On September 15th of 1830, exactly 191 years ago, was inaugurated in England the first railway in the world to connect two cities. It was about the line Liverpool-Manchester, just 56 kilometers long. Initially designed for the transport of goods from the port of Liverpool (the most important in all of Great Britain), the railway was so successful that just a year after its opening, passenger traffic had already exceeded that of goods.
The railway, on which the train traveled at a maximum speed of 27 kilometers per hour, made it possible to reduce travel time between the two cities just over two hours, compared to 6-8 hours by road.
The construction required a considerable engineering effort for the time: it was in fact necessary to dig a tunnel of about four kilometers and build 64 structures including bridges and viaducts (all in masonry with the exception of the Water Street bridge, near Manchester, which was the first metal girder railway bridge). The railway was designed and built directly on double track, as the considerable traffic flow that it would catalyze was already foreseen.
The maiden voyage took place on 15 September 1830 between the station of Liverpool Rd in Manchester (now part of the Museum of Science and Industry) and that of Hedge Hill in Liverpool. A curiosity: during one of the first trips the first fatal accident in railway history. The victim was a well-known MP from Liverpool, William Huskisson, who found himself in the middle of the tracks and underestimated the speed of the Rocket locomotive, which ran over him.
