Atlantic Monthly | Page 3

1830 to 1840, the rate is as 2167/41 or 53 nearly; from 1840
to 1850, 7355/2167, or 3 nearly; and from 1850 to 1856, 23242/ 7355
or 3 nearly; and from 1850 to 1860 we may suppose the rate will be
about 4. The rate is probably now at its permanent maximum, taking
the whole country together,--the increase in New England having
nearly ceased, while west of the Mississippi it has not reached its
average.
Among the larger and more important roads and connected systems in
our country may be named the New York and Erie
Railroad,--connecting the city of New York with Lake Erie at Dunkirk,
(and, by the road's diverging from its western terminus, with "all places
West and South," as the bills say,)--crossing the Shawangunk
Mountains through the valley of the Neversink, up the Delaware, down
the Susquehanna, and through the rich West of the Empire State.
The Pennsylvania Central Road: from Philadelphia through Lancaster
to Harrisburg, on the Susquehanna, up the Juniata and down the
western slope of the Alleghanies, through rock-cut galleries and over
numberless bridges, reaching at last the bluffs where smoky Pittsburg
sees the Ohio start on its noble course.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad: from Baltimore, in Maryland, to
Wheeling and Parkersburg, on the Ohio;--crossing the lowlands to the
Washington Junction, thence up the Patapsco, down the Monocacy, to
the Potomac; up to Harper's Ferry, where the Potomac and the
Shenandoah chafe the rocky base of the romantic little town perched
high above; winding up the North Branch to Cumberland,--the terminus
of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and of the great national turnpike to
the West, for which Wills' Creek opened so grand a gate at the
narrows,--to Piedmont the foot and Altamont the summit, through

Savage Valley and Crabtree Gorge, across the glades, from which the
water flows east to the Chesapeake Bay and west to the Gulf of Mexico;
down Saltlick Creek, and up the slopes of Cheat River and Laurel Hill,
till rivers dwindle to creeks, creeks to rills, and rills lose themselves on
the flanks of mountains which bar the passage of everything except the
railroad; thence, through tunnels of rock and tunnels of iron,
descending Tygart's Valley to the Monongahela, and thence through a
varied but less rugged country to Moundsville, twelve miles below
Wheeling, on the Ohio River.
These are our three great roads where engineering skill has triumphed
over natural obstacles. We have another class of great lines to which
the obstacles were not so much mechanical as financial, --the physical
difficulties being quite secondary. Such are the trunk lines from the
East to the West,--through Buffalo, Erie, and Cleveland, to Toledo and
Detroit, and from Detroit to Chicago, Rock Island, Burlington, Quincy,
and St. Louis; from Pittsburg, Wheeling, and Parkersburg, on the Ohio,
to Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville, and St.
Louis; and from Cleveland, through Columbus, to Cincinnati, and from
Cincinnati to the Northwest.
In progress also may be noticed roads running west from St. Louis,
Hannibal, and Burlington, on the Mississippi, all tending towards some
point in Kansas, from which the great Pacific Road, the crowning effort
of American railway-engineering, may be supposed to take its
departure for California and Oregon.
The chief point of difference between the English and the American
engineer is, that the former defies all opposition from river and
mountain, maintains his line straight and level, fights Nature at every
point, cares neither for height nor depth, rock nor torrent, builds his
matchless roads through the snowy woods of Canada or over the sandy
plains of Egypt with as much unconcern as among the pleasant fields of
Hertford or Surrey, and spans with equal ease the Thames, the Severn,
the St. Lawrence, and the Nile. The words "fail," "impossible," "can't
be done," he knows not; and when all other means of finding a firm
base whereon to build his bridges and viaducts fail, he puts in a

foundation of golden guineas and silver dollars, which always gives
success.
On the other hand, the American engineer, always respectful (though
none the less determined) in the presence of natural obstacles to his
progress, bows politely to the opposing mountain-range, and, bowing,
passes around the base, saying, as he looks back, "You see, friend, we
need have no hard feelings,--the world is large enough for thee and
me." To the broad-sweeping river he gently hints, "Nearer your source
you are not so big, and, as I turned out for the mountain, why should I
not for the river?" till mountain and river, alike aghast at the bold
pigmy, look in silent wonder at the thundering train which shoulders
aside granite hills and tramples rivers beneath its feet. But if Nature
corners him between rocks heavenward piled on the one hand and
roaring torrents