DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN KAIL AND TRACK. 663 



ENGLISH ^ND AMERICAN ENGINEERS. 



The British railway projectors had the advantage of being able to 

 call into their service a trained force of civil engineers. Many of these 

 engineers were connected with well-organized scientific societies, or 

 were generally experienced in the construction of public works, and 

 wrre familiar with what had been done for years on the coal tramroads; 

 men on whose judgment the wealthy capitalist was willing to supply the 

 money for the proposed improvement. England also had numerous 

 machine shops fairly well equipped with tools and stationary engines, 

 and many coal mines and iron foundries in operation, which made it 

 possible to obtain without difficulty the material for laying the tracks 

 with heavy rails firmly attached by strong chairs to the sleepers that 

 were imbedded in stone ballast. 



With the exception of making the rail heavier, and using steel instead 

 of iron, and substituting an iron for the wooden cross-tie, and strengthen- 

 ing the splice chair, there has been no great change in the English 

 system of track laying in the last fifty years. 



Many of the civil engineers who were first called into the service of 

 the American railroads were connected with the Army Engineer Corps, 

 having obtained their training at West Point, the only institution in 

 the United States where engineering was taught during the first quar- 

 ter of the century. In many cases these officers were detailed for a term 

 of years to the "Board of Engineers for Internal Improvements"* to 

 make surveys for various projected roads and canals. The preliminary 

 surveys for the Camden and Amboy, the Pennsylvania, and the Balti- 

 more and Ohio Railroads were made with the assistance of officers of 

 this Corps. 



In some cases, however, these surveys were made by canal or road 

 engineers who had obtained experience in canal and turnpike construc- 

 tion. On the railroads then built the curves and gradients were fre- 

 quently sharp and steep, as few cuts or fills were made, and these cheap 

 roads were quickly extended, through a rapidly growing country, with 

 a view to connect the navigable water courses, and to unite with the 

 st cam-boat companies in forming " through lines." By the aid of these 

 roads the Western and Southern States rapidly increased in population 

 and commercial prosperity. In 1S3U the South Carolina Railroad from 

 Charleston to Hamburg, 135 miles long, which was then the longest 

 railroad in the world, was a continuous trestle work, with rails of 

 squared timber, capped with strap iron, framed to the top of posts, 

 where grading would have been necessary. 



*The Board of Engineers for Internal Improvements received their instructions 



directly from the. President of t lie United States, 1W24-':!-'. 



