Podcast: Susquehanna Ice Railroad of 1852

Welcome to the Uncharted Lancaster Podcast, where we explore the hidden histories, forgotten places, and long-buried secrets of Lancaster County. Produced by Uncharted Lancaster and created using modern digital storytelling tools, each episode brings a new piece of local lore to lifeโ€”revealing the strange, the surprising, and the stories history left behind.

In the winter of 1852, an unrelenting cold turned the Susquehanna River into an icy barrier, threatening to halt commerce and mail along one of the nationโ€™s most important rail corridors. This episode tells the extraordinary story of how the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad respondedโ€”by building a temporary railroad directly on the frozen river between Havre de Grace and Perryville.

Rather than risk a locomotive on the ice, engineers used stationary steam engines, ropes, and pulleys to carefully slide loaded freight cars across the frozen expanse. For more than forty days, thousands of tons of goods crossed the Susquehanna without a single recorded accident. The episode also explores how this remarkable feat was later immortalized in a commemorative lithograph distributed by the Adams Express Company, preserving one of the most inventiveโ€”and unlikelyโ€”chapters in American transportation history. Listen to the full episode here.

An illustration depicting the Adams Express Company and a view of a rail road track across the Susquehanna River at Havre de Grace, Maryland, in 1852. The scene features workers, horse-drawn vehicles, and a steam locomotive, highlighting the early transportation infrastructure.
View of the railroad track on the ice across the Susquehanna, at Havre De Grace, Maryland.

New episodes are released every Monday and Thursday, featuring documentary-style deep dives into lost landmarks, unfinished dreams, off-limits ruins, and the legends woven into Lancaster Countyโ€™s landscape. If you enjoy what you hear, be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and consider leaving a rating or review. It helps more listeners discover the show. Until next time, keep exploring.

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Hereโ€™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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