7. Site of the Bennington- Glastenbury Railroad c.1873The placement of the Bennington-Glastenbury Railroad bed is visible in the very flat, ten foot wide stretch of land on the south side of the furnaces. The bed is visible, in varying stages of clarity, for the entire length of the property.
The 8-mile railroad, opened in 1873, transported four to twelve carloads of freshly cut timber and 30,000 bushels of charcoal down the mountain to Bennington and then to further sites via the Burlington & Rutland Railroad. The line was suspended in 1889 after most of the accessible spruce was cut.
In 1895, the tracks were converted to accommodate the Bennington-Woodford Electric Railway which carried tourists and other pleasure seekers from the center of Bennington up the mountain to the camps, hotels, dance halls and casinos in Woodford. The line was abandoned in 1898 when a rainstorm caused the Roaring Branch to swell and wash out several miles of track and roadbed.RETURN TO INDEX