At the eastern base of the main Allegheny range a long mountain valley
stretches broadly from the far northeast to the southwest, and here is
Tyrone, a settlement of extensive iron works, and the outlet of the
greatest bituminous coal-fields of Central Pennsylvania, the
Clearfield district, the town of Clearfield being about forty miles to
the northwest. Northeast of Tyrone, this valley is called the Bald
Eagle Valley, a picturesque and fertile region; and to the southwest
it is the Tuckahoe Valley. At the base of the Bald Eagle Mountain,
thirty-three miles from Tyrone, is the town of Bellefonte, another
iron region, handling the products of the Bald Eagle and Nittany
Valleys, and receiving its name from the "Beautiful Fount" which
supplies the town with water. This is one of the most remarkable
springs in the Alleghenies, pouring out two hundred and eighty
thousand gallons of the purest water every minute. Following the
Tuckahoe Valley southward, at the base of the main Allegheny range we
come to the Pennsylvania Railroad town of Altoona, and eight miles
farther to Hollidaysburg. Each is a representative town--Hollidaysburg
of the past methods of crossing the mountain top, and Altoona of the
present.
In 1836 Mr. David Stephenson, the famous British railway engineer,
made a journey across Pennsylvania by the methods then in vogue, and
wrote that he travelled from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, three hundred
and ninety-five miles by the route taken, in ninety-one hours, at a
cost of three pounds sterling, about four cents a mile, and that one
hundred and eighteen miles of the journey, which he calls
"extraordinary," were by railroads, and two hundred and seventy-seven
miles by canals. This was the line used for twenty years, a main route
of travel from the seaboard to the West, having been put into
operation in 1834. It followed the Columbia Railroad from Philadelphia
to Columbia on the Susquehanna, the canal up the Susquehanna and
Juniata Rivers to Hollidaysburg, a portage railroad by inclined planes
over the main Allegheny Mountain ridge to Johnstown, and the canal
again, down the Conemaugh and Allegheny Rivers to Pittsburg. There
were one hundred and seventy-two miles of canal from Columbia to
Hollidaysburg, which went through more than a hundred locks and
crossed thirty-three aqueducts, having risen about six hundred feet
above the level at Columbia when it reached the eastern face of the
mountain. The canal west of Johnstown was one hundred and five miles
long, descended sixty-four locks, and went through a tunnel of one
thousand feet. The Portage Railroad of thirty-six miles crossed the
mountain by Blair's Gap, above Hollidaysburg, at twenty-three hundred
and twenty-six feet elevation, through a tunnel nine hundred feet
long. There were ten inclined planes, five on each side. The steepest
side of the Allegheny Mountain being its eastern face, the railway
from Hollidaysburg to the summit, though only ten miles long, ascended
fourteen hundred feet, while twenty miles of railway on the western
side descended eleven hundred and seventy-two feet. The cars hauled up
the planes each carried three tons of freight, and three cars were
hauled at a single draft. There could be twenty-four cars carrying
seventy-two tons passed over in one hour, which was ample for the
traffic at that time, the average business being three hundred tons of
freight a day. This amount would be carried in less than ten of the
big cars of to-day. It took passengers eight hours to go over the
mountain, halting one hour on the summit for dinner.
This route was superseded by the Pennsylvania Railroad crossing above
Altoona, opened in 1854, a road made for ordinary trains; and then
Hollidaysburg became a town of iron manufacture, losing the bustle and
business of the Portage, which was abandoned. The railroad company
acquired a large tract of land between the main Allegheny range and
the Brush Mountain to the southward, which has a deep notch, called
the "Kettle," cut down into it, opening a distant prospect of gray
mountain ridges behind. Here has been established the most completely
representative railway city in the world, having enormous railway
shops, a gigantic establishment, and a population of thirty-five
thousand, almost all in one way or another dependent on the
Pennsylvania Railroad. Altoona is at an elevation of about eleven
hundred feet above tide, and the railway climbs to the summit of the
mountain by a grade of ninety feet to the mile, winding around an
indented valley to get the necessary elevation. At its head this
valley divides into two smaller glens, with a towering crag rising
between them. Having ascended the northern side, the railway curves
around, crossing the smaller glens upon high embankments, doubling
upon itself, and mounting steadily higher by running up the opposite
side of the valley to the outer edge of the ridge. This sweeping curve
gives striking scenic effects, and is the noted Pennsylvania "Horse
Shoe," and the huge crag between the smaller glens, in which the head
of the Horse Shoe curve is partly hewn, is Kittanning Point. This
means the "great stream," two creeks issuing out of the glens uniting
below it; and here was the route, at sixteen hundred feet elevation,
of the ancient Indian trail across the mountain, the "Kittanning
Path," in their portage between the Juniata and Ohio waters. It shows
how closely the modern railroad builder has followed the route set for
him by the original road-makers among the red men. The Pennsylvania
Railroad carries four tracks over the mountain, piercing the summit by
two tunnels at about twenty-two hundred feet elevation, with two
tracks in each. The mountain rises much higher, and has coal mines,
coke ovens and miners' cabins on the very top. This is the watershed
dividing the Atlantic waters from those of the Mississippi, flowing to
the Gulf, and Gallitzin, a flourishing mining village, is the summit
station of the railway.
[Illustration: _The Conemaugh near Florence_]