FARMERS' REGISTER— RAILWAYS, kc. 



261 



that has for its object to deprive Savannah of its 

 importance. When it is clearly seen that the 210 

 miles to Athens, from Savannah, can be completed 

 foi" 3000 dollars per mile, or, at all events, for one 

 million of dollars, it is by no means probable that, 

 with such an admirable scheme as that proposed at 

 Athens, young Georgia will patiently suffer herself 

 to be deprived of on export now exceeding; that of 

 old Carolina, in the proportion of 240,000 to 180,000 

 dollars. 



To this stale pride, I should have no objection, if 

 it did not fend so much to the ag:g;randizement of N. 

 York. This, it most decidedly does; and Charles- 

 ton, Savannah and Wilmington, ports now but;7«r- 

 tially conimercial, as well as Beaufort, S. Carolina, 

 and Norfolk, ports of perfect capacity for all mili- 

 tary and commercial purposes, thus become victims 

 to the great Babylon of the United States. 



My opinion ever has been, and still is, that a 

 good road is the only true basis, and correct com- 

 mencement, of a perfect rail road — an opinion that 

 was expressed in the Enquirer, at the time when 

 the people of Petersburg were obtaining their rail 

 road act from the legislature of Virginia. 



The simpler the road the better, if it possess but 

 solidity ; and nothing will confer such solidity as 

 time and travel. Hence, I think Mr. Hartman's 

 idea of the turnpike commissioners laying down a 

 cheap rail road, an excellent one. I differ with him 

 as to the mode. From what I understand to be his 

 plan, I apprehend his object is a channelled track. 

 It will never do, as it will constantly till up. The 

 plan of an ordinary sill, with a lath of harder wood, 

 on which a cast iron wheel, accommodated to the 

 shape of the lath, would travel, would be prefera- 

 ble, and would resemble the edge rail road. 



Let us suppose the principle to be adopted, and 

 two or four sills to be laid down from Staunton to 

 Waynesborough, and the space between them to be 

 filled up with the best material, and surmounted 

 with the lath of harder wood, be thus rendered fit 

 for the travel of the carriage, with the iron wheel 

 cast for the j)urpose. All the can-iages and horses, 

 proceeding to or from Staunton, could then be car- 

 ried on this road; (they are thus conveyed on the 

 Charleston road;) and as little New- York and 

 Charlottesville are in the direct line of travel to 

 Richmond, a successful result would make it a 

 link in the gi-eat chain of road from the west to the 

 Atlantic. The road from Charlottesville to Rich- 

 mond does not, I think, offer any serious impe- 

 diment; and, should this experiment succeed, it 

 would, at one and the same time, produce a com- 

 mon turnpike and a rail road. The distance be- 

 tween Charlottesville and Richmond, would not 

 cost, at first, more than 85,000 dollars — eventually, 

 255,000 or 300,000 dollars. 



As to graduation, it should be performed as much, 

 and as well, as is consistent with economy. But, 

 to the primary and temporary road, we should look 

 for the cheap and easy nieans of fully and com- 

 pletely graduating and perfecting the final site ol 

 the railway. 



Should this plan succeed, roads would soon be 

 run into the tar west, and the planter would sustain 

 himself and educate his family, with a few ne-roes 

 in thf, east, while the larger number, and more 

 efficient of his servants, would be providing for 

 their future colonization or emancipation, and t' e 

 discharge of -the claim their masters held on them, 

 in the west. 



In conclusion, and with a practical view of the 

 subject, I have great pleasure in stating, that the 

 newspapers inform us that a cheap 22 mile rail 

 road, from Edgefield to the Charleston road, is in 

 agitation, and that a horse rail road is about to be 

 laid down in the streets of Columbia, S. Carolina. 



SMEATOiV. 



GENEIIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARLESTON 

 AND HAMBURG RAIL. ROAD. 



.As many of our readers may be unncquainted with 

 the extent and peculiar construction of the rail road 

 from Charleston to Hamburg, (opposile Augusta,) and, 

 t'.ierefore, will not understand the preceding remarks 

 thereon, we subjoin a general descnption of that im- 

 portant public work, extracted from a late publica- 

 tion by A. A. Dexter, civil engir.ecr. The pile method 

 of construction, however unfit for a dry and finu soil, 

 seems admirably suited for the passage of swampy and 

 flooded lands, where tunber is plenty ; and no where 

 can it be more advantageously adopted than on p:ir:s of 

 the route of the Portsmouth and Roanoke Rail Road. 



[Ed. Farm. Reg: 



We will preflice our description with the remark, 

 that in the establishment of a rail road through a 

 well timbered country like that through which this 

 road passes, there can be no doubt of the judicious 

 economy of the general plan of pile construction, 

 which has been adopted in preference to the expen- 

 sive system of embankments which prevails at the 

 north. Besides the increase in the first cost, the ex- 

 pense of keeping the embankments in repair, owing 

 to the injuries sustained from settlings, washes, 

 slides, derangement of culverts, &c. is unqestion- 

 ably greater than that attending the occasional re- 

 newal of decayed timbers. 



The profile of the South Carolina rail road, em- 

 bracing, generally, a remarkably uniform surface 

 cf country, may be compared to that of a continued 

 briflge, sometimes resting on the earth, but gene- 

 rally elevated above the soil about five or six feet. 



The road extending from the city of Charleston 

 to Hamburg, is 135 miles in length ; and the rails 

 were laid in continued line complete, about the 1st 

 of June, 26 months from the period when the whole 

 line was located and put under contract. A few 

 miles of the road, near Charleston, were made, and 

 in use with hand cars, about two years prior to this 

 period. 



The road crosses the Edisto river, about 400 

 yards below the junction of the north and south 

 fork, 65 miles from Charleston, after passing over, 

 in that distance, six difficult streams, and depres- 

 sions, the Saw Mill Crer-k, Cypress Swamp, Four 

 Hole River, Indian Fields, Poke Swamp and Cat- 

 tle Creek. The road continues its course on the 

 dividing ridge between the Edisto and the branches 

 of the Savannah, passing nine miles to the north of 

 Barnwell village, until it reaches" the head of the 

 valley of Wise's Creek, a branch of Big Horse 

 Creek. 



At this point, which is only 21 miles south of 

 Edgefield court-house, the road attains its highest 

 altitude of 510 feet above the level at Charteston, 

 and 360 feet aliove the Augusta bridge, 16 miles 

 distant. One hundred and eighty feet of this de 

 scent to the valley of the Savannah, is conquered 

 at this point by an inclined plane, 3,800 feet long, 



