Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway

The first operational US railway of any substantial length to carry paying passengers, narrow-gauge Mauch Chunk Railroad, Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad, or Mauch Chunk & Summit Hill Railway, and later from 1872 into 1933 as the independent Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway, was built in 1827 by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N) on top of their -constant-descent-graded wagon road and would run for over a hundred years until the middle days of the Great Depression. Given the prominence attained as a tourism destination by Mauch Chunk, and its weighty eminence as the corporate headquarters and political center of Carbon County amongst the picturesque landscaptes of the "Switzerland of America", the name Mauch Chunk Railroad where it met the lower Lehigh Canal main terminus was both technically correct (legally recognized) and most often used by publications over the first five decades of its operation as a primary coal road. It later also added 'Switchback' as a modifier when mining shifted to Lansford and Coaldale in the Panther Creek Valley, which adjective was retained as by the 1870s it was America's second most famous tourism destination after Niagara Falls, seeing an average 35,000 riders a year.It was the second operational (permanent) United States railroad, the first over five miles long, and like the better known contemporary, B&O Railroad, it began using humble animal power to draw its consists—the mules were sent down in the last batch of cars and the return trip required It was part of what is credited by economists as the first American company to utilize vertical integration—providing raw materials, shipping, processing and final goods. In its last five decades of operation, shortly after the opening of the Hauto Tunnel in 1872, it was converted to primarily be (continue) as a tourist attraction and common mixed services carrier used by commuting locals, the postal service and for general freight.