RAIL-ROADS. 557 



England, the rail-road companies engaged to convey 

 merchandize at one third the price, and in one third the 

 time required on a canal. The late experiments convey- 

 ed at one farthing per ton for ten miles, or equal to round 

 the globe for eight dollars per ton. The toll or railway 

 tax, is not here included. In this country this toll has 

 been estimated variously from one to three dollars per 

 100 miles each ton. In England rather more. This is 

 but little more than coasiinsr freight. 



Rail-roads have also the advantage of being extended 

 in single branches, at the moderate average expense of 

 about 3000 per mile, and thus villages and manufacto- 

 ries may be benefited, wher a canal could not have ex- 

 tended its influence. The whole materials also of such 

 a road and its branches might, if required, be taken up 

 and carried upon itself to either end, and from thence 

 conveyed to any distance, and be relaid where a change 

 of circumstances might demand. A canal must of course 

 be permanent. 



It appears but a reasonable deduction from all these 

 facts, that where rail-roads can with facility be construct- 

 ed, they will by the aid of steam carriages gradually and 

 permanently give a preference over canals. 



RAIL-ROADS IN TIIE UNITED STATES. 



The first work of this kind in the United States was 

 at Quincy, in 1826. By this the granite is conveyed 

 from the extensive quarries in that town, to navigable 

 waters at Milton, a distance of two miles. This work is 

 of the primitive kind and single. The rails are of pine, 

 laid on cross sleepers with a scantling of oak on the top. 

 On this scantling a thin rolled iron plate is placed, tw> 

 and a half by half an inch, and secured by small bolts. 

 From its being without a precedent in our country, the 

 expense was great, and being too slight for the great 

 weights conveyed over it, is not likely to be permanent ; 

 a part has already been relaid with granite rails. 



In March, 1827, the railway of Mauch Chunck in 

 Pennsylvania, was opened from the coal mines at that 

 place to the Lehigh canal. This railway extends upon 



VOL. I NO. XXIII. 50 



