58 THE ADDRESSES, LECTURES, ETC., OF 



between the Amour and San Francisco will be wanting, to complete 

 the telegraphic girdle round the earth. 



With these great highways of speech once established, a network 

 of submarine and aerial wires will soon follow to bind all inhabited 

 portions of our globe together into a closer community of interests, 

 which, if followed up by steam communication by land and by sea, 

 will open ouc a great and meritorious field for the activity of the 

 civil and the mechanical engineer. 



But while great works have to be carried out in distant parts, 

 still more, remains to be accomplished nearer home. The Railway 

 of to-day has not only take.n the place of high roads and canals, 

 for the transmission of goods and passengers between our great 

 centres of industry and population, but is already superseding 

 by-roads leading to places of inferior importance ; it competes 

 with the mule in carrying minerals over mountain passes, and 

 with the omnibus in our great cities. If a river cannot be 

 spanned by a bridge without hindering navigation, a tunnel is 

 forthwith in contemplation ; or, if that should not be practicable, 

 the transit of trains is yet accomplished by the establishment of a 

 large steam ferry. 



It is one of the questions of the day to decide by which plan 

 the British Channel should be crossed, to relieve the unfortunate 

 traveller to the Continent of the exceeding discomfort and delay 

 inseparable from the existing most imperfect arrangements. 

 Considering that this- question has now been taken up by some of 

 our leading engineers and is also entertained by the two interested 

 Governments, we may look forward to its speedy and satisfactory 

 solution. 



So long as the attention of railway engineers was confined to 

 the construction of main lines, it was necessary for them to provide 

 for a heavy traffic and high speeds, and these desiderata are best 

 met by a level permanent way, by easy curves and heavy rails of 

 the strongest possible materials, namely, cast steel ; but in 

 extending the system to the corners of the earth, cheapness of 

 construction and maintenance, for a moderate speed and a moderate 

 amount of traffic, became a matter of necessity. 



Instead of plunging through hill and mountain, and of crossing 

 and re-crossing rivers by a series of monumental works, the 

 modern raihvay passes in zigzag up the steep incline and conforms 



