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The Origin of Railroads What seems to link the origin of railroad gage to Roman chariots and early wagons is the ruts they left.  But there is another way to look at this.  The wheels of early transport were slowly machining grooves into the pavement; and those grooves in solid stone could be regarded as actual railroads, although de facto perhaps.  It would depend on your definition of rail. But the hard running surface, specific way alignment, and linear continuity of the wheel ruts perfectly correspond to the identical features of railroad rails.  The only difference is that the wheel ruts and their wheels were like a railroad with the flange on the rail rather than on the wheel.  I don’t know what these early road builders thought about the ruts wearing into their pavement, but they couldn’t have been happy about it.  It would have been damage on par with our modern day potholes.  Therefore, while the early ruts were railroads, they were so without a purpose.  The self-guidance was not only useless, but probably caused wheel damage and conflict as route changes were made with the guidance coming from the horse obeying the driver.    This leads to the amazing conclusion that the first railroads were built entirely by accident as an unintended consequence; they were railroads built by accident without even realizing the fundamental point or benefit of the railroad principle.  That realization would come later.
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