Historedia
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Grant of the First American Railroad Charter

When
1815
Where
State of New Jersey
Part of
New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to John Stevens

The New Jersey Legislature granted the first American railroad charter to John Stevens and others in 1815 for the New Jersey Railroad.

This legislative act authorized the New Jersey Railroad, marking the first such charter in the United States. The grant occurred in 1815, establishing a legal basis for rail development before the operational railroad mania began in 1827.

Sources

  1. John Stevens (inventor, born 1749) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-03
  2. New Jersey Legislature Wikipedia, revision of 2026-04-26

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.