![]() Near treeline, our skin track shifts out and left of the track as we approach Jacob’s Ladder. ![]() The track we’re skinning next to this morning is thus the world’s oldest cog railway-running through 28 presidencies since Grant’s. Still, the first 1,000 feet of elevation go quickly and in no time we’re cruising by Waumbek Tank, a water tank where Grant’s train probably paused to take on more water and coal for the steam-powered engines.Īt the time of Grant’s 1869 ascent, the Cog was the world’s first cog-driven railway, employing engines with cog wheels that mesh with a toothed rail in the center of the track for propulsion up and down the steep grade. The average grade is 25 percent and drops of perspiration start to appear on our caps shortly into our climb, despite the single-digit temperatures. ![]() Courtesy: The Mount Washington Cog Railway His idea, however, was mocked, with one legislator responding to Marsh’s request for a charter to build the railway with a suggestion that the Legislature instead authorize him to build a railway to the moon. We don’t have that luxury-trains don’t typically run in the winter-and we’re relegated to skinning up the mountain on the open slopes on either side of the track. President Grant ascended its 3,600 feet in elevation and roughly three miles in distance in the front of the passenger car. The comment has dogged the Cog for a century and a half You’ll still hear people call it the “railway to the moon” today.įrom the Marshfield Base Station, the Cog, known in Grant’s time as the Sky Railway, ascends up the mountain between Burt and Ammonoosuc Ravines before making a gradual right turn toward the summit. After struggling to hike up Mount Washington, Marsh was inspired to build an easier way up the peak. The Cog Railway, which we’ve come to skin and ski today, was the brainchild of New Hampshire native, Slyvester Marsh, who’d made a fortune in Chicago’s meat-packing industry before returning to his home state. | Courtesy: New England Historical Society President Grant (center left, holding his hat) atop Mount Washington. Skinning away from the Marshfield Base Station early on this mid-winter morning, it sure is a lot colder, but President Grant’s 150-year-old remark still rings true: This mountain puts things in perspective. Dressed in suits, top hats, and dresses, his party posed for a summit photo-the only inkling of the approaching fall chill was the blankets wrapped around the women’s shoulders. He’d just ascended the mountain’s west side via the Cog Railway, and then strolled about the summit, smoking a cigar. Grant as he stood atop Mount Washington in August 1869. “Man looks so small against the universe,” remarked President Ulysses S.
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