11. Dickens described the canal boat as a “barge with a little house on it”
The canal boat on which Dickens traveled westward toward the mountains was crowded with passengers bound for Pittsburgh. The morning after departure from Harrisburg they reached the Allegheny Portage Railroad. From his side of the railroad, the canal flowed back to Harrisburg. On the other side of the Portage a canal connected with Pittsburgh. The Allegheny Portage Railroad connected the two canals, shifting passengers and freight from one to the other. When Charles Dickens arrived at its base it had been in operation for just eight years, during which time it had become a tourist destination of its own.
Dickens traversed the Alleghenies by leaving the canal boat and transferring to cars, which were pulled up the first of five inclines by a stationary steam engine. Upon reaching level grade mules were attached to the cars, usually in trains of two or three, and pulled to the next incline, where they were again attached to a steam engine for the next ascent. At the time Dickens used the railroad, the lines used to pull the cars were of hemp. Later in 1842, they were replaced with steel wires manufactured nearby by John Roebling. Roebling was already advocating the use of the steel wires in the construction of suspension bridges for use by railroads and horse-drawn traffic.