(Satellite information is in the photo captions.)
C&P = Cumberland & Pennsylvania
Michael Maitland
posted seven photos with the comment: "If you live near the Cumberland Maryland area, good time to explore the 18 miles between there and Piedmont as it was the cradle of early steel with, according to memorial, the first steel rails rolled in the US."
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2, the location of this plaque remains a mystery.
First rail rolled in the US
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3, Satellite
Mount Savage Railroad station and a nice restaurant on the right. |
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4, satellite. Verified by Street View, Jul 2023
More Steel and Iron photos - nice brickwork
[Actually, it is stonework instead of brickwork.] |
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5, satellite. Fortunately, he included the the sign.
Iron furnace. There was a lot of good coking coal serviced by three railroads.
[This furnacee was built into the side of the hill so that material could easily be added from Furnace Street.] |
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6, I couldn't find this location.
Mount Savage fire brick adjacent to the Iron and Steel works. |
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7, I couldn't find this location.
Bonus - found a textile mill that still had all the machinery intact. Industry took advantage of the female population while the males worked in the mills and mines. |
In 1949, the railroad through town was the Cumberland & Pennsylvania, and the railroad on the other side of the valley was the Western Maryland. By 1974, both routes were owned by the Western Maryland. And now both routes are abandoned. The route across the valley is now part of the
GAP Trail. I didn't bother to look for the location of the C&P roundhouse because the roads have changed so much.
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| 1949/66 Frostburg Quad @ 24,000 |
The Savage Iron Works office building is on the right side of this view. The building on the left has the sign: "Union Mining Company."
The 1844 U-shaped rail is what was first rolled here. Montour Iron Works rolled the first T-rail on Oct 8, 1845. Savage may have switched to that shape by then so it is unclear which works rolled the first T-rail in the USA.
"The manufacture of heavy wrought iron rails in this country began in that year at the Mt. Savage Rolling Mill. There, at some time between April and November, were rolled the first edge rails ever rolled in America. They were of the "U" or bridge section known as the "Evans" pattern of the Dowlais Iron Works located at Merthyr Tidfil, Wales and weighed 40 pounds per yard." [
MountSavageHistoricalSociety]
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Les DeLawder posted
The first American produced iron rail, happened in Savage.
[Adjectives are important when claiming superlatives such as first or largest. The word "rolled" should be added before "iron rail."]
James King: The Allegany Tourism white collars should figure out a way to include the Great town of Mount Savage during the train ride to The Frostbite dead end of line and stop at the crossing above foundry row above where Patty Baker lived and have a shuffle bus take the train riders down the hill to Savage and show off the "jail, the bank, the glass factory office, and stop at the beautiful veterans memorial, and have the above "card, plaque or whatever made up to hand out to every one" have the Steel Poney get involved for a snack or some type of hand out, and the "green arrow" (what ever) could offer a special on a snack of some kind, that the people would remember the hospitality of the town, just thinking out of the box. But Savage like the Lefty memorial are not given their credit as being part of the Historical Places in the county. That is all from here! |
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Michael McKenzie commented on Les' post
I have a piece of that rail, a lot smaller than modern rail on the left.
[The camera is looking down on the rails at about a 45-degree angle.] |
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| Digitally Zoomed |
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| Digitally Zoomed |
While trying to find the fire brick works (Photo 6), I found this antique
cable backhoe.
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