Mezzotint by Thomas Hodges, published 1832.
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Its public commencement tracks the spectrum of attitudes-from celebrations of its commercial potency to astonishment at the experience of traveling at high speed (25 miles per hour!) to shocked apprehension of its serious dangers-that would come to characterize the railway at large.įigure 2: William Huskisson, English politician, c 1820s. For so many observers who witnessed it or who read the widespread reports, the opening of this line inaugurated the railway era for better and worse. The L&M’s immediate commercial success helped to invigorate the financial speculations and railway construction projects whose economic, physical, and cultural consequences were epochal. But it represents the first incarnation of the railway in its modern form: driven entirely by steam locomotive, connecting crucial industrial cities, and captivating a fascinated, even anxious public. 1.) The L&M was neither the world’s first railway, the first to carry passengers, nor the first to use steam-powered locomotives. On September 15, 1830, that symbol debuted at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Wells claimed that the defining symbol of the nineteenth century was “a steam engine running on a railway” (4). The opening of the L&M reveals the tumultuous political dynamics of pre-Reform Bill Britain as well as deep uncertainties about industrial modernity, encapsulated by a fatal accident to MP William Huskisson. This essay sketches the construction of the L&M, the memorable events of its opening day, and its impact upon representations of the railway and its risks.
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Opened to the public in 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway effectively inaugurates the modern railway era.