MANCHESTER AND LIVERPOOL RAILWAY. 89 



nication was already established. The Stockton and Darlington 

 Kail way was the first empowered by Parliament, to convey general 

 marchandise and passengers ; this was opened, as we have before stated, 

 in 1825. It was about twenty-five miles in length, but consisted only 

 of a " single railway," having at intervals of every quarter of a mile, 

 " sidings" to allow of the carriages passing each other. 



THE MANCHESTER AND LIVERPOOL RAILWAY. 



teoY. aril -fimt' --.-' -< - <t"-. 



THE project of a railway between these two great towns was first 

 entertained in 1822, and a company formed, but from the great oppo- 

 sition to it in committee, it was not until 1826 that the Act of Parliament 

 passed, upon which the company could proceed in their project. The 

 railroad was commenced in June of that year, under the direction of 

 Mr. George Stephenson. It was proposed to lay the railway as 

 nearly as possible in a straight line, between the two places ; the 

 nature of the country rendered this undertaking a task of no ordinary 

 difficulty. Tunnels were to be made, eminences were to be excavated, 

 artificial mounds to be erected, and a moss (Chat Moss), four miles in 

 extent, was to be drained, levelled in the centre, and embanked at each 

 end ; this Chat Moss was a huge bog, so soft and spungy that cattle 

 could not walk over it: the bottom is composed of clay and sand, and 

 above this, varying in depth from ten to thirty-five feet, is a mass of 

 vegetable pulpy matter. This barren waste is in area about twelve 

 square miles, according to the lowest calculation, contains sixty 

 millions of tons of vegetable matter, and so spongy was it that men 

 could only walk over it in the driest weather ! We have thus alluded to 

 some of the difficulties to be overcome; there were several others nearly 

 as great, but the genius and perseverance of the Engineer, Mr. Stephen- 

 son, triumphed over all, and the whole line of thirty-one miles was 

 completed. The rails are of wrought iron, and made in lengths of five 

 yards each, weighing thirty-five pounds per yard ; the blocks and 

 sleepers are some of stone and some of wood; they are laid along about 

 eighteen miles ; the wood sleepers are made of oak or beech, and are 

 principally laid across the embankments and across the districts of moss, 

 wherever it is suspected the road may subside a little. The stone blocks 

 are sot firmly into the permanent road, which consists of a layer of broken 

 rock and sand, about two feet thick, one foot of which is placed below 



