Philadelphia now had its connection with Pittsburg and the Ohio river and the rich lands bordering it, as New York had its way leading to Buffalo and the Great Lakes and the prairies. But the southern road crossed a rougher country than did the northern one, and so it was less easily kept in order and was harder to travel. Hence Philadelphia, like New York, sought better means of communication with the country on the other side of the mountains. CHAPTER VII THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD A horse railroad had been built from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna river, and the big Conestoga wagons were running along the pike to Pittsburg; but this was not enough. New York had stirred the whole country by its great canal, and the people along the Potomac were thinking of similar schemes. Pennsylvania could not rest idle, and decided to have a canal of its own. In 1826 the ditch was begun at Columbia, where the railroad ended, and, following the custom of the times, those in charge started the work on Independence Day. In four years they had dug the canal, let in the water, and were running boats as far as Harrisburg. A few miles above Harrisburg the canal turned away from the main river and followed its great western branch, the Juniata. This river cuts through the high ridges, or flows between them as best it can, taking a very winding course. The valley is often narrow and its sides are steep and rugged. Still it has no heavy grades along the bottom, and it led the canal diggers far into the mountains, to a village called Hollidaysburg. Here the highlands are so steep that the canal had to stop. The Allegheny Front is almost fourteen hundred feet above Hollidaysburg, and on the other side the Conemaugh river rushes swiftly down past the city of Johnstown, which is seven hundred and seventy-one feet below the summit. Hollidaysburg and Johnstown are thirty-eight miles apart, and the uplands lying between are so steep and high that to cut through them was out of the question. But those who were interested in the canal were not to be beaten, and they kept on digging both to the east and to the west. Beyond Johnstown they carried the canal to the Ohio river at Pittsburg. [Illustration: FIG. 26. FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE, PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD] Meantime the high grounds on the divide were not neglected. A famous road, the Allegheny Portage Railway, was built with several inclined planes. Stationary engines pulled the cars up each slope, but on the level parts of the road they were drawn by horses. The road was not carried to the top, but nearly two hundred feet below a tunnel was cut about a mile long. The entrance to one end of this tunnel is shown in Fig. 27. [Illustration: FIG. 27. ENTRANCE TO TUNNEL, OLD PORTAGE RAILWAY]