Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 13, 2012



Horseshoe Curve is a 3485 ft, triple-tracked railroad curve on the Norfolk Southern Railway's Pittsburgh Line in Logan Township, Blair County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is close to 1300 ft in diameter and has a grade of almost two percent. As a train travels west from Altoona, it ascends almost 60 ft in the 0.66 mi segment that makes up the curve and rotates 220 degrees. The curve was completed in 1854 by the Pennsylvania Railroad as a means of lessening the grade to the summit of the Allegheny Mountains by increasing the distance. It was built as alternative to the time-consuming Allegheny Portage Railroad, the only other method of traversing the mountains. It has formed an important part of the region's transportation infrastructure since its opening, and during World War II was targeted by Nazi Germany in 1942 as a part of Operation Pastorius. Horseshoe Curve was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966. It was also designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 2004. (Full article...)

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