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Canal Boats and Rail Cars
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Canal Boats and Rail cars (drawings of) passenger boat on bottom, sectional boat above, sections on railroad flatbeds.

Credit: Courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives

To enable long canal boats to negotiate sharp railroad curves, designers split the cargo vessels into three detachable sections. Passengers on the Main Line traveled in packet boats on the canals, then transferred to primitive passenger cars on the connecting rail lines.

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