We
are the oldest man-made tourist attraction in America.
We opened in 1861.
The history of
the Road really began in the wheat fields of Canada. There were huge
crops to be shipped out in winter, but there was no ice-free seaport
available until a railroad line was built from Montreal to Portland
in 1851. It passed through Gorham, and that opened up the east side
of the White Mountains to the tourist trade.
In 1850, the railroad had paid for rebuilding the road from Gorham
into Pinkham Notch. Further, the railroad financed the construction
of the Glen Bridle Path to the summit of Mount Washington and started
its own Alpine House Hotel in Gorham - one of the many fine hotelries
of the Grand Age of Hotels.
It was
a busy time. The first Glen House, at the foot of the Road, was completed
in 1852, the same year that the first Summit House was built on Mount
Washington; there have been two other Summit Houses since. The Tip
Top House, still standing, was erected in 1853, and in that year,
the New Hampshire State Legislature granted Gen. David O Macomber
of Middletown, Conn., the charter for the Mt. Washington Road Company;
the grand plan envisioned horse-drawn omnibuses on the Road, and a
massive hotel and observatory. Not all that came about, but work on
the road began in the summer of 1854.
Building the road was an enormous task. The nearest source of supplies
was eight miles away, and all transportation was by horse, oxen or
on the backs of men. Dynamite was unknown - black powder was the explosive,
and blasting holes were all drilled by hand. There was no machinery
to handle the countless tons of rock and gravel that had to be moved.
Even in Mount Washington's bad weather, laborers spent 10-12 hour
workdays, and lived in primitive shanties or tents.
Work progressed until the fall of 1856, when the halfway point was
reached. Then money ran out, and the effort was halted, but a new
company, the present Mount Washington Summit Road Company, was formed
in 1859. The next year, work resumed, and the first tolls were collected
for passage to the Halfway House.
The gala opening of the road took place on August 8, 1861, with many
local dignitaries arriving at the summit in a Concord Coach. But the
honor of driving the first horse-drawn vehicle to the summit went
to Col. Joseph Thompson, then proprietor of the Glen House. To be
sure of beating out his friendly rival, Col. John Hitchcock, landlord
of the Alpine House, Thompson drove his horse and carriage to the
summit three weeks before the official opening. The last few yards
were still so strewn with boulders that help was needed to keep the
carriage upright, but he made it - and he saw to it that a photographer
was there!
After the Road was opened to the public, its business doubled every
year until 1869. Then the Cog Railway was completed, on the west side
of the Mountain, and many found the relatively short trip and the
enclosed cars preferable to an all day journey on the Road in open
mountain wagons. Road management responded by building the Stage Office
at the summit to lure Cog passengers down to the Glen House, from
which they traveled to the railroad station by six-horse tally-ho,
and took the train back to where they started in Crawford Notch.
Still, for years the Cog carried many more passengers than the Road,
and it took an unexpected new development to turn the tables - the
motor car. The very first motorized ascent was by Feelan O. Stanley,
of Stanley Steamer fame, in 1899. There were more steam powered ascents
during the next three years and then in 1902 the first two gasoline-powered
cars reached the summit.
Clearly, the automobile age had begun on the Road, over sometimes
strident criticism, and finally in 1912, the first motorized stage
appeared, a second-hand Thomas Flyer. Since then, except when gasoline
shortages intervened, the history has seen one of steady growth, 3100
private cars in 1935, 6600 in 1955, and 12,800 in the Road's 100th
anniversary year, 1961. And over 45,000 in recent years.
Schedule 