America’s Gilded Age 1870-1890: The Industrial Economy - Railroads

                                                            This is me back in 2013

In the picture above, is a beautiful biking path that runs through Saugus and will extend to neighboring towns and cities such as Lynn, Revere, Malden, and Everett. Just within the last few years the town had agreed upon digging out old railroad tracks that had been running through there for centuries and filling it with granular recycled asphalt. I had actually moved out of Saugus a couple of years before this took place and remembered the railroads that had run across main streets which are completely gone now.

This asphalt path that had opened up in 2012 is now known as the Northern Strand Community Trail where formerly the Saugus Branch Railroad had once ran through for the most part. The Saugus Branch Railroad was in service from 1853-1958 and serviced the same towns and cities as the current trail.  In describing the Saugus Branch I quote historian Francis B. C. Bradlee regarding the railroad as "one of the few fortunate investments of the Eastern… it was probably one of the best paying stretches of railroad in New England.”  The site also mentions in 1869 “there were fourteen passenger trips a day.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saugus_Branch_Railroad) From reading our class textbook, I found it interesting that the railroad transition is sometimes referred to as the “second industrial revolution” (P.586).  Thinking about what life would have been like back then I can see why this took off so quickly.  It truly was the first mass means of transportation across the country not including boats or ferries. I don’t believe the public had access to airplanes. They certainly didn’t have as easy of an access to cars like we do today.  It’s like going from no computer to computer or black to color television and so forth.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Strand_Community_Trail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saugus_Branch_Railroad

Foner, Eric. "Chapter 16." Give Me Liberty An American History. 3rd ed. Vol. 2.