Portsmouth and Concord railroad. The principal motive in the construction of this road was to open a communication with the trade of the interior, and to prevent its being drawn off to Boston on the one hand, and Portland on the other. This work secures to the city of Portsmouth all the advantages of a connexion with the line already described, by which the city of Boston proposes to draw to herself the trade of the West, and will undoubtedly contribute much to sustain the trade and commercial importance of the former.

The line of road traversing the Connecticut valley is briefly described under the "Railroads of Connecticut," and those traversing the western part of Vermont are embraced in the notice of the New York system.

CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND.

Connecticut.-Population in 1830, 299,675; in 1840, 309,978; in 1850, 370,791. Area in square miles, 4,674; inhabitants to square mile, 79.33.

Rhode Island.-Population in 1830, 97,199; in 1840, 108,830; in 1850, 147,545. Area in square miles, 1,306; inhabitants to square mile, 112.97.

The railroads of Connecticut and Rhode Island, though numerous, and some of them important, derive their chief consequence from the relations they sustain to the works of other States, in connexion with which they constitute parts of several main routes of travel.

The most prominent of these is the great line connecting Boston and New York. The portion of this line in Connecticut is made up of the New York and New Haven, and the New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield roads. These roads, in connexion with the Western, and Boston and Worcester, constitute the great travelled land-route connecting New England with New York, which justly ranks with the most important passenger roads in the United States, as it is one of the most profitable. The travel between New York and Boston has also given birth to other projects, claimed to be still better adapted for its accommodation. The most prominent of these is the Air-Line road, designed to follow a nearly straight route between New Haven and Boston. Although this scheme has been long before the public, it has not been commenced, but there now appears to be a strong probability that it will be successfully undertaken. To open this route will only require the construction of that portion of it lying in Connecticut, as the Massachusetts link is already provided for by the Norfolk county road. Another road, constructed partly with a view to giving a new route between Boston and New York, is the New London and New Haven road, recently opened to the public. This road is to be extended east, both to Stonington and Norwich, to form a connexion at the former place with the Norwich and Worcester, and at the latter with the Stonington, roads. By these connexions, two new routes would be formed between Boston and New York, one of which would take the important city of Providence in its course. It is, therefore, probable that at no distant day there will be four independent land routes between New York and Boston, in addition to the three lines now in operation, partly by water and partly by railroad.

By far the greater part of the travel, and no inconsiderable portion of the trade, between Boston and New York, is carried over the routes last named, which are known as the Fall River, Stonington, and Norwich and Worcester routes; the first is composed of the Fall River road; the second of the Boston and Providence, and Stonington; and the third, of the Boston and Worcester, and Norwich and Worcester, and their corresponding lines of steamers. All these routes are justly celebrated for the comfort and elegance of their accommodations; the ease, safety, and despatch with which their trips are performed; and are consequently the favorite routes of travelling by a large portion of the business and travelling public. The distance between Boston and New York, by these routes, is about 230 miles.

The other leading lines in Connecticut are the Housatonic, extending from Bridgeport to the State of Massachusetts, and connecting with the roads in the western part of that State; the Naugatuck, extending from Stratford to Winsted, a distance of about 60 miles; and the Canal railroad, extending from New Haven and following the route of the Old Farmington canal to the northern part of the State, whence it is to be carried forward to Northampton, in Massachusetts. An important line of road is also in progress from Providence, centrally through the States of Rhode Island and Connecticut, to Fishkill, on the Hudson river, taking the city of Hartford in its route. This road is regarded with great favor by the cities of Hartford and Providence, as a means of connecting themselves with the Hudson, through which both draw a very large amount of some important articles of consumption, such as breadstuffs, lumber, coal, and the like.

