Quincy Granite Railway

The extant portion of the Granite Railway in Quincy is located 120' north of the termination of Bunker Hill Lane. The area is also littered with boulders, the remnants of once productive quarries. A dirt path, commencing at the north end of Bunker Hill Lane, leads to the railway and the defunct Bunker Hill Quarry. "The railway begins at the base of the quarry and runs in a northeast direction for 250'. The line, constructed in 1826, was laid on a road bed 1' - 4' deep to eliminate damage from frost. The bed was filled with stone and the rail structure was constructed in the following manner: 16 Stone sleepers were laid across the track eight feet > apart. Upon these, wooden rails, six inches thick and RECEIVED twelve inches high, were placed.

Upon the top of these Ozails, iron plates, three inches wide and one-fourth of an inch thick, were fastened with spikes; but at all the APR 4 1973 ccrossings of public roads and driftways stone rails were NATIONAL used intead of wood. On top of these were placed iron REGISTER Toplates four inches wide and half an inch thick, being firmly bolted to the stone. the wooden rails began to decay, they were replaced with stone There are no rails left today. The granite sleepers were cut to a size 7' long, 8" - 14" across the top, and 12" - 18" deep. Each sleeper had a round, hand-drilled and centered hole about 1½" in diameter and 12" from each end of the sleeper. The holes were Today, the granite sleepers are the most prominent part of the railway.

Beginning at the base of the quarry, on the south side of the dirt path, is located perhaps the first sleeper and the beginning of the railway.

In a sense, the Battle of Bunker Hill is responsible for the first commercial railway in the United States. In 1823, the Bunker Hill Memorial Association was formed and the patriotic zeal of its organizers brought together engineers, architects and financiers to commemorate the historic battle. Once a suitable design for the monument, an obelisk, was decided upon, its architect and master builder, Solomon Willard, located a quarry of granite in West Quincy to supply the construction material. The next problem was how to transport the granite to the monument site, a distance of twelve miles. Gridley Bryant, a thirty-six year old engineer, proposed a railway from the quarry to the Neponset River, where barges could then transport the granite to the monument site.

The idea was considered quixotic. Never- theless, Thomas Hanasyd Perkins, the merchant prince of Boston, provided the financial backing for Bryant's scheme and the Massachusetts General Court, amid the cries of "what do we know about railroads", approved the petition for incorporation. On October 7, 1826, a horse drawn railway car traversed the three mile distance to the Neponset River. At a time when canals were considered the most efficient mode of transportation, the railway was met with skepticism. Daniel Webster, returning from the funeral of John Adams, inspected Bryant's work and concluded that the future of such a mode of transportation was dubious. However, Webster had not recognized the remarkable engineering genius of Bryant.

In the period of just seven months, from the receipt of the incorporating charter to the opening of the railway, Bryant had perfected machinery fundamental to the early development of the railroad, such as the eight wheeled car, the turn- table, the portable derrick, the switch, and the turnout.