Comin' Round The Mountain

by Lois Bryan

Title

Comin' Round The Mountain

Artist

Lois Bryan

Medium

Photograph - Photography / Digital Art / Photography Based Digital Painting

Description

I have a memory of visiting Horseshoe Curve with my mom and dad as a very little girl. Daddy had spent his early childhood in the nearby town of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and Horseshoe Curve had a special place in his heart. Additionally, my dad's family was a railroad family ... as he said, trains run in our blood.

I've visited Horseshoe Curve several times since that day long ago, and even after all this time, the sight of a train as it comes around the curve still brings a feeling of excitement.

The history of this particular line is very interesting. It was created to replace the Allegheny Portage Railroad which was actually a series of canals and inclined planes and remained in use until the mid-19th century. The Pennsylvania Railroad was incorporated in 1847 to build a railroad from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, replacing the cumbersome Portage Railroad. Work on Horseshoe Curve began in 1850 and took over three years. It was done without heavy equipment, only men "with picks and shovels, horses and drags".The entire line, including Horseshoe Curve, opened on February 15, 1854.

During World War II PRR carried troops and materiel for the Allied war effort, and the Curve was under armed guard. The military intelligence arm of Nazi Germany, the Abwehr, plotted to sabotage important industrial assets in the United States in a project code-named Operation Pastorius. In June 1942 four men were brought by submarine and landed on Long Island, planning to destroy such sites as the Curve, Hell Gate Bridge, Alcoa aluminum factories and locks on the Ohio River. The would-be saboteurs were quickly apprehended by the Federal Bureau of Investigation after one, George John Dasch, turned himself in.

My thanks for the above info to Wikipedia. If interested, I encourage you to look up Horseshoe Curve and do more research. Read about the 1947 wreck of the Red Arrow here:
http://nrhs1.org/images/Dispatcher_
October_2010c.pdf



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July 19th, 2016

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