Existing comment:
Although the Portage Railroad and the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal were owned by the state of Pennsylvania, private citizens reaped most of the benefits. Hoping to prosper from the Allegheny Portage Railroad, working men and would-be entrepreneurs competed to win railroad contracts or secure jobs such as engineers, hitchers, stonecutters, woodcutters, and teamsters. Local timber and coal operations expanded to build and fuel the railroad. Once struggling iron furnaces along the Main Line Canal grew to become thriving communities.
Henry Spang and the Mount Etna Iron Works:
As the route for the Pennsylvania Canal was under consideration in 1823, ironmaster Henry Spang seized an opportunity with the purchase of the troubled Mount Etna Iron Works. As the Public Works improved transportation and lowered shipping costs, Spang's operation expanded to include ore tracts, timber lands, additional furnaces, and a rolling mill in Pittsburgh. Within ten years, the Mount Etna community boasted a company store, blacksmith shop, sawmill, gristmill, and tenant housing for forty workers and their families. |