ME5I0IR OF DANIEL TKEADWELL. 359 



With the exception of a very small portion of the year, when it may he covered with deep 

 snow, this structure is altogether beyond the reach of those changes which affect common 

 roads, canals, and rivers. The resistance to the moving of loads over it is at all times alike ; 

 so that the load which an animal can draw upon it one day may be drawn on all other davs, 

 and this, being once known, may forever after be relied upon. As this system of conducting 

 transportation will necessarily bring large trains of carriages together, sufficient assistance 

 would always be at hand to remedy any ordinary disaster which might occur to the railway, or 

 to a carriage. To allay all apprehension, it might even be ordered that one of the carriages 

 of every train should carry sucli pieces of machinery and tools as might by any possibility be 

 required to repair either the railway or carriages. Should a carriage be broken beyond the 

 power of repair, its removal from the railway would, by the united labor of all the conductors, 

 be immediately effected. The disabling of a horse would be of no serious consequence, as his 

 load might be easily distributed amongst the other horses of the train. 



" To show the certainty with which journeys may be accomplished in given times, even upon 

 common roads, the committee have only to call the attention of this Board to the arrival of the 

 United States mail at the various post-offices. The failure of a mail from a distance of two 

 hundred miles is known to be a rare occurrence. When the roads are in good order, it may 

 be said that it never happens ; and yet the liability to hindrance upon a common road, in the 

 best order, is much greater than upon a railway at any season, except immediately after a 

 deep snow. . . . 



" With regard to the second objection, namely, the inconvenience that would arise from not 

 being permitted to commence a journey at any moment ; the committee cannot believe that any 

 one will, after a careful examination, consider it of much weight. All who travel by coaches 

 are now subject to the same inconvenience, if it be one ; for all coaches start at fixed hours. 

 Yet we never hear it urged as an objection to the system of stage-coach travelling that their 

 departure is thus limited. 



" So on a railway, even if it were open at all times, the public coaches must necessarily 

 depart at fixed periods, and the travelling must be performed in the public coaches ; for wlio 

 would keep a private vehicle for this purpose ? . . . 



" It is proposed, in the Report of the Board of Directors of Internal Improvements, that, to 

 provide for swift carriages to pass those moving at a slow rate, cross rails shall be laid at 

 distances of one eighth of a mile through the whole route from Boston to Albany, by which a 

 coach may pass from one set of the main tracks to the other, and thus avoid any carriage 

 which may be moving in the same direction, but at a lower velocity. The committee are 

 acquainted with no method of providing for the passing of carriages, under the conditions liere 

 stated, less objectionable than that thus proposed ; and yet they apprehend that this will be 

 attended with vexations and danger. Tliere is no mode, at least none known to your com- 

 mittee, by which sidelings or branches can be united to a main track so that considerable care 

 shall not be required, not only in passing from one to the other, but in passing along the main 

 track alon«, at every point where a branch is united with it. To pass in safety, the ordinary 

 speed of coaches must be reduced, and in tlie night-time lights will be required. Xow, as these 

 sidelings must be formed, according to the Commissioners' Report, at distances of one eighth 

 of a mile, no less than one thousand five hundred and eighty-four must be passed in the course 

 of a railway extending from this city to Albany. . . . 



" In closing their report, your committee will state that they are decidedly of opinion that 

 a single set of tracks, thus used, will offer greater facilities to transportation of every kind, and 



