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Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary Madison, Indiana |
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Madison Railroad Incline Cut |
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Mostly Irish laborers built the incline over the course of five years. Under a thin layer of topsoil, workers had to contend with 40 to 125 feet of limestone, which were first blasted with powder and then excavated by laborers. Irish immigrant William Griffin, who came to Madison in 1837, supervised construction. The first trip up the incline occurred November 3, 1841. The train’s passengers included former governor Noah Noble, who had been at the State’s head when the Internal Improvement Act was signed in 1836.
For several years, horses pulled train cars up the incline, as there was no engine powerful enough for that task. About 1848, a cog wheel system was implemented, allowing specially fitted engines to climb the hill, though laboriously. This mode of ascension was abandoned in 1868, when the engine Reuben Wells was created. Named for its maker, this 56-ton engine was heavy enough to cling to the tracks without the assistance of cogs. All three of these mechanisms would stop at the top of the hill, where cars would be transferred to a standard train engine. The Reuben Wells is currently on display at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. While the incline cut helped connect towns along the railroad line to Madison and the city’s Ohio River traffic, it also offered a new, unexpected opportunity for recreation. During the 19th century, Madison residents looking for a thrill would take leisurely walks along the tracks and hike through the cut during periods of low rail traffic. Nineteenth-century photographs show groups of Madisonians dressed in their Sunday best traipsing between the incline cut’s steep rock faces.
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