The winter of 1852 was long and cold. So cold that it froze the Susquehanna from bank to bank in Maryland, preventing all ferry service.
This presented a problem for the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company. They had no bridge across the Susquehanna and used ferries to transport passengers and freight across the river.
Railroad officials overcame this perplexing situation by laying tracks across the ice, ranging in thickness from 2 to 3 feet. Workers completed the track on January 15, 1852. For the next 41 days, 10,000 tons distributed across 1,378 cars loaded with mail, baggage, and merchandise made the trip across the frozen river from Havre de Grace, Maryland, to Perryville, Maryland. That is approximately 7.25 tons per car.
Historical records indicate that horses and sleighs transferred passengers on other occasions.
The Adams Express Company prided itself on the fact that this was all done “without the slightest injury to any person or property.”
According to the lithograph, the track continued in use until February 24, 1852, “with the exception of one or two days during which it was removed a short distance upstream to secure a more solid foundation.”
This lithograph was created by Thomas S. Sinclair of Philadelphia, after the drawing by F. F. Schell. It features a view of the railroad track across the Susquehanna at Havre de Grace in Maryland.
The following close-up of the Adams Express Company lithograph highlights the inclined trestles used to access the frozen river.
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Here’s your chance to purchase a beautiful reproduction of the 1852 lithograph showing the Adams Express Company railroad tracks crossing the frozen Susquehanna at Havre de Grace, Maryland, in 1852.
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The Great Ice Flood of 1904 that erased Lancaster County towns from the map
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Ice Found on the Susquehanna…in August!
Imagine finding a giant chunk of ice nearly five feet in length in the Susquehanna. Not hard if it’s February and below freezing. What about August when it’s almost 100 degrees out? David Rankins did it four times in 1926 while dredging for coal. Its discovery revived many of the old mystery tales surrounding the ancient river. Click here to read the full story.
Resources
- View of railroad track across the Susquehanna, at Havre De Grace, Maryland, on the ice
- Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad
Excellent post! I cover this in detail in my book This Trying Hour: The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad in the Civil War. Well done. Thanks for posting this!
This lithograph is included in my touring exhibit, “Drawing on the Susquehanna – Four Centuries of Artistic Inspiration and Commerce,” which will go on exhibit at the Demuth Museum in August. The exhibit features engravings, lithographs, etchings, aquatints, drawings, paintings, transferware ceramics, maps and books from 1600 through the 20th century as well as a selection of early Susquehannock artifacts.
In regard to the caption about the “inclined trestle to access the frozen ice”, the inclined trestles (one on each side) were not used to reach the ice. They were used by the locomotives to push the railcars on top of the ferries that normally transported the cars across the river. The railcars rode on top of the ferry and passengers rode on the lower level. During the time the tracks were laid on the ice in 1852, the train rails were redirected down to the waters edge where the railcars were attached to mules that pulled the railcars across to the other side of the river.