Doctors Once Warned That Train Speed Would Kill You

When the first trains hit thirty miles an hour, doctors warned the speed alone could kill you.

In the early 1800s, no one had ever moved faster than a galloping horse. So when locomotives hit thirty miles an hour, people feared what it would do to the body.

Critics warned the rushing air would make breathing impossible. Some said it would rattle the brain or shake passengers into madness. Others were sure the body could never survive it. And the locomotive itself had a fitting name: the Rocket.

Then in 1830, at the opening of the world's first great passenger railway, tragedy struck. A member of Parliament stepped onto the tracks and was run down by the Rocket itself, among the first killed by a train. To the fearful, it looked like proof. But the trains kept running, and the speeds only climbed.

Within decades, thirty miles an hour felt slow. The body adapted to a speed people once swore would kill them.

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