Episode 49 - Jim Thorpe, PA

A penniless barge captain named Asa Packer arrived in this Pennsylvania coal town in 1833 — and went on to build one of the largest fortunes in the state, founding a railroad and a university along the way. The same coal boom produced something stranger: a gravity railroad built just to haul coal downhill, which became one of the country's first amusement rides once people realized how fun the trip down actually was.