The Tracks of Empire

What a 150-year-old rail line tells us about the future of American power.

"If you neglect the foundation, don’t be surprised when the house collapses."
— Proverbial wisdom

In ancient Rome, the Appian Way—Via Appia—was more than just a road. Commissioned in 312 BCE by the Roman censor Appius Claudius Caecus, it was a bold declaration of ambition. Stretching over 350 miles, the Appian Way connected Rome to the southern port of Brindisi, allowing for the movement of troops, trade, and political influence. It was the Roman Empire’s economic backbone and a marvel of engineering. To this day, some of its stones remain intact—silent witnesses to the power that once coursed through the empire.

But over centuries, the road that once unified a civilization began to erode. Stones loosened. Drainage failed. Weeds overtook once-bustling intersections. And with that slow decay came the unraveling of the system it once supported. Trade slowed. Response times lagged. Rome's edge dulled. The Appian Way, once a symbol of power and integration, became a metaphor for decline.

Today, America has its own Appian Way: the Northeast Corridor.

A 457-mile rail line stretching from Washington, D.C., through Philadelphia and New York City, to Boston, the NEC connects the pillars of the American project—government, finance, culture, education, and innovation. And like Rome’s iconic road, the NEC is decaying. What once represented unity and motion now raises questions of sustainability and survival.

This corridor isn’t just infrastructure. It’s the country’s economic nervous system.

The NEC supports over 2,200 trains daily and moves approximately 800,000 passengers. It also transports more than 350,000 tons of freight each day, much of it moving between the nation’s most critical financial and political institutions. Cities along the NEC account for over 20% of U.S. GDP—more than $5.6 trillion annually—with the New York metropolitan area alone responsible for $2.3 trillion. If the Northeast megalopolis were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the third-largest economy in the world, ahead of Germany. In 2019, Amtrak’s Acela and Northeast Regional lines generated over $1.7 billion in ticket revenue, making this stretch the financial core of the American rail system.

The corridor links the White House to Wall Street, Harvard to Capitol Hill, and Silicon Alley to the Ivy League. It is where policymaking, finance, innovation, and culture collide. The symbolic power of that geography is matched only by its vulnerability.

And yet, the infrastructure holding it all together is cracking. What does it say about a superpower that struggles to keep its most important rail corridor on track—literally?

The U.S. is currently undertaking a massive effort to modernize the NEC. Projects like the replacement of the Frederick Douglass Tunnel (built in 1873), the Portal North Bridge in New Jersey, and the overhaul of major stations like Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station are finally underway.

But these upgrades are not expressions of vision or future ambition. They are emergency measures. They are triage.