The railroads lying principally in Rhode Island are the Stonington, which has already been noticed, and which is chiefly important as a part of one of the leading routes between Boston and New York; and the Providence and Worcester road. The latter is an important local work, traversing for almost its entire distance a constant succession of manufacturing villages. It is also an important through-road to the city of Providence, bringing her in connexion with the Western railroad and the central portions of Massachusetts, and with New Hampshire and Vermont, by means of the railroads centring at Worcester. The Boston and Providence railroad, lying partly in Rhode Island, is already sufficiently described in the notice of the Massachusetts railroads.

Another important line of railroads, not particularly noticed, which may be embraced in the description of the "railroads of Connecticut," is the great line following the Connecticut valley. This line, though composed of several distinct works, is in all its characteristics a homogeneous line. It traverses the most fertile, picturesque, and attractive portion of New England, and is important both from the large traffic and the pleasure-travel it commands. No line of equal extent in the United States presents superior attractions. It has already reached St. Johnsbury, Vermont, a distance of about 330 miles from New York, and 254 from New Haven. Measures are now in progress to secure its extension about 30 miles farther north to Island Point, there to form a junction with the St. Lawrence and Atlantic railroad, in connexion

with which a new, direct, and convenient route will be opened between New York and the New England States, and the cities of Montreal and Quebec.

MAINE.

Population in 1830, 399,455; in 1840, 501,798; in 1850, 583,169. Area in square miles, 30,000; inhabitants to square mile, 19.44.

With the exception of the States of Maine and Connecticut, the railroad system of New England rests upon Boston as a common centre; by the capital of which it has been mainly constructed. The roads of Maine belong to an independent system, toward which the city of Portland bears the same relation as docs Boston to the works already

described.

The leading road in Maine forms a part of the line connecting Montreal and Portland, made up of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence in the United States, and the St. Lawrence and Atlantic in Canada. This great work was first proposed to the people of Portland as a means of recovering the position they had lost from the overshadowing influence of their great rival, Boston, and of securing to themselves a portion of the trade of the West, which is now exerting such marked influence in the progress of all our great commercial towns.

Portland possesses some advantages over any other city east of New York, in being nearer to Montreal, the emporium of the Canadas; and in possessing a much more favorable route for a railroad from the Atlantic coast to the St. Lawrence basin than any other, east of the Green Mountain range. The city of Montreal, being accessible from all the great lakes by the largest craft navigating these waters, is the convenient depôt for the produce collected upon them. When once on ship-board, this produce may be taken to Montreal at slightly increased rates over those charged to Buffalo, Oswego, or Ogdensburg; but the want of a winter outlet from Montreal to tide-water has seriously retarded the growth and prosperity of that city, and prevented her from reaping all the advantages from her connexion, by her magnificent canals, with the trade of the West, which she would have secured by a convenient winter outlet. Formerly large amounts of western produce were usually collected there during the autumnal months, and warehoused till spring, and then shipped to England. Shipments by this route involved the necessity of holding produce received late in the season some four or five months. The inconveniences and losses arising from these causes, aided by the repeal of the English corn laws, were among the prominent reasons which led to the commercial arrangements by which colonial produce and merchandise are allowed to pass, in bond, through the territories of the United States. This arrangement had a tendency to divert a large trade from Montreal, and threatened the most disastrous consequences to its trade and prosperity. In view of this state of things, its citizens espoused and prosecuted the railroad to Portland with great energy and zeal. The whole work is far advanced toward completion on both sides of the line. The portion within the United States will be finished during the present year, and the Canadian portion by the 1st of July, 1853. It occupies the shortest practicable route between the St. Law

rence river and the Atlantic coast. Its grades are favorable, nowhere exceeding fifty feet to the mile in the direction of the heavy traffic, or sixty feet on the opposite course. The gauge of the whole road is to be five and a half feet. As no transhipment will be necessary upon this road, and as its operations can be placed substantially under one management, it is believed that produce can be transported over it at much lower rates than the ordinary charges upon railroads.

