Cog railway new hampshire free#

Looking at photos in the small museum where an aerial tram ran up Cannon Mountain and fudge was for sale, the first thing I saw was that Old Man didn’t look that old. The first steel rods and turnbuckles to hold the rocky outcrop in place were set in 1916.

Cog railway new hampshire free#

It became a state emblem and can be seen on highway signs and the state quarter.Īt the small free museum, I learned locals knew for more than a century that the Old Man was in need of help. You could see it from the highway until it fell in 2003. The rock is the Old Man of the Mountain, a granite likeness of a man’s profile-made of five interlocking pieces actually-that once jutted out from the top of a hulking green mountain. Old Man of the Mountain Profile Plaza, Franconia Notch State ParkĪ few miles south in Franconia Notch State Park, along I-93, it’s possible to visit a memorial to a rock. During the construction of this road, it was visited by a Swiss engineer, who took away drawings of the machinery and track, from which a similar railway was built up Mount Rigi in Switzerland (see Rigi Railways).Please be respectful of copyright. The road was formally opened on August 14, 1868, as far as “Jacob's ladder,” and entirely completed in July 1869. The peculiar form of locomotive, cog rail, and brakes used were invented by Marsh. Notwithstanding all opposition, he persisted in building the railroad, relying chiefly on his own resources, and received little capital investment until an engine was actually running over part of the route. The construction of such a road was regarded as impossible, and he became known as “Crazy Marsh” indeed, the legislature, in granting him a charter, further expressed their willingness to grant a “charter to the moon” if he wished. He obtained a charter for the road on June 25, 1858, but the American Civil War prevented any action until May 1866. While ascending Mount Washington in 1852, he lost his way, and then conceived the idea of building a railroad to its summit, believing that such an enterprise could be made profitable. In 1844, he married Charlotte Bates, who died in 1850. In 1864 he settled in Littleton, New Hampshire, and after 1879 made Concord, New Hampshire, his residence. He resided a year in Brooklyn, New York, where he was an exporter, sending much of his dried meal product to the West Indies. In 1855 he moved to Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and moved back to Chicago after five years. He invented the dried-meal process, and “Marsh's caloric dried meal” was long an article of commerce.

He invented many appliances that were incidental to meat packing, especially those having reference to the use of steam. Meanwhile, he worked for the advancement of Chicago. He began again in the grain business, and acquired a substantial fortune.

He settled in Chicago during the winter of 1833/4, and there followed a similar business until 1837, when his accumulations were swept away in the Panic of 1837. In 1828, he was engaged in Ashtabula, Ohio, in supplying Boston and New York City with beef and pork. At 19, he left for Boston, where he worked as a farm hand, and in 1826 he established himself there as a provision dealer. He grew up on a farm, which he worked on, and he attended the common school in the winter. Sylvester Marsh (September 30, 1803, Campton, New Hampshire – December 30, 1884, Concord, New Hampshire) was the United States engineer who designed and built the Mount Washington Cog Railway.