"The Hardest Mile" refers to a stretch of track on the Pennsylvania Railroad (then the Philadelphia & Colombia), about 30 miles east of Philadelphia in Chester County, Pennsylvania, known as Duffy's Cut. 57 Irish immigrants were hired for 25 cents a day to build the section of track in 1832. All 57 of these men later died. The official explanation given by the railroad was that they died of cholera, but recent archaeological work on the site shows that at least seven of them were murdered.
"The Hardest Mile" refers to a stretch of track on the Pennsylvania Railroad (then the Philadelphia & Colombia), about 30 miles east of Philadelphia in Chester County, Pennsylvania, known as Duffy's Cut. 57 Irish immigrants were hired for 25 cents a day to build the section of track in 1832. All 57 of these men later died. The official explanation given by the railroad was that they died of cholera, but recent archaeological work on the site shows that at least seven of them were murdered.