American railways

Rail transport in the United States
CSX train at a Level junction in Marion, Ohio
Operation
Major operators	Amtrak BNSF Railway Union Pacific Railroad Canadian National Railway Norfolk Southern Railway CSX Transportation Kansas City Southern Railway Canadian Pacific Railway
Statistics
Ridership	549,631,632 29 million (Amtrak only)
Passenger km	10.3 billion
Freight	2,524 billion tkm
Track gauge
Main	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Features
Longest tunnel	Cascade Tunnel 7.80 miles (12.55 km)
Map

Map

Cascade Tunnel

Rail transportation in the United States consists primarily of freight shipments, while passenger service, once a large and vital part of the nation's passenger transportation network, plays a limited role as compared to transportation patterns in many other countries.

A railroad was reportedly used in the construction of the French fortress at Louisburg, Nova Scotia in 1720. Between 1762 and 1764, at the close of the French and Indian War, a gravity railroad (mechanized tramway) (Montresor's Tramway) was built by British military engineers up the steep riverside terrain near the Niagara River waterfall's escarpment at the Niagara Portage (which the local Senecas called "Crawl on All Fours.") in Lewiston, New York.

During this period, Americans watched closely the development of railways in the United Kingdom. The main competition came from canals, many of which were in operation under state ownership, and from privately owned steamboats plying the nation's vast river system. In 1829, Massachusetts prepared an elaborate plan. Government support, most especially the detailing of officers from the Army Corps of Engineers – the nation's only repository of civil engineering expertise – was crucial in assisting private enterprise in building nearly all the country's railroads. Army Engineer officers surveyed and selected routes, planned, designed, and constructed rights-of-way, track, and structures, and introduced the Army's system of reports and accountability to the railroad companies. More than one in ten of the 1,058 graduates from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point between 1802 and 1866 became corporate presidents, chief engineers, treasurers, superintendents and general managers of railroad companies. Among the Army officers who thus assisted the building and managing of the first American railroads were Stephen Harriman Long, George Washington Whistler, and Herman Haupt.