By the 1820s, much of Ohio’s commerce operated along an integrated network of canals that spanned the state. However, advances in transportation technology led some Ohioans to begin advocating a new means of faster transport, particularly in areas without ready access to the canals. Eventually, railroads began to overtake canals as the primary means of transportation, and in the latter part of the nineteenth century, Ohio benefited greatly from a surge in railroad construction. By 1899, the state’s main and side lines amounted to more than 13,000 miles of track. As railroads continued to crisscross the state, travelers welcomed railcars over canal boats and stage coaches, while faster speeds guaranteed the railroad’s significance to industry. With the growing importance of railroads, proximity to lines was integral to a town’s success. As O.C. Barber considered potential uses for land he had previously acquired southwest of Akron, he recognized the area’s prime location with ready access to existing canals and the nearby junction of the Cleveland, Akron and Columbus (CA&C), New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio (NYP&O) and Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) railroads. Even before Barberton’s official founding, Barber ordered construction of the “gateway to the city,” the Erie Depot on Fourth St., a stylish stopover designed to impress travelers passing through the soon to be formed city. Though important for passenger travel and essential to any cosmopolitan locale of the era, railroads were also the arteries of industry, transporting resources, supplies and products within the state and beyond. Soon after Barberton’s incorporation, Barber and his associates founded the Barberton Belt Line Railroad Co. and constructed a line that ran from the west bank of the Tuscarawas River in Norton, around the original city limits to the main line of the NYP&O. The new line originally accommodated the businesses of Barber and his partners, but expanded over the next decade to encompass various other local companies. In 1902, Barber sold the Belt Line and its twenty-three miles of main track for $1 million. Although it came under the name Akron and Barberton Belt Railroad, the line remained commonly known as the “Belt Line.” As with any industrial city, railroads were essential to Barberton’s growth and development. With multiple lines passing through and around the city, the Belt Line offered access to shipping and transport both regionally and nationally. At one point the Belt Line handled so much rail traffic that it ranked among the lines of much larger cities. Industrial growth continued to support the local railroads through much of the twentieth century, with every major industry in Barberton located on the Belt Line. Teams worked long shifts around the clock, twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week to keep up with carrier traffic. As the economic tide shifted in the 1960s and 1970s, though, Barberton’s railroad era came to a close. Although 6,000 miles of track are still in operation in Ohio and parts of the Belt Line remain in place under the Akron Barberton Cluster name, the railroad era that helped put Barberton on the map will never again be rivaled, yet remains an undeniably fundamental part of our city’s history.