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Tapeworm Railroad

Proposed railroad in Maryland and Pennsylvania

The Tapeworm Railroad (Gettysburg Rail Road) was a railway line planned by Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and nicknamed by opponents ridiculing a lengthy serpentine section around the Green Ridge of South Mountain after an orator compared the path to a tapeworm depiction on a product's packaging.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

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1839 Tapeworm Railroad and Nichols Gap Road at Toms Creek Gap
Photo: pasted together by wikipedia poster, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

The Tapeworm Railroad (Gettysburg Rail Road) was a railway line planned by Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and nicknamed by opponents ridiculing a lengthy serpentine section around the Green Ridge of South Mountain after an orator compared the path to a tapeworm depiction on a product's packaging. Switchbacks were planned on the west slope at Hughs Forge along the E Br Antietam Creek ("Cold Spring Cr" in 1839) and on the east slope at Stevens' 1822 Maria Furnace along Toms Creek (Monocacy River), with three east slope tunnels through spurs of Jacks Mountain.2

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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