Horseshoe Curve, PA

An ex Conrail SD40-2 (CR3341) and NS3343 work their way slowly around the rim of perhaps the landmark of the Pennsylvania RR.  I photographed this on 10/22/06.  The "Curve" was built and placed in operation by the PRR in 1854 so that the railroad could cross the summit of the Alleghney Mountains and link Philadelphia with Pittsburgh and there by allowing the railroad to expand transportation business to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and the western states including Ohio, St. Louis and Chicago.  This single piece of railroad construction has been viewed by historians as the greatest factor that allowed the Pennsylvania Rail Road to grow later in the 

19th century into the largest, most profitable railroad in the United States and the World!