Directors of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad broke ground in Portland on July 4, 1846. It took until July 22, 1851, for construction to allow the first train to enter Gorham, New Hampshire, which represented over of track. The arrival of the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad in 1851 had a profound and lasting impact upon this part of the Androscoggin Valley. Suddenly, other White Mountain towns that had enjoyed the bulk of the fast-growing tourist trade found their stagecoach connections eclipsed by Gorham and its railroad. Tourists from the East Coast and Canada flocked to the railroad-owned White Mountain Station House (later known as the Alpine House), to the nearby Glen House, the summit of Mount Washington, and other scenic spots.