An Historical Note . 
319 
United States, 442 miles more in progress of construction, and 
697 more projected. An item in the newspapers at about that 
time stated that it had been found on the Baltimore and Ohio 
road, that a single horse could draw thirty-four tons. At this 
time the population of Boston was about 60,000, and that of 
Lowell one-tenth as much. It was estimated that 15,000 tons of 
freight were carried each year between those places, and that 
no less than 37,000 people annually went over the intervening 
miles. The public accommodation afforded to this daily supply 
of a hundred passengers consisted first of a daily stage, to 
which was added in 1830 a second stage going and returning 
on alternate days. The journey occupied about three hours, 
and the fare was one dollar and a quarter. A second means of 
travel during the summer was by canal boat which required 
seven hours for the passage, besides an additional hour or there¬ 
abouts at each end of the route, made necessary by the fact that 
the canal did not extend quite to either Boston or Lowell. But, 
for this delay compensation was offered by a reduction of ex¬ 
pense, the canal fare being only seventy-five cents, while the 
stage annex at the Boston end required twelve and one-half 
cents more. The like accommodation at the Lowell end seems 
to have sometimes been given without cost, and at other times 
each stage demanded of those who did not prefer to walk the 
sum of “fo’ pence ha’penny,” which, being interpreted, is six 
and a quarter cents. In the winter the canal boat was replaced 
by a tri-weekly stage serving the public at the reduced rate of 
one dollar per passage. 
It was estimated that a single line of rails over the route 
contemplated would require an expenditure of $168,000, or 
$7 ,100 for each of the twenty-three and one-half miles to be cov¬ 
ered, and $320,000, nearly twice as much, for a double track. 
A depression of business tended to delay effort for a few months, 
but at the next session of the Legislature a large part of Gov. 
Lincoln’s message was devoted to railroad projects. He empha¬ 
sized their desirability by the consideration, that by them the 
expense of traveling would be diminished three-fourths and the 
time two-thirds. Moreover, he urged that the estimated ex¬ 
penses were so great as to make the project impossible for un- 
