characteristics, may not prove uninteresting in this place. It is, without doubt, all things considered, the most complete, the most substantial, the most interesting railroad improvement yet constructed in the United States. It was commenced in 1847, and will be completed throughout, with single track and sidings, in the ensuing year. It extends from Harrisburg to Pittsburg, connecting the Ohio River with the capitol of the State, and by means of the railroads already finished, on the east, with Philadelphia, the second city in point of population on the Western continent, and first in the natural resources of the country tributary to it. The length of the Pennsylvania Railroad is two hundred and forty-eight miles, of which about two hundred and twelve miles are now in successful operation-while the whole of the remaining portion is under contract, and rapidly advancing towards completion. The route of this road, although it intersects in its course all of the mountain ranges of the State, is highly favorable. The Alleghany Mountain is the only one not severed to its base by either the Susquehanna, Juniata, or Conemaugh Rivers, the valleys of which are followed by the railroad through the great gateways nature has opened for its accommodation. The distance from Harrisburg to Altoona, at the foot of the eastern slope of the mountains, is one hundred and thirty one miles, and the ascent overcome is eight hundred and fifty-eight feet. The steepest ascending gradient on this part of the road, passing eastwardly, is ten and a half feet per mile, and westwardly twenty-one feet per mile. From Altoona to Pittsburg the steepest gradient is fifty-two and eight-tenths feet per mile, with the exception of nearly twelve miles of the eastern slope of the mountain already referred to, where a maximum gradient of eighty-four and a half feet on straight lines, reduced to seventy-five feet by means of curvatures, is encountered, upon which extra locomotive power may be employed, locomotive stations being located on both sides of the mountain, at Altoona and Conemaugh, near Johnstown. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad overcomes this mountain by a maximum gradient fifteen miles in length, of one hundred and sixteen feet per mile, and descends upon the west side, at the same rate, for eight miles. It also overcomes Laurel Hill, which is avoided on our route by a tunnel four thousand two hundred feet long, with gradients on each side of one hundred and five feet per mile. The Pennsylvania Road is graded for a double track in all the tunnels and rock cuttings, and much of the earth work; the masonry in all cases is constructed for a double track. Thirty-nine miles of the mountain division, and thirty-four immediately east of it, it is proposed to lay with a double track at once; and on the rest of the line there will be sidings every five miles. The superstructure is of the most substantial character. The cross ties of white-oak, eight by eight inches, eight and a half feet long, placed two and a half feet apart, are imbedded in ballasts of broken stone, twenty inches in depth. This is one of the finest features of the road, for while it gives it a substantial and solid basis, it prevents the accumulation of dust, so annoying to passengers on every other railroad with which we are acquainted. Indeed, summer travelling on many railroads, by reason of the dust, is rendered a source not of pleasure, but of downright suffering and fatigue. Another splendid feature, which has already been alluded to in connection with the Safe Harbor and Phoenixville Railroad mills, is the, heavy and substantial character of the railroad iron. The rails weigh sixty-four pounds to the yard, except on the steep grades of the Alleghany mountain, where their weight is increased to seventy-six pounds to the yard! These rails are all of American manufacture, and no one need to be told of their great superiority over similar iron imported from England. One-half the accidents occurring on railroads are to be attributed to the inferior quality and lightness of the railroad iron. The buildings and bridges, we have also observed before, are of the most approved, elegant, and substantial character; and the examples afforded by our illustrations will abundantly establish their superiority over structures of the same class on other railroad lines. In the words of the Ethiopian song: We've travelled East, And we've travelled West, And we've been to Alabama; but in all our travels we never saw a more complete, systematic, and interesting railroad line than this, the pride of the Keystone State. While very little has been expended in unnecessary ornament, no expense has been spared which was required to secure substantial excellence. From Altoona to Pittsburg, one hundred and seventeen miles, there are only two wooden bridges, each of about one hundred feet span, all the others being constructed of stone or iron. Bituminous coal abounds on the western part of the road from Pittsburg to the summit of the Alleghany Mountain, a distance of one hundred and five miles, the road passing in this distance through numerous veins varying from four to thirteen feet in thickness. The extensive coal field at Broad Top Mountain is within fifteen miles of the road, at a point one hundred and fifty-five miles east of Pittsburg and ninety west of Harrisburg, while, in the valley of the Susquehanna, the road is in the immediate vicinity of the anthracite coal region. At Harrisburg commences the Harrisburg and Lancaster Railroad, thirty-six miles long, now leased and worked by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. This road intersects the Columbia Railroad at Lancaster, completing the railroad communication to the city of Philadelphia. The distance from Harrisburg to Philadelphia is one hundred and six miles, but improvements are now in progress upon the Columbia Road which will save about four miles, making the whole distance, from Pittsburg to Philadelphia, three hundred and fifty miles. A railroad, running from Harrisburg via Cornwall, Ephrata, and Phoenixville, to Philadelphia, is now being surveyed, and will probably be completed in a short time. This