DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION. 
13 
and decayed. The amount of the cost of this renewal would absolutely construct and equip a 
road of medium class, with ordinary management reaching the Pacific in ten years, and, if 
necessary, even in five years. This preliminary road would not make a passage of the same 
obstacles by reduction of surface, nor adopt so direct a line as a G-rand Trunk road; but select a 
route giving the most rapid results to first outlay, by at once answering the present needs of the 
nation. It would also accomplish that first step towards the construction of a grand road, 
which would eventually insure its completion without great loss to its projectors, or, more 
properly, to the government finding means for extending it. 
A doubt exists in the minds of practical individuals whether the traffic of a Grand Trunk 
overland railroad will ever support its running expenses. Hence, there is an experiment to be 
tried. 
Government is not particularly interested in the question as to whether the commerce of the 
Pacific seas will pass over this line, when built, or continue to be borne by clipper-ships around 
the southern extremity of South America. Government is interested in the solution of the 
problem only so far as the results of the experiment tend towards the extension of a speedily 
consummated effectual means of overland mail and military transportation. 
But while government will hesitate to exercise doubtful constitutional powers, and will prac¬ 
tise due economy in the expenditure of the money of the people, it will, when not conflicting 
with those powers, seek to further all important domestic and commercial relations. 
While the idea of a Grand Trunk road must be treated with caution, because, so far as govern¬ 
ment has constitutional powers to act on the question, the choice merely lies between the use of 
the iron rail and of the wagon-road, and it can be demonstrated that the use of the iron rail can 
take place prior to the completion of a grand road; yet, as regards the choice between the use of 
the iron rail and of the wagon-road, the probability of the future construction of a Grand Trunk 
Pacific road should be brought into the discussion. 
The experiment as to whether the commerce of the west will pass over the American conti¬ 
nent by rail-way, even when a rail-way is in operation, cannot be tried by the extension of a 
wagon-road. But it can be practically tested by the extension of a railroad only suited to the 
absolute needs of military and way transportation. 
Again, should this experiment prove successful, then the Grand Trunk railroad of the pres¬ 
ent day would be wholly inadequate to the amount of transportation required. The broad 
uncultivable wastes of the American continent (over any route whatever) are unlike the present 
railroad routes of civilized regions. They compare with them as the drear expanse of the ocean 
contrasts with the inland navigable waters of our lakes and rivers. When this sea of space is 
to be traversed with the certainty of a paying business, with no important way stations, and an 
enormous through traffic to warrant the running of trains, the locomotive engine will make 
passage of the level sand wastes of the wild interior at rates of speed which will startle human 
credulity. And when the same inventive genius which once so readily modified the costly 
modes of building of older nations to the means and demands of our own new and undeveloped 
country, is called upon to grasp the broader conclusion, and solve this future necessity of 
civilization and of progress, then the Pacific railroad will resemble the present Grand Trunk 
road of populated countries as the new British steam-ship Great Eastern compares with the 
first-class steamer of the coast. Thus, while the first study of this question should be grounded 
on a comprehensive desire to answer at once, and in the best manner, that which is at present 
required; yet, in view of the grand prospective contingencies presented, it should also be 
definitely guided by a full apprehension of that which is liable to occur. The conclusion is, 
that if government should see fit to construct a railroad, necessarily in connexion with, but in 
preference to, the extension of a wagon-road, then a railroad suited to military transportation, 
and to the mere testing of this experiment, is the class of road to be attempted. In this con¬ 
nexion, the assertion of the unprofessional observer, “that it is always cheapest in the end to 
build a good road first,” must have no weight. A road suited to the needs of way and military 
