ABSTRACT
The construction of railways over lofty ranges of mountains will be found illustrated by the brief notices in other pages of the Union Pacific line in the United States, and of the St. Gotham railway over the Alps. When an Act of Parliament authorizing the construction of a railway between Liverpool and Manchester was applied for, the canal companies succeeded in retarding, by their influence, the passing of that Act for two years. It was passed in 1828, and the construction of the line was proceeded with. When it has been decided to construct a railway between two places, the laying-out of the line is a subject requiring great consideration and the highest engineering skill. The remarkable development of railways which has taken place in the United States has its most striking illustration in the great system of lines by which the whole continent can be traversed from shore to shore.
