Railroads changed America. Before the railroads, waterways were the only way to ship large amounts of goods over long distances. And unless you went to the enormous expense of digging a canal, many places in America could not be reached by water. In the early years of building railroads government support was crucial, specifically from the Army Corps of Engineers, as no other group in the country had as much civil engineering expertise. The first American-built steam locomotive was named Tom Thumb, and was designed and constructed by Peter Cooper of New York City in 1830 to convince owners of the newly formed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to use steam engines. Cooper’s demonstration was successful, the railroad committed to the use of steam locomotion and held trials for a working engine in the following year. The “head” image is a stylized version of a classic American steam engine.