was made principal engineer, and Mr. Robinson consulting engineer; Samuel Jones was superintendent. The final surveys were conducted from Johnstown to the mountain summit beginning in April; they were completed by May 20, 1831, and the work let to the lowest bidders at Ebensburg May 25. The surveys on the eastern slope of the mountain were conducted from Hollidaysburg and were completed in the July following. The contracts were let at Hollidaysburg on July 29.[1]
The termini of the road were at the canal basins at Hollidaysburg and at Johnstown, the former 1,398 feet below the mountain summit, and the latter 1,771 feet below the summit. The road occupied a clean swath through the forests, of one hundred and twenty feet in width, lest fall-
- ↑ These, as well as many preceding and succeeding data, are from William Bender Wilson's admirable monograph, "The Evolution, Decadence, and Abandonment of the Allegheny Portage Railroad" in the Annual Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1898–99, part iv, pp. xli–xcvi. This monograph forms an important chapter in Mr. Wilson's History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