will be a shorter route than the present State Road, and may possibly be used hereafter by this line for the transportation of its passengers. At Harrisburg the line of railroads leading to Baltimore and Washington also commences. The distance from Harrisburg to Baltimore is eighty-five miles, and from Pittsburg to Baltimore, by this route, three hundred and thirty-three miles. The above eastern and southern connections are completed. Pittsburg, the western terminus of the Pennsylvania Railroad, is a most important manufacturing city, and has been appropriately styled the "Birmingham of America." Its population, including that of the suburban towns, is about one hundred thousand. The position of the city, on the Ohio, at the head of navigation for first-class steamers, connects it, through the Mississippi and its tributaries, with the south and west by several thousand miles of continuous steamboat navigation, which alone will draw to it sufficient business for transportation to and from the seaboard to insure the success of the Pennsylvania Railroad. But as this navigation is subject to interruptions from low water, regularity of intercourse, as well as a direct connection with the interior and the lakes, seemed to demand railroad facilities to secure the control of the travel and carriage of valuable freights to this route. The railroads and canals hitherto constructed to accommodate the population of Ohio and Indiana have generally a north and south direction, connecting the fertile central region with the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Within a few years the importance of a more direct eastern communication with the seaboard has been appreciated, and several great leading lines have been projected and commenced to secure this object. That which has made most progress is the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad, commencing at Pittsburg, and extending westwardly through the most fertile and populous part of Ohio, to the new town called Crestline, on the Columbus and Cleveland Railroad, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles. From Crestline a railroad is completed to the city of Cincinnati, on the Ohio River; another has been commenced to Fort Wayne, in Indiana, which will be extended to Chicago, on Lake Michigan; another will be completed in the coming twelve months, from Crestline, through Bellefontaine and Indianapolis, to Terre Haute, on the western boundary of the State of Indiana, a distance of two hundred and seventy-five miles. The extension of this to the city of St. Louis, on the Mississippi, one hundred and seventy miles further, has been commenced. Of the completion of this entire direct continuous railroad from Philadelphia to St. Louis, a distance of nine hundred and seventy-six miles, within two years, there can be no doubt. The region traversed by this route is equal in fertility to any portion of the globe, and is inhabited by a people who have the sagacity and enterprise to improve and draw from it all that the bountiful hand of the Creator has designed for it. The Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad is now completed to Massillon, one hundred and four miles. At Alliance, eighty-four miles from Pittsburg, it intersects the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad, which is completed from that point to Cleveland, making a direct railroad communication between Pittsburg and Lake Erie, one hundred and forty miles long. From Cleveland to the City of New York, by way of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the distance is now forty miles shorter than by the New York and Erie Railroad; and must consequently command the travel from the Western States to that commercial emporium. The Pittsburg and Steubenville Railroad will connect this line with the Steubenville and Indiana Railroad, and accommodate the centre of Ohio; while the Hempfield Railroad from Greensburg, thirty miles east of Pittsburg, to Wheeling, will connect it with the southern portions of that State, through the Marietta, Chilicothe and Cincinnati road, upon which line an unbroken guage of track may be secured to St. Louis. These form the leading eastern communications in Ohio, already alluded to; and to these, and especially the Ohio and Pennsylvania road, all the north and south lines from Cleveland, Sandusky, Lexington, Louisville, Evansville, &c., will become tributaries, concentrating the trade and travel of the great Mississippi basin, and pouring it over the Pennsylvania Railroad and the main trunk connecting the commercial and manufacturing interest of the East with the rich agricultural regions of the West. Calculations of the amount of transportation and travel that will pass over this great highway appear, in view of these facts, to be superfluous. All its rivals are inferior in character, more expensive to work, and encumbered by a disproportionate debt. It has therefore nothing to fear from rivalry, either on the north or the south; and its business will only be limited by the capacity of a first class double track railroad. In its present incomplete condition it yields a net revenue of more than eight per cent. upon the capital expended in its construction, and has attained a tonage, ere it has reached its western terminus, nearly as great as can be carried with regularity upon a single track road. The entire estimated cost of the road, finished with a single track and sidings, and equipments, including freight and passenger stations at Philadelphia, is $12,300,000. The whole amount of subscriptions, thus far, exceed ten millions of dollars, and the work of the Company has been prosecuted without incurring a dollar of debt. The remaining amount to complete and equip the road is now being subscribed, and presents a splendid inducement for the investment of the capital. The following statement exhibits the receipts and expenditures of the road for the year ending 1851: From Passengers, Mails, Express, &c. on Pennsylvania From Lancaster, Columbia, and Portage Railroads, Total Receipts from Passengers, Mails, &c., Total Receipts from Freight, Total Receipts, $315,145 33 371,164 54 686,309 78 353,255 72 - 1,039,565 59 |