12 
DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION. 
extension of a road over an uncivilized, and in many instances uninhabitable, country ; and the 
American system is that of the rapid extension of lines, at low cost, over undeveloped and non¬ 
paying routes of transit. 
The Pacific railroad is to reach a terminus two thousand miles distant, from which a revenue 
is anticipated ; hut until this anticipation of revenue is answered, must he restricted, in de¬ 
velopment, to the simple requirements of military and way transportation. 
The American system of building is one by which a line may pass through various stages of 
elaboration to any class or character required, even after the connexion of termini has been accom¬ 
plished; for it is the great principle of the American “ open construction account,” that a road 
should not he placed under the serious liability of maximum equipment for service it may never 
he called upon to perform; hut, if practicable, should he made to reach and develop the sources 
of future traffic, under the support of a way transportation at paying rates. From the opera¬ 
tions of interested and unscrupulous speculators, often occupying the position of railroad direc¬ 
tors, and gambling with the funds of stockholders committed to their charge, and especially in 
the building of short lines ivliere permanent construction should have been deemed expedient from 
the outset , the system of the open construction account has encountered great opposition, and has 
been unwarrantably assailed by unprofessional parties. 
Under the present credit system, (one of the evils of the American mode of building,) from 
the necessities of brokerage, and premiums, and the gambling liabilities, borne by innocent 
stockholders, a mere percentage of the amount of margin presented as the cost of roads is 
devoted by the American constructing-engineer to their actual working. This has been one of 
the chief reasons why the cost of American roads has so often exceeded their engineering 
estimates. 
Over twenty-five per cent, of the amount now invested in lines of the United States has 
proved a total loss to the original stockholders. The civil engineers of the country have very 
generally borne the odium of these liabilities; which is probably the reason why their opinions 
have such slight weight when brought to the consideration of this national undertaking. * 
Yet this project is one to which the application of the American system of expansion will 
restrict the first liabilities of wear and tear, depreciation and deterioration, risk or loss of outlay, 
and all questionable expenditures, to the minimum, in the construction of a line which, from the 
length of route traversed, before connexion can occur with a paying terminus, will not warrant 
first-class construction and equipment from the outset. It would require a period of twenty 
years to build such a grand road to the Pacific, on the obsolete system proposed. During this 
space of time those portions of the road first completed would thrice need renewal as worn out 
®We are too apt to confound the achievements of science and art by the first nations of Europe, with the only available 
methods of accomplishing similar ends in our own country. The great mass of the American people are also too ready 
to believe that it is from want of some natural gift or cultivation of peculiar qualities that our own countrymen do not 
erect works bearing favorable comparison with those of older nations. 
A few years ago the public press was teeming with accounts of the projection of a Grand Trunk railroad in Canada. A 
noted English engineer had arrived. A company of English capitalists had been formed. A bridge was to be built across 
the great valley of the St. Lawrence, rivaling any structure of modern Europe. Some comparisons were made and reflec¬ 
tions cast, regarding European and American railways, not wholly complimentary to our own mechanics and engineers. 
But within a short period it has been made public that the stock of this famous company has become a drug upon the 
market, and that the business of the grand road affords so slight prospect of paying the interest upon the capital invested, 
that there is great danger of the total abandonment of the enterprise. Thus' the system which had been found to succeed 
so admirably in the densely populated counties of Great Britain, became totally inapplicable to the needs of a less remune • 
rative route of transit. 
I particularly refer to this case, because this Grand Trunk road was extended as the first step towards a Pacific railroad, 
and because its failure is an example of what may be apprehended by a like incomprehensive treatment of our own Pacific 
project. 
Extract from a speech of Hon. James A. McDougal, delivered in the House of Representatives on the 2dth of Mag, 1854. 
“The line from Halifax, through the British possessions, to the Pacific, is a project contemplated by our northern neigh¬ 
bors, and in it they have the support of heavy English capital.” 
