16. The beginning of the end
By the mid-1840s a single canal boat carried a little over 10 tons of people and freight, and the Allegheny Portage Railroad could haul three boats connected by cables over the summit simultaneously. At the same time, an equal number of boats were lowered down the other side. The portage hummed with activity except for those periods in winter when the canals froze over. At peak times during the warm months, up to 100 canal boats went up and down the mountain per day. Delays caused by breakdowns were limited through the practice of redundancy, with backup engines in all the engine houses on the railroad. The four main towns on the Main Line, Columbia, Hollidaysburg, Johnstown, and Pittsburgh, thrived.
Though private fortunes were made from the Main Line and Allegheny Portage, the state lost money annually. The Main Line never made a profit for any of its years of existence. Neither did the Allegheny Portage Railroad. A technological marvel in 1840, ten years later it reached the cusp of obsolescence. The Pennsylvania Railroad connected towns and carried passengers and freight faster and less expensively than the canal. During the late 1840s, the railroad conducted studies on the means of bypassing the portage entirely, connecting Philadelphia and Pittsburgh directly. In 1850 work began on a route along the Juniata River for a rail connection which became known as the Horseshoe Curve.