The Freedom Train Brings the Spirit of 1776 to Wheeling
“Here comes the Freedom Train
You better hurry down
Just like a Paul Revere
It’s comin’ into your hometown
Inside the freedom train
You’ll find a precious freight
Those words of liberty
The documents that made us great…”
–from The Freedom Train (1948) by Irving Berlin
On September 14, 1948, a glossy white, seven-car train with bold, red, white and blue striping and a golden eagle on its Alco PA-1 diesel-electric locomotive, pulled into Wheeling’s Pennsylvania Railroad depot at the Wharf, just above what is now Heritage Port, for a twelve hour visit. On board the were “127 of the nation’s most priceless historical documents,” including Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence with corrections, Washington’s copy of the original printed draft of the Constitution, a manuscript copy of the Gettysburg Address held by Abraham Lincoln, and Francis Scott Key’s handwritten copy of The Star Spangled Banner, among many others.