into view.

Towering trees today rob visitors of that marvelous spectacle.