Quincy Granite Railway: America’s First Commercial Railroad

(via Amusing Planet) When architect Solomon Willard arrived in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1825, and discovered a granite ledge in a wooded area, he knew he had found the perfect raw material for what would become his most famous building, and the first monumental obelisk erected in the United States — the Bunker Hill Monument. A railroad, the first commercial one in the United States, was built to move it.  Amusing Planet has more on this significant piece of transportation history.