560 



RAIL-ROADS. 



feet in the mile. It would cross the Green mountains at 

 the gulf, so called, the greatest elevation being about 

 1000 feet above the Connecticut. The importance of 

 this, may be estimated from Ogdensburg, commanding a 

 continued navigation for vessels of 1~0 ton*, for 1200 

 miles along the lakes. 



Besides the foregoing sketch, many hundreds of miles 

 of rail-roads have been projected in different States, and 

 some of the routes actually commenced, but an accurate 

 notice of all cannot be expected here.* 



* Just as these sheets were going to press, we met with the fol- 

 lowing vivid description of a scene upon the famous Liverpool and 

 Manchester rail-road, which will give our readers a very clear con- 

 ception of the pleasures, and the present dangers of this mode of 

 travelling. It is contained in a letter from a correspondent of the 

 New York Ohserver, and was published in that paper. \\ e ought 

 to remark, that the danger of such accidents, as the one here de- 

 scribed, will he very much diminished as the art of constructing 

 roads, and the engines which move upon them, advance towards per- 

 fection. ED. So i. TRACTS 



(> 'ti\; '-a -uMaiif. vJr-i/:/-. i,-- anirfofiw suli !-n .'jjjH-^r. > 9?ob 

 ' I left Liverpool this morning, at seven o'clock, with a friend and 

 U'llort- passenger of the ship, a very charming young man of Paw- 

 lucket, Ma=s., for London, via Manchester and Birmingham the 

 distance to London heing 208 miles by the railway to Manchester, 

 of course. For who could pass by that I I had walked up to the 

 Liverpool end of the railway before, and saw that part of tli,is stu- 

 pendous and proud work, i had seen the trains of cars, both of pas- 

 sengers and tho^e for transportation, come in and go out, led by the 

 little, proud, quick, and spiteful engine a truly sublime sight. No 

 one, who has not witnessed the reality, can have an adequate idea 

 of the scene. I have several times stood upon a bridge, thrown over 

 the railway, about one mile from the place of slopping, and seen a 

 train approach in the distance, rapidly Hearing, and dart under me 

 with such velocity, that when the engine had met the perpendicu- 

 lar line under my feet, with a train of cars behind of twenty rods in 

 length, I have sprung with all possible agility to the opposite side of 

 a bridge of twenty feet in breadth, and before I could reach it, the 

 whole train had passed from under me, and seemed flying away to 

 its goal leaving the impression, that no power could possibly ar- 

 rest its momentum, and that it must inevitably plunge into the town, 

 he dashed against its walls, tearing everything away, which could 

 be torn ; and yet the next moment, it is seen easing and easing 

 away, and then at rest. I now speak of some views 1 have bad to- 

 day in the vicinity of Manchester, which were better than those I 

 had at the other end. 



' The Liverpool end is in front of a hill of freestone rock, whera 



