The first train operates over the Granite Railway in Massachusetts on October 7, 1826, built to carry granite from Quincy, Massachusetts to a dock on the Neponset River in Milton.

In 1825, after an exhaustive search throughout New England, Solomon Willard had selected the Quincy site as the source of stone for the Bunker Hill Monument.

After many delays and much obstruction, the railway itself had been granted a charter on March 4, 1826, with right of eminent domain to establish its right-of-way.

Businessman and state legislator Thomas Handasyd Perkins has organized the financing of the new Granite Railway Company, owning a majority of its shares, and he is designated its president.

The railroad has ben designed and built by railway pioneer Gridley Bryant and begins operations on October 7, 1826.

Bryant used developments that had already been in use on the railroads in England, but he modifies his design to allow for heavier, more concentrated loads and a three-foot frost line.