SHIPS ON WHEELS. 339 
referring to the benefits accruing to the State from cheap transportation, Captain 
Eads said: The wheat surplus of last year, according to figures furnished me by 
Capt. Merry, was 600,000 tons, and it is estimated that this year the surplus will 
reach 800,000 tons. ‘The average rate of freight around the Horn is $15 per ton, 
and after careful investigation it was found that such cargo could be transported 
by the Nicaraguan Canal at an aggregate cost of $10 per ton, thus saving upon 
the total annual shipment the large sum of nearly $4,000,000, or fifteen cents per 
bushel. Iam told by some of your intelligent citizens, who have doubtless 
thought but little upon the subject, that they have grave doubts as to the value of 
a ship transit across the Isthmus, because it would probably lose to San Francisco 
the trade of the Orient. But must this trade, which nod ubt benefits this city to 
some extent, be enjoyed at the expense of the producers of the State? In the 
$4,000,000 of annual saving to the State to which I have alluded, reference is only 
made to your exports of wheat. If to this be added the increased value of that 
which is consumed in the State, and the saving on your other exports, the sum 
will be found great enough to pay for the cost of a ship railway in four years out 
of the benefits that will accrue to the people of this State alone. The railway 
which I propose will not cost more than one-half as much as the canal, and the 
fares being reduced, a further saving can be effected of $800,000 on wheat ship- 
ments alone. The canal would require eight years and the railway but four for con. 
struction, a saving in time whose money value to the State would be $20,000,000. 
The railway proposal may seem rather a wild dream to some, but I assure you it 
is perfectly practicable. It is not a novel one, having been employed for carrying 
canal-boats over the Alleghany mountains forty years ago. ‘There is at present in 
operation within a few miles of Washington a railway upon which canal-boats, 
heavily laden with their cargoes, are daily transported up a steep grade from the 
Potomac river to the canal above. In Europe'l know of at least two railways of 
a similar character now in operation. Surely if a railroad can be constructed of 
sufficient strength to carry a canal-boat, there is no reason why one could not be 
constructed strong enough to carry on ocean vessel. The work will necessarily 
be on a very large scale. 
The road bed must be very solid, and to distribute the great weight I pro- 
pose to use not less than twelve rails instead of two, with a multitude of wheels 
under each car _— One of the first objections presented to the mind by this plan, 
is the great weight to be borne by the road-bed. A cradle for a ship and cargo 
weighing 6,000 tons, would be about 350 feet long, and would rest on twelve 
rails spaced four feet apart; hence we would have a bearing forty-four feet wide . 
by 350 long, which is 15,400 square feet. This is equal to 780 pounds only on 
each square foot of the road-bed. A brick wall eight feet high will give the same 
pressure. On each of the twelve rails, under a cradle 350 feet long, we would 
have 115 wheels. Each rail would then carry one-twelfth of the 6,000 tons, or 
500 tons. This would be about four and one-third tons on each wheel. As the 
drivers of a large freight engine at rest give a pressure of over six tons each upon 
