23. The site of the Allegheny Portage Railroad is a work in progress
The National Park Service created a National Historic Site at the top of Cresson Mountain in the 1960s. The site includes the Skew Arch Bridge, the Staple Bend Tunnel, and the Lemon House, fully restored and furnished as it appeared in the 1840s. The engine house for incline 6 was also restored, some tracks reinstalled, and a visitors center was opened to describe the railroad’s operation during its heyday. During the construction and restoration of the site, the National Park Service made note of the paucity of information regarding the operation of the site. Though records exist in the state archives, including the annual reports of its director, little additional information exists. Though the railroad moved many thousands of people across the mountain, few recorded the event.
It became routine, a mundane portion of the trip to the west scarcely worthy of comment by the 1850s. The thriving site, with multiple steam engines belching smoke and sparks into the sky, ten-ton boats crawling up and down the sides of the mountain, and waterfronts peppered with colorful characters, travelers, runaways, businessmen, freight merchants, con artists, is quiet and calm. It salutes industry and ingenuity, courage and foresightedness, and the humanity which once made the site one of America’s early tourist attractions. Hollidaysburg and Johnstown both acknowledge the links to the Main Line on their waterfronts, with nods to the railroad which once linked them to each other.