DISTRIBUTION OF RAILWAYS. 



By far the greater part of the traffic between New York and 

 Philadelphia is carried by the former line. 



12. Philadelphia is the next great centre from which railways 

 diverge. One line is carried westward through the state of Penn- 

 sylvania, passing through Reading, and terminating at Pottsville. 

 in the midst of the great Pennsylvania!! coal-field. There it con- 

 nects with a network of small railways, serving the coal and iror 

 mines of this locality. This line of railway is a descending line 

 towards Philadelphia, and serves the purposes of the mining dis- 

 tricts better than a level. The loaded trains descend usually with 

 but little effort to the moving power, while the empty waggons are 

 drawn back. 



The passenger traffic is chiefly between Reading and Phil a- 

 delphia. 



Another line of railway is carried westward through the state of 

 Pennsylvania, passing through Lancaster, Harrisburg, the seat of 

 the legislature, Carlisle, and Chambersburg, where it approaches 

 the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. The length of this railway from 

 Philadelphia to Chambersburg is 154 miles. The former, to 

 Pottsville and Mount Carbon, is 108 miles, the section to Reading 

 being 64. 



13. The rate at which this prodigious extent of public works has 

 been executed will appear by the following table : 



Tear Miles in 



operation. 



1830 

 1832 

 1835 

 1840 

 1845 

 1846 

 1847 

 1848 

 1849 

 1850 



167 

 213 

 787 

 2380 

 3659 

 4144 

 4249 

 5258 

 7000 

 8797 



1851 10289 



14. It appears from returns still more recent that on the 1st of 

 January, 1853, the number of miles of railway in operation was 

 13315, and the number of miles in process of construction was 

 12029 ; so that in the two years ending the first of January, 1853, 

 a total extent of railway measuring 3026 miles was brought 

 under traffic, and the construction of 2397 miles of new railway 

 was commenced. 



15. The proportion in which this enormous extent of overland 

 communication is distributed among the confederated States, and 

 the proportion of its extent in each State to the superficial area 

 and to the population, are exhibited in the following table : 



41 



