Kingwood and the Broadtree tunnels are works of superior magnitude and notable skill.

The Blue Ridge Railroad crosses the Blue Ridge in Virginia by a tunnel four thousand two hundred and seventy-three feet long, on a grade ascending seventy feet to the mile. Its height is twenty-one feet, its greatest width sixteen feet. The work was carried on from each end, at the rate of nearly a foot every twenty-four hours. It was commenced in 1850, and finished in 1857, without shafts, at a cost of nearly half a million of dollars ($464,000). On the Blue Ridge Railroad in South Carolina, three tunnels were completed shortly before the war broke out in the Pickens district. One of these is six hundred and sixteen feet long, another over two thousand feet long, and the third, the Stump House Mountain tunnel, is five thousand eight hundred and sixty-four feet long. Four shafts were sunk from the summit of the mountains to expedite this work. In Georgia, on the same road, there are two more tunnels.

The Long Dock Tunnel in Bergen, New Jersey, opposite the city of New York, was completed in 1860. It passes through the Trap Hills that extend from the Palisades south, and is four thousand three hundred and eleven feet long, twenty-three feet high, and thirty feet wide. Eight large shafts, from seventy to ninety feet deep, were sunk from the summit down. to its level.

The largest tunnel projected in the United States, is that through the Hoosic Mountain, in Massachusetts, between the Housatonic and Deerfield Rivers. Its total length is twenty-four thousand five hundred feet, or

more than a mile and a half long. The mountain is of mica slate and quartz rock, and rises seventeen hundred feet above the level of the tunnel, so that shafts have been considered entirely out of the question. In May, 1860, the work had progressed sixteen hundred and eighty-three feet on the east side, and eight hundred feet on the west side, with such imperfect ventilation that it would seem to be almost a hopeless undertaking; should the task of penetrating this mountain ever be accomplished, the distance from Troy to Boston will be reduced from two hundred and eight, to one hundred and sixty-five miles, with an important reduction, also, of high grades and sharp curves.

COST OF RAILROADS.-In Great Britain, in 1855, there were eight thousand two hundred and ninetyseven miles of railroad in operation, which had cost one million four hundred and eighty-seven thousand four hundred and twenty dollars. In France, in 1856, there were four thousand and thirty-eight miles, which had cost six hundred and sixteen millions one hundred and eighteen thousand nine hundred and ninety-five dollars. In the United States, in 1857, there were twenty-six thousand miles, which had cost nine hundred and twenty millions of dollars ($920,000,000). British roads, therefore, cost one hundred and seventy-nine thousand dollars per mile; French roads one hundred and fifty-two thousand dollars per mile; and American roads, only thirty-five thousand dollars per mile. Ten years later, namely, at the present time, in 1868, there are thirty-eight thousand miles of railroads in operation in the United States, which have cost one billion five hundred and thirty-two millions, five hundred

thousand dollars; being an average cost of less than thirty thousand dollars per mile, namely, twenty-nine thousand three hundred and thirty dollars and fifty

cents.

The average cost per mile of the railways of Pennsylvania is forty-five thousand one hundred and eighty-six dollars and ninety-one cents; of Illinois, thirty-seven thousand five hundred and thirty-eight dollars and thirteen cents; of Nebraska, nineteen thousand three hundred and thirty-four dollars and eighty-eight cents; of Missouri, thirty thousand one hundred and sixty-seven dollars and sixty-three cents; of Texas, sixty-two thousand two dollars and fifteen

cents.

The low rates of cost, which these figures show, required for the construction of American railroads has naturally excited the surprise of the financier and the political economist. How is it that, with a territory so vast, such great railroads as the Baltimore and Ohio, the Pennsylvania Central, and the New York and Erie, can be built at so comparatively low a rate! It is due, first, to the general nature of the country; second, to the American mode of construction; and third, to the prevailing manner of working railroads in the United States.

The immense cost in the construction of English railroads is mainly derived from the extravagant prices which are demanded, and have to be paid at the outset for the land. The average of this item, for all the lines, has been rated at forty-three thousand dollars per mile, or more than the entire average cost of American roads. The parliamentary charges

incurred in procuring a charter, are also enormousmany roads having cost over ten thousand dollars per mile for this item alone.

After an English railroad is once built, however, it requires a far less expenditure to keep it in working order, than an American road requires. The cost of keeping an English road in perfect order has been demonstrated to be less than eleven cents per mile, annually; of French roads, eight cents per mile; while it costs to keep American roads in order twenty-five cents per mile, annually.

Except where the traffic is so considerable as to compel a double rail, American railroads are built with single tracks; and sidings at convenient stations answer all the requirements of safety and promptness in the passage of trains. In the structure of the roads themselves, principles attended with remarkable economy have been universally adopted. In laying out these lines, the engineers did not, as in England, impose on themselves the difficult and expensive condition of excluding all curves, except those of the most liberal radius. On the contrary, curves having a radius of one thousand feet are common, and occasionally those of five hundred feet are allowed. Every one will remember the two sharp curves just outside of the city of Baltimore, on the road from Washington to Philadelphia.

Nor are the grades restricted to the same low limits as in Europe. Acclivities rising at the rate of one foot in a hundred and thirty, are considered a moderate ascent; and there are not less than fifty lines, in which the gradients are laid down at a rate

varying from one foot in a hundred to one in seventyfive. Nevertheless, these lines are worked without difficulty by locomotives, and without the expedient of either assistant or stationary engines. The consequence of which has been to diminish the cost of earthworks, bridges, and viaducts, even in districts of country where the character of the surface is least favorable.

In Massachusetts, the Western Railroad ascends from Springfield to Pittsfield at the rate of eighty-three feet to the mile. The New York and Erie road has grades of sixty feet to the mile. The Baltimore and Ohio road climbs the Alleghanies from Piedmont to Altamont on grades of one hundred and sixteen feet to the mile. The Virginia Central road crosses the Blue Ridge by inclined planes of two hundred and fifty, and two hundred and ninety-five feet to the mile. The mountain pierced by the Kingwood tunnel, on the Baltimore and Ohio road, was temporarily surmounted by grades of five hundred feet to the mile, of which each separate car was drawn by a powerful locomotive.

In the working of American railroads the same studious regard for economy is observable. The engines are strongly built, perfectly safe, and sufficiently powerful; but they dispense with much of that elegance of exterior and fine workmanship, which engage to an expensive degree the pride of British builders.

The form and structure of the passenger cars constitute a means of considerable economy in the working of American roads. There are no first, second,