The Diolkos, an Ancient Railway
Does the world's first railroad date to 600 years before Christ?
Running wooden cars pulled by animal or human power on a grooved granite road perhaps the ancient Greeks invented a railroad to carry ships overland.
Over six hundred years before the birth of Christ the Citizens of Corinth constructed what some consider the world’s first railroad. For centuries before that there had been a portage across the 4 mile wide isthmus using wooden log rollers which saved mariners a dangerous several hundred miles of sailing around the Peloponnesian Peninsula with its dangerous headlands such as the Cape of Matapan and the Cape of Malea. Construction of a granite road with grooved “tracks” in which large wooden flatbed cars carrying ships and their cargo were pulled by slaves or draft animals was carried out by Periander, the Second Tyrant of Corinth. His initial vision had been a canal, but the depth of the excavation, and fears of flooding inspired by “experts” of the time led to settling for the Diolkos, or portage across. The usefulneess of this granite railroad, although a fantastic feat of ancient construction, was limited by the lifting capacity of ancient cranes, and was only useful for small to medium craft, many of which had to be unloaded of cargo which would then be moved across on a separate car.
Although built in 600 B.C. the Diolkos remained in use until about 900 A.D., and moved ships for the Ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Venetians, and many more. The space between the grooved tracks in the granite is a consistent 1.5 meters. This measurement bears a striking resemblance to the 1.435 meters later adopted as standard gauge rail by modern railroads. If one accepts the categorization of the Diolkos as a railroad its Millennia and a half of service is a railroad record that will not be soon or easily surpassed. In this respect grooved granite track almost certainly has a distinct advantage over iron or steel as far as maintenance and durability concerns go.
The Diolkos served a vital role to several early Western civilizations, but dreams of a canal remained alive, and were toyed with by Roman Emperors such as Julius Ceasar, Caligula, and Nero. Nero inaugurated excavations with a golden pick, and carried the first basket of soil on his own back, but he died soon after and the project was abandoned. Several Byzantine Emperors toyed with the idea of a canal, but actual realization of this dream would await modern equipment and not be finally be realized until 1893 by Greek and French Engineers working under the auspices of the King of Italy.
The Diolkos was not built of iron, and was not powered by locomotives, but as later portage railways attest it filled a transportation niche that served mankind’s needs very well. It would not be outlandish speculation to guess that due to its long service it may also hold the record for the most tonnage ever moved by a railroad, although no exact figures could be easily calculated. To a transportation historian, this ancient Greek feat of engineering has to be given serious consideration when seeking the world’s first historically documented railroad. Many texts give early horse drawn coal railways and other colliery operations the credit for being the first railroads, but the Diolkos certainly deserves consideration, and even if you disqualify it for running its cars in grooves instead of on raised tracks it would still deserve an honorable mention.
