August 9, 1831
The first regular steam engine train run in the United States took place in New York. The small four-wheeled steam engine DeWitt Clinton, which had been constructed in the Empire State earlier that year and was among the first steam engines to debut in the United States, successfully completed the trip of approximately 16 miles (25.8 kilometers) between Albany and Schenectady.
For that record-setting run, the DeWitt Clinton pulled along a total of three coach-bodied cars. Passengers had the option of sitting either inside those cars or on outside rumble seats. The company operating that first-of-a-kind line was the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, which became New York’s first chartered railroad in 1826 and would ultimately become part of the New York Central Railroad (NYCR) system in 1853.
The DeWitt Clinton ended up getting scrapped in 1833, but the NYCR built a full-scale replica of that pioneering steam engine and the three cars for display at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1934, automotive industrialist Henry Ford purchased that replica and it can now be seen at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. In yet another one of those ironies of history, the DeWitt Clinton was named after a one-time New York governor who has been far more closely associated with another major but different sort of transportation development in his home state — the Erie Canal.
(The above artwork depicting the original version of the DeWitt Clinton in 1831 was created by Edward Lamson Henry during the 1890s.)
Image Credit: Public Domain
For more information on both the DeWitt Clinton and its replica, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeWitt_Clinton_(locomotive)
Transportation History 
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