188 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



4. Railroads. These works have been constructed by joint stock companies, but the State 

 has subscribed 3,000,000 dollars to the stock of the Western Railroad Corporation, and loaned 

 Its credit to the other companies. The Quincy Railroad, completed in 1827, -3 miles in length, 

 from the granite quarries in that town to the river Neponset, was the first railroad constructed 

 in the United States. The rails are of wood, iron bound, and laid upon a stone foundation 

 There are four planes upon the road of different inchnations ; the track is single. On the 

 summit of the hill from which the stone is quarried, stands a square tower, from which the 

 spectator may view a delightful prospect. One of the faces of this tower contains an inscrip- 

 tion commemorating the Quincy Railroad as the first undertaking of the kind in America. The 

 Boston and Lowell Railroad extends from Boston to Lowell, 25 miles, with a branch from 

 Wilmington to Haverhill, IS miles ; the main road is built with double tracks, with the iron- 

 edge rail and casl-ii;on chairs resting on stone sleepers. A continuation of this road extends froii 

 Lowell to Nashua, 15 miles, and a continuation of the Haverhill branch passes through the manu 

 facturing towns in the southeastern part of New Hampshire into Maine. The Eastern Railroad 

 from Boston through Salem to Newburyport, 33 miles, is nearly completed, and is to be continuei 

 to Portsmouth. The Boston and Providence Railroad is 42 miles in length, with a branch 11 

 miles long from Mansfield to Taunton, whence the Old Colony Railroad continues the line to 

 New Bedford ; there is also a branch to the village of Dedham, 2 miles, and a terminus on 

 Seekonk River, on the Massachusetts side. The Worcester Railroad, 43 miles, is a part of 

 the great Western Railroad now in progress between Boston and the western boundary of the 

 State, and which, with the other roads constructing or finished in New York, will connect 

 Boston harbor with Lake Erie. The whole length of the Western Railroad, through Wor- 

 cester, Springfield, and Pittsfield, is 160 miles. The Worcester and Norwich Railroad ter- 

 minates at Norwich, Connecticut, 59 miles. 



5. Cities and Towns. Boston, the largest city in the New England States, and the capital 

 of Massachusetts, stands on an oblong peninsula at the bottom of Massachusetts Bay, having a 

 beautiful harbor, shut in from the sea by a group of islands. The peninsula is hilly, and in 

 almost every part covered with buildings ; the city exhibits a noble appearance as the spectator 

 sails up the harbor or approaches it from the country. This splendid exterior, however, has 

 not a corresponding regularity and symmetry within. The city was built, almost from the be- 

 ginning, without any regard to plan, beauty, or future convenience, and the streets were left to 

 fashion themselves into a tortuous intricacy, that might have excited the envy of Daedalus of old. 

 We must except, however, the happy reservation of the vacant spot called the Common, ori- 

 ginally a cow-pasture for the housekeepers of the town, but now a public park and promenade 

 of unrivalled beauty. In the more ancient parts of the city, the streets are still narrow and 

 crooked, and many of the buildings are of wood. Li the western and central parts, a style of 

 elegance and comparative regularity prevails. Many of the streets are neat and spacious, and 



the improvements which are go- 

 ing on yearly in widening the 

 old streets, and opening new 

 ones, have done, and are doing 

 much to remedy the defects of 

 the original plan. In the greater 

 part of the city, the houses are 

 either of brick or stone, and the 

 old wooden structures are fast 

 disappearing. Few of the pub- 

 lic edifices are of striking ele- 

 gance, but the private buildings- 

 surpass those of most cities in 

 the United States. The State 

 House, from its lofty and com- 

 manding position, is the struc- 

 ture which first catches the eye 

 in approaching the city. It 

 stands on the summit of Beacon 

 Hill, fronting the Common ; it 

 is built of brick, painted of a 

 Portland stone color, and is spacious and lofty, with a dome and cupola. Wiihin, the visiter 



Tremont House. 



