John Bull

Here is the story of one of the most influential early locomotives in America, the John Bull. Imported from England in 1831, this amazing workhorse was used to help build and then run the first successful New Jersey railroad, the Camden & Amboy Railroad, which reduced from days to hours the journey for freight and passengers between New York and Philadelphia.

The design on the John Bull proved inspirational: more than a dozen similar locomotives were quickly manufactured on these shores, which in turn helped spawn a vital new American industry.

With a zealous eye for intriguing detail, David Weitzman gives us a window seat on the significant moments in the history of the John Bull: its commission and manufacture in the shops of George Stephenson in England, its arrival in the United States by steamship (reminiscent of Pharaoh's Boat, it lacked assembly drawings and instructions), its years of successful service, and its retirement and subsequent move to the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution—where it sat proudly and quietly until an exciting plan was hatched by its curators to honor its 150th anniversary in 1981...