For many years, the train and railroad was seen as a symbol of progress, not only in America but also in the entire world. For Henry David Thoreau this is not true, the train in his mind symbolized everything wrong with humanity: its greed, destructiveness, and its ignorance. He knew of and profited from the railroad’s good qualities, but hated and feared it for its bad. The railroad was a path to nowhere, a fiery and destructive beast, the end of agriculture and much more. For Thoreau, the railroad was also the destructor of nature and as time has shown, he was right. Although most people consider Thoreau’s view of the railroad tracks and the train to be one, this is not true. For him, the train itself and the railroad tracks were two very different things. Each symbolized different parts of humanity’s qualities.