FORTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, 1879-1881. 835 



STREET RAILROAD TO NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



December 16. 1880 Senate. 



A bill (S. 257) to amend the act incorporating the Capitol, North 



Street, and South Washington Railway Company, considered. 



Mr. GEORGE F. EDMUNDS. It was suggested to me the other day by 

 gentlemen connected with the National Museum, that in the public 

 interest it might be well to allow this company to run a track along B 

 street south, which would bring the public by this cheap method of 

 transportation directly to the door of the National Museum. As the 

 tracks are now, it requires a walk of what would amount probably to 

 two squares or so from the nearest point where the cars run to reach 

 the Museum. 



Mr. WILLIAM P. WHYTE. The subject of the proximity of the 

 National Museum to this route has been suggested and considered, 

 and I am about to offer to the amendment of the committee another 

 amendment, different in its character, to take the place of matter in 

 the amendment of the committee, and with it will have read for the 

 information of the Senate a letter from the Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, Mr. Baird, upon the subject, and I think it will be 



satisfactory. 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 

 Washington, D. C., May 21, 1880. 

 SIR: I am in receipt of your letter of the 20th instant, and in reply beg to say that 



1 would earnestly commend to the favorable attention of the proper authorities the 

 proposed plan of extension of your line of street railway. Passing along Fourteenth 

 to B street South, the line would accommodate visitors to and employees of the 

 United States carp ponds, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Washington 

 Monument, the Agricultural Department, the Smithsonian Institution, and the new 

 National Museum building. One of the principal entrances of the last-mentioned 

 establishment will be on B street, the entire north side of which belongs to the Gen- 

 eral Government. 



Although B street is not among the widest streets of the city, ample room would 

 be left for a railroad were a single railway track laid near its north curb. There 

 could be sidings or turnouts at Ninth or Twelfth street. 



Very respectfully, SPENCER F. BAIRD, 



Secretary. 



CHARLES WHITE, Esq., 



President of the Columbia, North Street 



and South Washington Railway Company. 



NATIONAL MUSEUM ESTIMATES. 



December 1, 1879 House. 



Estimates by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for 1881, through the 

 Secretary of the Interior. 



For cases, furniture, and fixtures required for the exhibition of the 

 collections of geology, mineralogy, natural history, ethnology, tech- 

 nology, etc., belonging to the United States, and those presented to 



