OPENING ADDRESS. 11 



1847. It was constructed by the coml)inecl companies in 

 less than eighteen months, at a cost of $500,000 ; and at 

 that time was the greatest work of the kind in the United 

 States. 



Lowell has had many distinguished visitors, but I shall 

 have time to mention only one. 



In 1833 Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, 

 visited Lowell, accompanied by Martin Van Buren, Vice- 

 President, and others, members of his cabinet. The hospi- 

 talities of the town (for Lowell was not then a city) were 

 extended to the distinguished visitors. An address of wel- 

 come was made by Joshua Swan, chairman of the Board of 

 Selectmen, which was responded to by the President. After 

 this public reception they Avere escorted through the streets 

 (which had been arched and beautiful!}' decorated), by a 

 regiment of militia, a cavalcade of two hundred citizens, six 

 hundred school children, and over two thousand five hundred 

 factory girls, all dressed in white. The procession passed in 

 review before the visitors, while drums were beating, cannon 

 booming, and banners %ing. Subsequently the visitors 

 were taken through the Merrimack Company's mills, where 

 they saw the process of making and printing cotton cloth, 

 by these young ladies in their gala attire. 



Railroads. 



Lowell is 26 miles northerly from Boston, and is con- 

 nected directly by rail with Boston, Lawrence, Salem, 

 Nashua, Manchester, Concord, and the Boston & Albany 

 Railway at South Framingham. It may well be said : "It 

 is time that counts now. Space is extinguished." 



The Boston & Lowell Raih'oad was opened June 24, 1835, 

 at a cost of $1,800,000. This has often been sjioken of as 

 the first railroad in this country ; but the Boston & Quincy, 

 built in 1827, was the first to carry freight by horse power. 



The first passenger road was the Baltimore & Ohio, opened 

 with horse power for fifteen miles in 1830. Locomotives 

 were first used in 1831 on the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, 

 and in 1832 on the Baltimore & Ohio and the South Caro- 

 lina road. 



