Where was railroad technology originated from?

In 1550, engineers in Germany developed an early ancestor to railroads. They made wooden rails that allowed wooden horse-drawn wagons easier movement over muddy dirt roads. The Coalbrookdale Company improved the concept by adding plates of cast iron to wooden rails. In 1789, William Jessop, and English civil engineer, revealed the first use of edged metal rails to be used with flanged wheels. Many historians credit the Surrey Iron Railway in south London as the world's first public railway (even though the carts still were pulled by horses).