The World of 1869
An era of innovation, social change and tourism
The Cog Railway was yet another astonishing accomplishment in a year and an era that would see many. So to really understand the The Cog, it helps to consider it within the context of its foundation year: 1869.
By 1869, the first Industrial Revolution had already transformed nearly every aspect of society with the introduction of the steam engine and the telegraph. Inventions as humble as the waffle iron or as magnificent as the Suez Canal made their debut alongside the Cog that year.
But perhaps most consequential of all was the completion of the Transcontinental Railway at Promontory, Utah on May 10th. Robber baron and Central Pacific RR President Leland Stanford drove the Golden Spike that symbolized the joining of a great iron road from Omaha and points east all the way to San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean.
The social fabric of the nation was changing as well. The fifteenth amendment to the US Constitution was first proposed in 1869 and was ratified the following year. The amendment states that the right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” thereby granting voter rights to freed slaves.
But notably, not to women, and in New York City, reformer and women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony formed the National Women’s Suffrage Association in May of that year. The Wyoming Territory, not yet the 44th state, became the first organized political entity in the country (and the first in the world) to guarantee women the right to vote in 1869.
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, tourism was on the rise, mostly made possible by the rapid expansion of rail travel throughout the Northeast. By 1869 there were hundreds of hotels and inns in the region (two of them on the summit), and the most luxurious of them were known as Grand Hotels.
To serve visitors to the Cog Railway, Sylvester Marsh built the Fabyan House (above) at the top of Base Station Road; it burned during construction but was rebuilt and finally opened in 1874. The hotel was destroyed by fire in 1951, a fate sadly shared by most other nineteenth century wooden hotels.
Today, only three Grand hotels remain in northern New Hampshire: The Mountain View Grand Resort and Spa in Whitefield and the Omni Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, both still in operation. Further north, The Balsams in Dixville Notch is currently closed awaiting redevelopment.