expense of hauling passengers through the streets in cars would be avoided."

At this time some of the railroads leading from Pittsburg westward were already in progress of construction. There was a railroad completed between Pittsburg and Cleveland, a distance of one hundred and forty miles. The Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad was also completed from Pittsburg to Alliance, a distance of eighty-two miles. This afterwards became a part of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne, and Chicago road.

In January, 1853, J. Edgar Thomson, Esq., was elected President of the Company; and this high trust has been conferred upon him annually ever since. A continuous railroad from Philadelphia to Pittsburg had been completed on the 10th of December, 1852. Mr. Thomson, in his report made January 31st, 1853, says: "The Portage Railroad, over which we exercise no control, at present forms a part of this continuous line; and it is still obstructed by seven inclined planes." It will be remembered that there were, originally, ten of these planes. Three of them had already been avoided by the construction of additional new portions of the Company's road, west of Altoona, as suggested by Mr. Thomson, in his report as Chief Engineer, November 15th, 1849.

The most formidable work on this portion of the route is the Summit Tunnel through the Alleghany Mountains. Its length is three thousand five hundred and seventy feet. It was worked from both ends at once, and also from three working shafts, two of which are each two hundred feet deep. Steam en

gines were required at all the shafts; and at the middle one the water was so abundant that a powerful pumping engine, of fifty horse power, had to be resorted to.

It was by this time evident that the early completion of several of the roads leading from Pittsburg westward would be of great advantage to the Pennsylvania road, in drawing to the latter much valuable business. The Board of Directors therefore agreed to subscribe three hundred thousand dollars to aid in the construction of the road from Crestline in Ohio to Fort Wayne in Indiana, with the understanding that this road was to be continued eastward to Alliance, and westward to Chicago. The Pennsylvania and Ohio road was, in fact, at this time finished nearly to Crestline.

On the 15th of February, 1854, the whole line of the road from Harrisburg to Pittsburg was completed and opened for business, entirely avoiding all of the inclined planes on the Alleghany Mountains. Three påssenger trains per day were now run over the road, between Philadelphia and Pittsburg: one, leaving Philadelphia at eight A. M., reached Pittsburg in seventeen hours, stopping at all the way stations; the second, leaving Philadelphia at one P. M., reached Pittsburg in thirteen hours; the third, leaving Philadelphia at eleven at night, reached Pittsburg in fifteen hours; and three trains per day, likewise, ran from Pittsburg to Philadelphia.

By the year 1857, the passenger traffic of the road had become greatly increased, by the completion of several roads from the west, centring at Pittsburg.

But on arriving at Pittsburg, or rather on arriving at Alleghany City, opposite Pittsburg, on the western side of the Alleghany River, western passengers, bound for Philadelphia, found themselves exposed to a serious annoyance. Alighting from the cars, the passengers were compelled to enter omnibuses, and were jolted across the river on a long, rickety wooden bridge. To obviate this difficulty, a fine railroad bridge was built across the Alleghany River, by the joint exertions of this Company and the Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Company. It was completed and used in 1858. In the year 1858 there were transported over the road one million and thirty thousand passengers. In this year, too, all trains arriving at or departing from Pittsburg began to use the Union Depot in that city.

CHAPTER X.

PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD: CONTINUED.

By the year 1862, considerable progress had been made in the construction of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, which was designed to extend from Philadelphia to Lake Erie. The road properly and really extended from Erie to Sunbury, passing through Lock Haven and Williamsport and following the general direction of the west branch of the Susquehanna River. It was thought by the Directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, that its interests would be advanced, by being in possession of this road, as it would constitute, in fact, a branch of their own road, diverging from it at Harrisburg; and accordingly an arrangement. was made, by which the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad Company leased their road, for a long term of years, to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The arrangement has been found to work most admirably, and to the entire satisfaction of all parties concerned. The management of the Philadelphia and Erie road was committed to the charge of Joseph D. Potts, Esq., who successfully conducted its affairs until within a recent period. At the beginning of the year 1866 the business of this road had increased to be twice what it had been estimated, at the time when the stockholders of the Pennsylvania road had been

asked to authorize its lease. Alfred L. Tyler, Esq., had become General Superintendent of the road, and under his energetic and judicious management, its affairs were being most admirably conducted.

A correspondent of the "New York Tribune" gives the following description of a portion of the country through which this road passes:

"The western branch of the Susquehanna, running far between the spurs of the Alleghanies, has been the highway thither, while for many years it has borne on its waters logs and lumber bound for the known world. The lumbermen were a hardy race; in the valleys they raised a little grain, and for meat they depended much on venison, bear, and speckled trout. Several new counties have been organized out of this region, and named Cameron, Elk, and Forest; but portions of it still are included in the counties of Potter, McKean, Clinton, Clarion, and Jefferson. It may be roughly estimated as one hundred miles long and sixty wide, and it contains the head-springs of the Susquehanna, the Alleghany, and Genesee Rivers. Not a single important road passed through from the north, south, east, or west: the country towns were insignificant hamlets, reached after days or weeks of travel. It required years for a new fashion to be introduced. The most important men were the lawyers. Almost always, a lawyer was a special agent for non-resident land-owners: he had a good salary; his duty was limited to preventing the land from being stripped of timber.

"A large part of the land is owned by capitalists in New York and Philadelphia, but perhaps the heaviest