The Context and Significance of America's First Railroad, on Boston's Beacon Hill

On Boston's Beacon Hill, around 1805, the first railroad in the United States was constructed and operated. The Beacon Hill Railroad (BHR), as it is labeled in this article, was a railroad in both the technological and operational senses. It was one example along a continuum of the common evolution of British and American railroads. As such, the BHR was part of the ordinary British development of railroads from about 1600 through 1830, before the general use of the locomotive steam engine.' Built in Anglo North America as a product of railroading transferred from Great Britain, the BHR was a direct local ancestor of all modern railroads in North

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