Editing New Castle, Delaware (section)

===19th century===
The {{convert|16|mi|km|adj=on}} portage between the Delaware River and [[Chesapeake Bay]] saved a {{convert|400|mi|km|adj=on}} trip around the [[Delmarva Peninsula]], so this brought passengers, goods, and business to New Castle's port. In the years following the Revolution, a turnpike was built to facilitate travel between the two major waterways. Later, New Castle became the eastern terminus of the [[New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad]], the second-oldest rail line in the country, launched in 1828 with horse-drawn rail cars, then converting to steam power when an engine was purchased from Great Britain in 1832. The line traversed the Delmarva Peninsula, running to the [[Elkton, Maryland|Elk River, Maryland]], from where passengers changed to [[packet boat]]s for further travel to Baltimore and points south. This helped the New Castle economy to further boom; however, by 1840, rail lines were in place between Philadelphia and Baltimore, which had a stop in Wilmington, thus leaving New Castle to deal with a substantial decline in traffic and revenue.

The decline in New Castle's economy had the long-range fortunate effect of preventing most residents from making any significant structural changes to their homes. The many buildings of historic New Castle have largely not been upgraded or restored and appear much as they did in the [[Colonial architecture|Colonial]] and [[Federal architecture|Federal]] periods.