07/20/2026
The Granite Railway inclined plane in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1934 and 2021. This was part of the Granite Railway, which was established in 1826 to transport granite for the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument. It is often regarded as the first commercial railroad in the United States, and it initially ran about three miles from the quarries to a wharf on the Neponset River.
In 1830, the railway was expanded with the construction of this inclined plane, which linked to another quarry. Using a looped chain, empty cars were pulled up the tracks, and full-loaded cars were carefully lowered to the bottom, where they would then be pulled by horses along the tracks to the river.
Just two years after it opened, this inclined plane became the site of one of the first fatal railroad accidents in America, when the cable broke while pulling up a car with four visitors inside it. This caused an uncontrolled descent, with the car supposedly reaching speeds of around 60mph before derailing here at the base, killing one person and injuring the other three.
By the time the top photo was taken, the inclined plane had been modified for truck use, by adding two metal channels atop the old granite rails. By this point the site was also marked by two granite obelisks to commemorate its history.
As shown in the bottom photo, the inclined plane is now much lower. The top part was removed during quarrying operations in the mid-1900s, prior to the quarry’s closure in 1963. Today, the site is part of the Quincy Quarries Reservation, and despite the many changes over the years, the remaining portion of the inclined plane still includes its original granite rails with metal straps, along with the pulleys that once guided the chain that ran up and down the hill.
Historic image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey collection.
