Mount Washington Cog Railway

Sylvester Marsh was laughed at in the New Hampshire legislature - one member suggested he might as well build a railway to the moon - and opened the line in 1869 anyway, the first mountain cog railway anywhere and the model for the Swiss ones that followed. The steepest section, Jacob's Ladder, is a trestle at over thirty-seven percent grade, and the locomotive pushes rather than pulls the single carriage so that a coupling failure leaves the coach on its own brakes. Most trains are now biodiesel; one steam locomotive runs on a limited schedule. The summit at 1,917 metres holds a weather observatory that recorded a surface wind of 372 km/h in 1934, a record for a manned station that stood for over sixty years.

What you actually see

• The first mountain cog railway - opened 1869, the model for the Alps.
• Jacob's Ladder - a trestle at over thirty-seven percent grade.
• A locomotive pushing, not pulling - a safety design from the start.
• The summit observatory - and the 1934 wind record.

When to go

May to October; the season is short and weather-dependent. Three hours.

Honest expectations

The summit is in cloud most days and the view is often nothing. Weather up there is severe in any season - bring layers. Tickets are expensive and book out. Steam runs on a limited schedule only.

Nearby

Bretton Woods is below; Crawford Notch is south.