RAILROADS. 



297 



Albany, connecting at the latter place with the Erie 

 Canal. In the same year the last auk in the line from 

 Albany to Buffalo was opened. Nothing, however, 

 was further from the minds of the parties opening this 

 line than a competition for the business of the canals. 

 The most important railroads opened between 1835 

 and 1842 were the Philadelphia and Reading, to the 

 coal-fields of Pennsylvania, opened in 1838 ; and the 

 New Jersey Railroad, forming, in connection with the 

 Camden and Amboy, a through line betweeu New York 

 harbor and Philadelphia, opened in 1840. The Balti- 

 more and Ohio was opened to Cumberland, 179 miles. 

 in 1842. At the end of 1848 the total mileage of all 

 railroads in the country was 5996 miles, the average 

 annual rate of increase from the date of their intro- 

 duction being 316 miles. 



RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION. 



Fir*t Period. The history of American railroad con- 

 struction divides itself into four periods of activity, 

 with two additional periods of inactivity intervening. 

 The first period, from 1830 to 1848, may be termed 

 the experimental period. In the following state- 

 ment is shown the annual increase of railroad mileage 

 during these 19 years : 



Year. 



1830... 

 1831... 

 1832... 

 1833... 

 1834... 

 1835 .. 

 1836... 

 1837... 

 1838 .. 

 1839... 

 1840 .. 

 1841... 

 1842... 

 1843... 

 1844 .. 

 1845... 

 1846... 

 1847... 

 1848.. 



Miles in 

 Operation. 

 23 

 95 



229 



380 



633 

 1,098 

 1,273 

 1,497 

 1,913 

 2,302 

 2,818 

 3,535 

 4,026 

 4,185 

 4,377 

 4,6<3 

 4,930 

 5,598 



Increase of 

 Mileage. 



72 

 134 

 151 

 253 

 465 

 175 

 224 

 416 

 389 

 16 

 717 

 491 

 159 

 192 

 256 

 297 

 668 

 398 



Of the total mileage completed in 1848, 1225 miles 

 were in New England, 2350 in the Middle Suites, 419 

 in the Western States, and 1415 in the Southern 

 States. Pennsylvania led the States with 1048 miles, 

 New York following; with 869 miles, and Massachu 

 setts coming third with 790 miles. 



During this experimental period the progress of rail- 

 roads was slow and unpromising. Their construction, 

 maintenance, and improvement had absorbed all the 

 floating capital of the country. Converting vast amounts 

 of mobilized funds into fixed capital, it helped to pre- 

 pare the way for those terrible financial hurricanes 

 which swept over the country in 1837 and 1847. Small 

 as was the progress made it imposed too heavy a bur- 

 den on the financial machinery of the nation ; for so 

 rudimentary was the industry of the country, and so 

 low its rates of increase, that the best located lines, 

 instead of creating as they now do an annual traffic 

 much exceeding their cost, were a heavy charge upon 

 their promoters and stockholders. 



The discovery in 1848, immediately after its annex- 

 ation to the United States, of deposits of gold of mar- 

 vellous richness in California created an excitement 

 hardly le.ss universal and intense than that which 

 followed their first discovery in the New World. The 

 effect upon the industries and commerce of the country 

 of the siid len addition of more than $50,000,000 

 aiiiiiully toils circulating medium was prodigious. A 

 new field was opened which absorbed no inconsiderable 

 portion of the labor of the country at. most remuner- 

 ative rates. All sections were proportionately benefited. 

 For the newly rrcatfd enterprise of the nation the 

 Vol.. IV. i. 



railroad offered the most attractive and appropriate 

 field. Foreigners shared fully with ourselves in tho 

 enthusiasm which prevailed and proffered almost un- 

 limited sums for the prosecution of our public works. 



Second Period. From the discovery of gold in 

 California in 1848 dates the second period in the 

 history of railroad construction. Then began the great 

 movement, which has since suffered no considerable 

 check, and which has resulted in building up, in the 

 New World, in the incredibly short periodof 40 years, 

 the most powerful, wealthy, and progressive nation in 

 the universe. 



The following statement exhibits the progress made 

 annually in railroad construction in the whole country 

 from 1849 to 1860 : 



y Miles in Increase of 



Operation. Mileage. 



1849 7,365 1,369 



1850 9,021 1,656 



1851 10,982 1,961 



1852 12,908 1,926 



1853 15,360 2,452 



1854 16,720 1,360 



1855 18,374 1,654 



1856 22,016 3,642 



1857 24,503 2,487 



1858 26,968 2,465 



1859 28,789 1,821 



1860 30,635 1,846 



On the first day of January, 1849, a continuous line 

 of railroad was first formed between Boston and New 

 York by the completion of the New York and New 

 Haven Railroad. In the spring of 1851 the Erie 

 Railroad was completed from the harbor of New York 

 to Lake Erie an event of first-rate importance in the 

 commerce of the country. In the same year a con- 

 tinuous line of railway was opened between Boston 

 and the St. Lawrence, by the completion of the Ver- 

 mont Central and Vermont and Canada Railroad the 

 line from Ogdensburg to Lake Champlain havingbecn 

 opened in 1850. In the fall of 1851 the Hudson River 

 Railroad was completed, giving to the city of New 

 York a second line of railway to the great lakes ; but 

 some ten years alter the city of Boston had secured 

 such a connection. 



In 1852 another important extension of the rail- 

 way system of the country was made by the completion 

 of the Michigan Central and Michigan Southern Rail- 

 roads, from Lake Erie to Chicago. The lake served as 

 a connecting link till 1853, when, by the opening of 

 the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad, a continuous line 

 of 1000 miles of railway was formed between New 

 York and Boston and Chicago. 



The preceding sketch has traced the progress 

 westward of the great trunk lines based upon Boston, 

 New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Some prog- 

 ress had been made, however, in the Valley of the 

 Ohio, before either of these lines had reached that 

 river or Lake Erie. 



The first line of railroad undertaken in the great 

 interior basin of the country was the Mad River and 

 Lake Erie of Ohio, now a part of the Cincinnati, San- 

 dusky, and Cleveland Railway. Its construction from 

 Sandusky to Dayton, 154 miles, was begun in 1835, a 

 portion of it being opened in 1838. In connection 

 with the Little Miami, which was opened from Cin- 

 cinnati to Springfield in 1846, it formed, in 1848, _a 

 part of the first through line opened from Lake Erie 

 to the Ohio. A second line between the lakes and 

 river was formed by the Little Miami and the Cleve- 

 land, Columbus, and Cincinnati, which was completed 

 between Cleveland and Columbus, 135 miles, in 1851. 

 The Cleveland and Pittsburg, forming the third line, 

 was opened in 1852. These roads opened up the 

 greater part of the State of Ohio to transportation by 

 railroads, and supplemented the trunk lines westward, 

 so soon as the.inlcrmediate links could be put in. This 

 was accomplished by die completion of the line of rail- 



