Portage Railroad
Cresson Township, Cambria County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Here was No. 5 of the ten inclined planes used to carry canal boats by rail, Hollidaysburg to Johnstown. The road to Lilly follows closely the route of the Portage Railroad over the mountain to Johnstown.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
This spot marks the location of Plane No. 5, one of ten inclined planes on the Allegheny Portage Railroad, an ingenious system that hauled canal boats over the mountains by rail between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown. Completed in the 1830s, it closed the last gap in Pennsylvania's Main Line of Public Works, allowing freight and passengers to cross the formidable Allegheny ridge. The road to Lilly still traces the old route over the mountain.
Why it matters
The Portage Railroad was a landmark of American engineering that briefly gave Pennsylvania a continuous canal-and-rail route across the Appalachians, connecting East and West.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early decades of the 1800s, the young United States faced a stubborn problem: the Allegheny Mountains stood like a wall between the settled Atlantic states and the growing country to the west. Moving people and freight across that ridge was slow, costly, and difficult, and whichever state solved it stood to gain enormously.
This was the great age of canals and internal improvements, when states raced to link East and West with waterways. Pennsylvania built an ambitious system to connect Philadelphia with Pittsburgh — but a canal cannot climb a mountain. The engineers needed a way to carry canal traffic over the Allegheny summit itself.
Their answer was a bold piece of early-19th-century engineering built here in these mountains: a railroad of inclined planes that could haul boats over the ridge. It was completed in the 1830s and closed the last gap in the state's cross-mountain route.
People & events
This spot marks the location of No. 5, one of ten inclined planes on the Allegheny Portage Railroad, the system that carried canal boats by rail between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown. The inscription notes that the road toward Lilly still follows closely the old route over the mountain.
The idea was ingenious. Rather than force boats to somehow cross the summit by water, the railroad used a series of inclined planes — steep sections where cars were pulled up and let down the grade — to lift traffic over the mountain and down the other side. Canal boats, and the goods and passengers they carried, made the crossing by rail before returning to the water.
Each numbered plane was a link in that chain, and Plane No. 5 was one of ten. Together they turned an impossible climb into a working route, a feat that drew admiration from travelers who crossed it in its heyday.
Its place in the American story
The Portage Railroad was a landmark of American engineering. For a time it gave Pennsylvania something no one else had: a continuous canal-and-rail route reaching across the Appalachian barrier, connecting the Atlantic seaboard with the interior.
That mattered far beyond the state. In an era when the nation's future depended on binding East and West together, the ability to move freight and people across the mountains helped commerce, migration, and growth. The Main Line of Public Works, with this railroad at its heart, was Pennsylvania's answer to the question every growing state was asking.
Like many bold early systems, it was eventually overtaken by the advance of the railroads it helped foreshadow. But its place in the story stands: it was one of the audacious solutions that proved the mountains could be crossed, and it helped point the way toward the rail age that followed.
If you visit
The best thing about this marker is that the landscape still carries the route. The inscription tells you the road to Lilly follows the old Portage Railroad's path over the mountain, so as you drive it, you are tracing the very line those inclined planes once climbed.
Look for the lay of the land — the grades and the way the route works with the mountain rather than against it. Standing near the site of Plane No. 5, try to picture boats riding the rails up a steep incline, an image that feels almost fantastical today.
This is a rewarding stop for anyone who loves the history of how America moved. It fits naturally into a day exploring the Allegheny summit country, where the story of crossing the mountains is written into the roads and ridges all around you. Come curious, and the quiet hillside turns into one of the great tales of early American engineering.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related events
- · Allegheny Portage Railroad
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Portage Railroad
Juniata Township, PA · est. 1947
In the 1830s Pennsylvania stitched its canal system across the Allegheny Mountains with one of the boldest engineering answers of the age: a portage railroad that hauled entire canal boats up and over the ridge on a staircase of inclined planes worked by stationary steam engines and cables. This spot marks Plane No. 6 of the ten that lifted traffic between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown. Completed in 1834, the 36-mile line closed the last mountain gap in the water route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.
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At Hollidaysburg, the 127-mile Juniata Division of the Pennsylvania Canal met the Allegheny Portage Railroad, an ingenious system that hauled canal boats over the mountains toward Johnstown, 36 miles west. The canal opened in 1832 and the railroad in 1834, together forming a continuous route across the formidable Allegheny barrier. Engineers marveled at the portage line, which climbed nearly 1,400 feet in just ten miles using inclined planes.