Railroad Tracks on Ice on the Susquehanna River

Now that a blast of cold Canadian air is moving in, we started thinking about another time that an arctic blast held a tight grip on the area for an extended period.

It was the winter of 1852, the coldest in many years, and the temperatures dipped far below zero each night.  This caused the mighty Susquehanna River to freeze over, disrupting transportation on the northeast corridor.  In those days, a bridge hadn’t been built between Perryville and Havre de Grace, so a steam ferry, the Susquehanna, ferried passengers and freight across the waterway.

But with the river solidly frozen over from bank to bank, the movement of the railroad ferry was disrupted.  This presented a major problem as traffic backed up.

The Chief Engineer of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad, Isaac R. Trimble, devised a solution.  His expedient involved railroad tracks on the ice.  This unique route opened on January 15, 1852, and It was in use every day through February 24, 1852, when the rails were removed because a thaw was coming on.  Over 1,378 cars were moved over the ice, and regular traffic began again on March 3, 1852.¹

Based on a drawing by F. F. Schell, a lithograph was produced by Thomas S. Sinclair of Philadelphia.  It featured a view of the railroad tracks on ice across the Susquehanna at Havre de Grace.  This was a popular item at the time and it was reproduced in several forms.  The Adams Express Company arranged to get an imprint of it, too, and the company distributed the popular image to customers.²

Endnotes

1. Digitial Maryland, View of Railroad Tracks Across the Susquehanna, mcdcp179[↩]
2. Adams Express Co., Lithograph by Thomas Sinclair, 1852, Digital Library of Maryland[↩]