DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. 
11 
act upon it. The question as to whether government could use the iron rail and locomotive 
engine in the extension of a post-road over two thousand miles of uncivilized country, and that 
mode of transit which had in a measure annihilated distance, as a means of defending a distant 
sovereign State against aggression; permitting a proper regulation of the land forces, by rapidly 
transporting the suddenly-organized forces of her volunteer soldiery to the distant unprotected 
portions of her domain; whether or not a military road should still he considered that sort of 
structure which existed at the date of the constitution, or he superseded by the triumph of human 
ingenuity;—this question had been merged by legislation in an endeavor to answer the anticipa¬ 
tions of private individuals, who sought to change a government of general and limited powers 
into a party speculating with the lands and funds of the people, by aiding an experimental 
endeavor to procure the influx of western commerce to some single State or section of the Union, 
perhaps to the detriment of all the rest. This brings the subject to a connexion with my report. 
If, from want of professional information, the treatment of this subject has hitherto been 
reversed in its nature, and the need of the hardy pioneer of civilization has been merged in the 
claims of the capitalists of the eastern cities, it may readily he placed in a clearer point of view. 
A few simple engineering statements will enable the wisdom of Congress to determine how 
far the power of the constitution will permit government to aid in the furtherance of the opera¬ 
tion of private parties towards attaining results desired, and where the restrictions of legis¬ 
lation might be interposed. 
I shall endeavor to establish the plaiji engineering position, that government may act in the 
premises without risk to first outlay; and if it shall seem expedient to extend a means of com¬ 
munication over our soil to the Pacific possessions, that the use of that mode of transit, perfected 
by human ingenuity, need not be surrendered on constitutional grounds. I shall also not 
hesitate to state, most emphatically, that the subordinate or latent feature which has so long 
given a Pacific railroad project character in the estimation of private parties, and which is not 
so well entitled to the notice of legislation, is in no degree harassed or restricted, hut is in a 
measure urged forward to earlier consummation by the proper treatment of this undertaking as 
an engineering problem. 
DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. 
The plan of building a Pacific railroad, which has been so long presented, by extending it in 
Sections of one hundred miles, elaborated from the outset to the full needs of the immense 
carrying trade of western commerce, and slowly verging towards the wild interior, is that of 
the English system of construction.* Built on such a plan, by the use of credits, bonds, and 
mortgages, and by a brokerage over a basis of land grants, it would combine all the disad¬ 
vantages of both the American and English modes of construction. These are very dissimilar. 
The English system, adopted in building the first roads of New “England, has been modified in 
America to more expeditious and less costly methods of attaining the results required. 
Although the Pacific problem is different from that of any road hitherto completed in civil¬ 
ized regions, it is nevertheless one to which the present American modes of building, divested of 
their objectionable features , are more particularly applicable than any other. It is that of the 
• Grand Trunk, or first-class railroad, English .—A (practicably) direct route between termini reduced to a close approximation 
to level gradients, without attempts at deflection to reduce cost. A line of durable and costly works, drained, sodded, and 
elaborately prepared in road-bed and permanent way for the rapid passage of weighty trains ; thoroughly equipped and 
furnished, of gauge adapted to traffic and connexions. 
Grand Trunk, or first-class railroad, American .—A line adjusted to irregularities of surface, between termini, by application of 
curvature and gradients, regarding obstacles to be overcome and traffic to ensue. A road-bed ditched, sloped, and drained, 
and made ready for the rail by a cheap ballasting of clear gravel. A superstructure adapted to the passage of weighty 
trains at paying rates of speed. Works erected in apprehension of a division of traffic with competing lines, as avoiding 
misdirection of capital and the entailment of high rates of fare. In view of improvements in transportation liable to ensue, 
and contingencies which inevitably occur, omitting as extravagant and unnecessary many of the operations deemed indis¬ 
pensable to foreign first-class construction. 
