Steel-drivers helped create pathways for the railroad lines. These workers had the job of cutting holes in rock. They did this by hitting thick steel drills, or spikes. By the time John Henry was a young man, he was one of the best steel-drivers in the country. He could work for hours without missing a beat. People said he worked so fast that his hammer moved like lightning. John Henry was almost two meters tall. He weighed more than ninety kilograms. He had a beautiful deep voice, and played an instrument called a banjo. John Henry married another steel-driver, a woman named Polly Ann. They had a son. John Henry went to work for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. The company asked him to lead workers on a project to extend the railroad into the Allegheny Mountains. The workers made good progress until they started working near Big Bend Mountain in West Virginia. The company’s owners said the mountain was too big to build a railroad around it. So the workers were told they had to force their drills through it. This meant making a tunnel more than one-and-one-half kilometers long.