| Here is page two of an 18-page article entitled "The Pennsylvania Railroad In Altoona: 1849-1949." It was published originally in the "Altoona Centennial Booklet" dated August of 1949, page 15. "The building of the Erie Canal . . . had been ineffectually met by Pennsylvania in the building of a system of railroads, canals, and inclined planes known as the Main Line of Public Works, which was State owned and State operated. This system of communication between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh never proved satisfactory, in that it was not only costly and slow, but service had to be discontinued much of the time due to floods in spring and ice in winter." |