802 



RAILWAYS. 



was undertaken by an incorporated company, with 

 a capital slock of 180,000 dollars. The total 

 innime is estimated at 72,000 dollars, and the net 

 .mi- at 51,000 dollars. This railroad was com 

 menced in the summer of 1831. The Ithaca and 

 Su^uefmHHa railroad. The legislature, of New 

 York have authorized the construction of a railroad 

 from Ithaca, near the south end of Cayuga lake, to 

 the Susquehanna river, at Owego. The distance 

 is about twenty-eight miles. The Ithaca and Cats- 

 kill railroad is to extend from Ithaca to Catskill, 

 on tin- Hudson. The distance is about 167 miles. 

 The Catskill ami Canajoharie railroad. This rail- 

 road extends from Catskill, on the Hudson, to 

 f 'anajoharie, on the Mohawk, a distance of seventy- 

 five miles. It was commenced in 1831, in the 

 vicinity of Catskill. The Harlem railroad extends 

 from Harlem river to the city of New York, a dis- 

 tance of about five miles. It is purposed that the 

 contemplated railroad from New York to Albany, 

 running near the boundary line of the state of New 

 York, commence at the northern termination of 

 tiiis railroad. Railroads have been projected, 

 extending from Schenectady to Buffalo, passing 

 through Utica and Salina ; from some point oppo- 

 site the city of New York, through the southern 

 counties of the state, by .the way of Owego, and 

 through the valleys of the Susquehanna and Che- 

 mung rivers, to lake Erie, at some point between 

 Cattaraugus creek and the Pennsylvania boundary 

 line ; from the city of New York to Albany, passing 

 on the eastern side of the Hudson, as already men- 

 tioned, with branches to Litchfield in Connecticut, 

 nnd to Berkshire county in Massachusetts ; from 

 I'tica to the Pennsylvania boundary line; from 

 Buiialo to the Pennsylvania line ; from Rochester 

 to the Alleghany river; from the Catskill and 

 Canajoharie railroad to the Susquehanna river; 

 from Buffalo to the Caynga lake ; from Utica to 

 the Cayuga hike ; from Utica to Oswego ; from 

 Geneva to Ithaca; from Copperstown to Clairs- 

 ville ; from Rochester to Carthage ; from Rochester 

 to Danville ; from Troy to Whitehall ; from Ja- 

 maica to Brooklyn ; from Whitehall to the Vermont 

 line, &c. &c. The Camden and Amboy railroad 

 commences at Camden, on the Delaware, opposite 

 to Philadelphia, and passes through Burlington, 

 Bordentown, Highstown, Spottswood, over South 

 river, and terminates at Amboy. The whole dis- 

 tance from Camden to Amboy, in a direct line, is 

 sixty miles ; by the railroad the distance is sixty- 

 one miles and ten chains. The country through 

 which it passes is very level. Between Bordentown 

 and Amboy, there is a cut sixty feet deep at the 

 deepest point, extending nearly two miles, with 

 varying depth. The soil taken from the excava- 

 tion has been, with great labour, placed on the top 

 of the banks, there being no valleys near, to be 

 filled up. The culverts and viaducts, in the vicinity 

 of Bordentown, are constructed of stone. The 

 embankments are sodded, which is necessary from 

 the light nature of the soil. The binding gravel 

 used upon this railroad was formed by grinding the 

 small and smooth stone found under the soil, in a 

 steam mill constructed for this purpose. It is cal- 

 culated that 500,000 dollars per annum will be 

 received for the conveyance of light freight and 

 passengers. The expense of a single track, that is, 

 two lines of rails, was estimated at 8000 dollars per 

 mile. The execution of this enterprise was under- 

 taken by the Camden and Amboy railroad company, 

 united, in pursuance of an act of the legislature of 

 New Jersey, to the Delaware and Raritan canal 

 company. The company having been incorporated 

 for the purposes of transportation as well as for 



constructing the railroad, preparations Iiave been 

 made for fulfilling that part of their obligations, by 

 the purchase of the line of steamboats on the 

 Delaware and Raritan, &c. As the Delaware is 

 ireqiiently closed with ice during a part of the 

 winter, and the trade of Philadelphia is, in conse- 

 quence, directed to New York, it is supposed that 

 vessels destined for Philadelphia may put into 

 Raritan bay, which is open at all seasons, and that 

 the cargoes may be thence conveyed at once upon 

 the railroad to the place of their destination. In 

 order to secure this object, the company has pur- 

 chased large lots on the Raritan and the Delaware, 

 for the convenience of ships, steam-boats, &c., and 

 it is believed that steam-boats can be so constructed 

 as to cross the Delaware between Camden and 

 Philadelphia, at all seasons of the year. The Pat- 

 terson and Hudson river railroad extends from Pat- 

 terson, on the Passaic, to Jersey city and the Hud- 

 son river, opposite New Y r ork, fourteen miles. Af- 

 ter the expiration of fifty years, from the year 1831, 

 the state of New Jersey has a right to take the road 

 at an appraised value. The Elizabethtorvn and So- 

 merville railroad extends from Elizabethtown to 

 Somerville. It was undertaken by the Elizabeth- 

 town and Somerville railroad company, incorporat- 

 ed by the legislature of New Jersey in 1830, 1831, 

 with a capital stock of 200,000 dollars, with liberty 

 to increase it to 400,000 dollars. The JVest Jersey 

 railroad and transportation company was also in- 

 corporated at the same session, with a capital stock 

 of 500,000 dollars, with liberty to increase it to 

 2,000,000 dollars. The object of the company is the 

 construction of a railroad from the Delaware river, in 

 the county of Gloucester, or from some point on thti 

 Camden and Amboy railroad to some point on the 

 same river, in the township of Penns Neck, in the 

 county of Salem. A charter was also granted to a 

 company to construct a railroad connecting the 

 Morris canal with the Patterson and Hudson river 

 railroad. The Mauch Chunk railroad was the first 

 railroad constructed in Pennsylvania. It was com- 

 menced in January, 1827, and finished on the suc- 

 ceeding May. It extends from the coal mines near 

 Mauch Chunk, along the side of the mountain, down 

 an inclined plane of various declivities to the Lehigh 

 river. The elevation of the coal mines above the 

 Lehigh, at the point where the coal is delivered into 

 the boats, is 936 feet. The road within half a mile 

 of the mine, rises 46 feet, when it reaches its ex- 

 treme point of elevation, 982 feet above the water. 

 At the bank of the river there is an abrupt termin- 

 ation of the mountain, upon which is constructed an 

 inclined plane 700 feet long, with a declivity of 225 

 feet, below which there is still a farther descent of 

 25 feet down a chute, through which coal is con- 

 veyed into the boats. Its entire length, from the 

 river to the mines, is nine miles, and its branches at 

 the ends, and the sidelings, four and a half miles 

 more. It consists of a single track. The least ra- 

 dius of curvature is 437 feet. The railroad has a 

 continued descent from the summit, so that the cars 

 descend by their own gravity. The rails are of 

 timber, covered with plates of iron, and resting up- 

 on cross sleepers, at the distance of four feet from 

 each other. The coal is transported in cars, four- 

 teen of which are connected together, each contain 

 ing a ton and a half of coal. A single conductor 

 rides on one of the cars, and regulates their move- 

 ment. From 300 to 340 tons a day are regularly 

 discharged into the river. The empty wagons are 

 drawn back by mules, who ride down the railway in 

 cars ; and so strong is their preference of this mode 

 of travelling down, that, in one instance, where they 

 were sent up with the coal wagons without the mum 



