<P> The animal powered Leiper Railroad followed in 1810 after the preceding successful experiment--designed and built by merchant Thomas Leiper, the railway connects Crum Creek to Ridley Creek, in Delaware County, Pennsylvania . It was used until 1829, when it was temporarily replaced by the Leiper Canal, then is reopened to replace the canal in 1852 . This became the Crum Creek Branch of the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad (part of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) in 1887 . This is the first railroad meant to be permanent, and the first to evolve into trackage of a common carrier after an intervening closure . </P> <P> In 1826 Massachusetts incorporated the Granite Railway as a common freight carrier to primarily haul granite for the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument; operations began later that year . </P> <P> Other railroads authorized by states in 1826 and constructed in the following years included the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's gravity railroad; and the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, to carry freight and passengers around a bend in the Erie Canal . To link the port of Baltimore to the Ohio River, the state of Maryland in 1827 chartered the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the first section of which opened in 1830 . Similarly, the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company was chartered in 1827 to connect Charleston to the Savannah River, and Pennsylvania built the Main Line of Public Works between Philadelphia and the Ohio River . </P> <P> The Americans closely followed and copied British railroad technology . The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier and started passenger train service in May 1830, initially using horses to pull train cars . The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was the first to use steam locomotives regularly beginning with the Best Friend of Charleston, the first American - built locomotive intended for revenue service, in December 1830 . </P>

What act passed in 1996 led to a gold rush of media mergers