ccii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



Centennial Exhibition means a more rapid and comprehensive de- 

 velopment of our material resources, a steady expansion of the activ- 

 ities of commerce and trade, a reign of unexampled prosperity, and 

 the realization of industrial independence; the year 1876 possess- 

 ing in this last respect the same relation which the year 1776 bore 

 to our political independence." 



Prior to the close of the Exhibition, steps were taken by enter- 

 prising gentlemen interested in such a project, to avail themselves 

 of the admirable opportunity afforded by the existence of the vast 

 collection of industrial and artistic treasures in the Exhibition build- 

 ings to secure the largest of them the Main building for the pur- 

 pose of instituting therein a permanent exhibition. The project, at 

 the time of this writing, promises to be most successful. The Main 

 building has been secured for the purpose by purchase, and it is af- 

 firmed that applications for space on the part of intending exhibit- 

 ors have already reached such a number that the managers w^ill be 

 obliged to make selections from the mass of materials offered for 

 display. One of the attractive features of the permanent exhibition 

 will be the presence of most of the handsome inclosures marking 

 the exhibits of the various nationalities represented at the Exhibi- 

 tion the most imposing and characteristic of which have been do- 

 nated to the i:)ermanent exhibition by the proper authorities. The 

 scheme for the establishment of a school of industrial art, and the 

 creation of a museum for this purpose, in the Memorial Hall, like- 

 wise bids fair to be successfully accomplished ; and last, but not 

 least, we may record that, at the instance of the Franklin Institute, 

 the authorities of the city of Philadelphia have given their consent 

 to the retention of the Machinery Hall for the holding of j)eriodical 

 exhibitions of mechanical inventions under its auspices. 



RAILROADS. 

 A new railway route between New York and Philadelphia, popu- 

 larly called the " Bound Brook Route," was completed during the 

 past year, and formally opened for traffic on May 1st. The follow- 

 ing details of the new line may be found of interest. The route 

 from New York follows the Central Railroad of New Jersey to 

 Bound Brook ; thence over the Delaware and Bound Brook Rail- 

 road, through the Hopewell Valley to Yardleyville, where it crosses 

 the Delaware River by a substantial iron bridge ; and thence over 

 the North Pennsylvania Railroad to Philadelphia. At Bound Brook 

 the line diverges from the main line of the Central Railroad of New 

 Jersey, and, crossing the Raritan River, runs off southwesterly in an 

 almost direct line to the Delaware River, a distance of twenty-seven 

 miles. The iron bridge at Yardleyville, crossing the Delaware Riv- 

 er and the Raritan Canal feeder, is 4000 feet in length, including 

 approaches, and was built jointly by the North Pennsylvania and 



