U.S. Standard Railroad Gauge The US Standard railroad gauge
(distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an
exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?Where Did The
U.P. Get Wood For The Railroad Across Nebraska? Because that's
the way they built them in England, and the US railroads were
designed by English expatriates. Why did the English people
build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by
the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's
the gauge they used. Why did "they" use that gauge then? Because
the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools
that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel
spacing. Okay! Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons would
break on some of the old, long distance roads, because that's
the spacing of the old wheel ruts. So, who built these old
rutted roads? The very first long distance roads in Europe were
built by Imperial Rome for the