The history of the first locomotives in America. From original ...

EXPERIMENTAL LOCOMOTIVES. IQ?
of the Catoctin Mountain. In the first instance, the
road was located to avoid it.
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CHAPTEK XX.
EXPEEIMENTAL LOCOMOTIVES.
The first locomotive, then bnilt to demonstrate its
adaptability to a curved road, was constructed by Mr.
Peter Cooper, of New York, long and most favorably
known as the founder of the far-famed Cooper Institute
in that city. Mr, Cooper's locomotive was built at the
St. Clair Works, near Baltimore, and was first run upon
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the summer of
1829, nearly two years before that first really successful
locomotive (as it was described in the Ledger^ and built
by Messrs. Tyler and Baldwin) was tried upon the
Germantown and Norristown Eailroad, in 1832. What
success Mr. Cooper's locomotive displayed on its first
trial-trip we will describe
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, as we have before
stated, was the first of any extent begun in America
and the first built for the purposes of trade and com-
merce, as nearly all are at the present day. Previous
to the year 1826, no railroad, even in England, had been
constructed for the general conveyance of passengers
or merchandise between two distant points. A few
railroads had been constructed for local purposes, such
as the conveyance of coal or ores from, the mines to the
points of shipment on navigable streams ; but, for general
purposes of travel or transportation, they were still re-
garded as an untried experiment, and the question had
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