and now for a read aloud of the folk tale john henry
in the 1860s, the United States was growing quickly. Immigrants were pouring in and
railroad companies were laying train tracks that could carry settlers West.
One of the railroad companies was called the Chesapeake and Ohio or the C&O for short.
The C&O Railroad was named for the two bodies of water. It was intended to connect
the Chesapeake Bay along the east coast and the Ohio River in the west. The engineers who planned
the C&O Railroad had to overcome many challenges. in order to get trains from the Chesapeake Bay
to the Ohio River. But no challenge was greater than this. They had to run their tracks through the
Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachians were like a big wall that separated the east from the west.
Sometimes when the mountains were rolling more like hills the C&O workers were able to lay tracks
over the top of them. Other times they were able to lay track that zigzagged around the mountains
like a snake. But some mountains were too tall to go over and too big to go around in those cases.
The only solution was to dig a tunnel right through the mountain.
Digging tunnels was dangerous work! The tunnels were dark and poorly ventilated.
That means that there were barely enough fresh air inside the tunnels for the workers to breathe.
Many workers were killed by sudden cave-ins. To dig the tunnels as fast as they could,
railroad workers worked in teams of two. One man would crouch down and hold a steel spike
then the other man would hit the spike with a big hammer. The first man would twist the spike
as much as he could and then his partner would hit the spike with his hammer. Again the two men
would work together banging and twisting banging and twisting until they had driven the spike deep
into the rock. Then they would pull out the spike move to another spot and start digging a new hole.
After a while, the rock would be full of holes like a piece of swiss cheese.
Next the dynamite would take over. The dynamite men would pack dynamite into the holes
and detonate the explosives. The explosions would break up the solid rock into rubble
then the workers would haul away the rubble and then they would start digging again.
To make the long hard day's work go by faster the railroad workers used to have contests.
They would pick two teams and see which team could drive its spike farther into
the mountain in a set amount of time. The winners of these contests became heroes!
People would tell stories about these steel driving men and their amazing feats. Another
thing the railway workers did to pass the time while they worked was sing songs. Sometimes they
would even sing songs about other steel driving men. One of these steel driving men was named
John Henry. No one knew for certain where John Henry was from. Some said he was from Georgia. Some
said he was from Tennessee. Others said he was a Virginia man. As it turns out, it seems likely that
he was a former slave. He seems to have started working on the railroads sometime after the end of
the Civil War. For years, people thought John Henry worked on the Big Bend tunnel on the C&O line
in what is now West Virginia. But now we think he more likely worked on the Lewis Tunnel in Virginia.
one thing we are sure of is that john henry was a legend among railway workers
they sang a song that tells a story about how he was born with a hammer in his hand
oh
john henry became known as the most courageous man who ever worked on the railroad
even as a young boy he could do the work of a man they said he had never been defeated in a steel
driving competition they said he hit the spike so hard that sparks flew through the air they said
john henry could swing a 10 pound hammer from sun up to sundown and not even get tired
at first almost all of the work on the tunnels was done by hand by workers like john henry
eventually however this began to change people invented machines that could do some of the work
one of the machines they invented was a steam drill this was a drill that
was powered by a steam engine the first steam drills were pretty good but they were not great
the steam drill could drive a spike into the mountain for sure but not as well as two strong
experienced railway workers like john henry and his partner over time the machines got better and
better and they eventually began to replace the men who worked on the railroad tunnels
one day the captain of john henry's work team brought a steam drill to the work site he bet that
the steam drill could drive steel better than john henry could john henry agreed to compete against
the steam drill and he swore he would do his best to beat it john henry said to the captain well
a man ain't nothing but a man but before i let a seam job beat me down i'll die with a hammer
in my hand oh oh i'll die with a hammer in my hand one of the bosses blew a whistle john henry went
to work drive stealing the old-fashioned way with a hammer and a spike the captain started up the
steam drill it rattled away beside john henry belching steam and banging away at the mountain
the man and the machine worked side by side for several hours then the boss blew his whistle again
the bosses took measurements and then they announced the results
john henry had driven his spike a total of 15 feet into the mountain and the scene drill
it only drilled nine feet john henry had won he had beaten the steam drill
the other railway workers roared they were excited that john henry had won he had shown that a
hard worker was better than a machine but john henry himself was in no condition to celebrate
he had worked so hard that he had suffered a heart attack the railway men carried john henry
out of the tunnel they laid him to rest with other workers who had died but the legend of john henry
lived on the cno railroad was completed a couple of years later and for years to come whenever
locomotives went down the cno line past the tunnel they thought john henry helped dig those who
knew the story would say there lies john henry the king of the steel driving men got nineteen