The first railroad charter in North America was granted to Stevens in 1815. [4] Grants to others followed, and work soon began on the first operational railroads. Surveying, mapping, and construction started on the Baltimore and Ohio in 1830, and fourteen miles of track were opened before the year ended.

Railroading as a concept is over 500 years old, but modern "passenger" railroading is exactly 201 years old as of 2026. The roots of the industry go back to the 1550s in Germany, where "wagonways" (wooden rails) were used by miners to haul ore tubs with horses. The first "true" operational railway using a steam locomotive was the Middleton Railway in Leeds, England, founded in 1758 as a wagonway and later converted to steam. However, the modern era of railroading officially began on September 27, 1825, with the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the UK, which was the first public railway to use a steam locomotive to carry passengers. Interestingly, the concept of "tracked transport" can even be traced back to antiquity, with the Diolkos paved trackway in Greece (600 BC) used to transport boats across land. So, while we celebrate two centuries of steam and electric passenger travel, the idea of using a "fixed track" to move heavy loads is one of the oldest engineering feats in human history, evolving from wooden planks to high-speed magnetic levitation.