As before stated, the plan of a railroad from Portland to the St. Lawrence originated in the idea of the possibility of making that city the Atlantic terminus of a portion of the trade of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes. The city of New York had so long been in the exclusive possession of this trade, as to create the idea that she held it by a sort of natural and inalienable right. When the idea was proposed of turning this trade through a new channel, and of bringing it to the Atlantic coast at a point some four hundred miles northward, the boldness of such a proposition was enough to stagger the credulity of every one who did not feel himself immediately interested in the result. As soon, however, as the prospect was fully unfolded to the people of Portland, its apparent practicability, and the advantages which it promised to secure, took complete possession of the public mind, and the city resolved, single-handed to undertake the construction of a work running, for a considerable portion of its distance, through comparatively unexplored forests; traversing for one hundred miles, at least, the most mountainous and apparently most difficult portion of the eastern States for railroad enterprises; and involving a cost, for the American portion alone, of over five millions of dollars. Repeated attempts had been made to construct a short road, for the accommodation of local traffic, upon the very route since selected for the great line, but without sucThe inducements held out were not regarded sufficient to warrant the necessary outlay. It was only by assuming that the people of Portland held within their grasp the trade of one of the most important channels of commerce in the whole country, that they could be induced to make the efforts and sacrifices necessary to success. These efforts and sacrifices have been made. The project is on the eve of realization, and the wisdom in which the scheme was conceived, and the skill and ability displayed in its execution, give the most satisfactory assurance of complete success.

cess.

The length of this line, the construction of which devolved upon the people of Portland, is about one hundred and sixty miles, costing about $35,000 per mile, or an aggregate of nearly $6,000,000. The first step in the process of construction was a stock subscription of over $1,000,000 by the citizens of Portland, aided by some small contributions from towns on the route-for the project was regarded by all others as a mere chimera. This was expended in construction, and was sufficient to open the first division, which, running through an excellent country, at once entered into a lucrative traffic. The city of Portland then obtained, by two several acts of the legislature, permission to pledge its credit to the road to the amount of $2,000,000. These sums, with some further additions to its stock, furnished a cash capital of over $3,000,000 to the work. The necessary balance has been raised upon

stock subscriptions by contractors and company bonds. In this manner has a city of 20,000 inhabitants secured the construction of a firstclass railroad, connecting it with the St. Lawrence by the shortest route practicable for a railroad from any of our seaports. The amount actually paid in to the project by the people of Portland will exceed $50 in cash to each individual, in addition to $100 to each, represented by the credits that have been extended. It is believed that no better monument exists in this country of the energy and enterprise of our people, and the successful co-operation of one community in the execution of a great enterprise by which all are, relatively speaking, to be equally benefited. It is an example which cannot be studied and

imitated without profit.

Prior to the construction of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence railroad, the only railroad of importance in the State was the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth road, which connected its commercial metropolis with the railroad system of Massachusetts. This road was constructed by persons interested in the connecting lines, as a necessary extension of their own. When the city of Portland was reached, their objects were regarded as secured. Any further extension of railroads in Maine was Looked upon as of doubtful utility to the interests of the city of Boston, the great centre of the New England system. It was felt that the construction of railroads north and east from Portland, into the interior, might concentrate in that city the trade of the State, which had been almost exclusively enjoyed by the former. This trade was already secured and sufficiently accommodated, as far as Boston was concerned, by the extensive commercial marine of the two States; and the construction of railroads, it was felt, might lessen instead of strengthening the grasp by which she held it. While every other portion of the country was embarking in railroads, the conviction grew up that Maine was not the proper theatre for such enterprises, or, if it were, the people felt their means unequal to their construction, and it was known that no foreign aid would be had. All such projects, therefore, came to be regarded with comparative indifference. In this condition of the public mind the Atlantic and St. Lawrence scheme was proposed, and with it a system of railroads independent of the rest of the New England States, which should concentrate within her own territory her capital and energies, and which should not only place her in a commanding position in reference to the trade of the West, but, at the same time, place her en route of the great line of travel between the Old and New Worlds-a position combining all the advantages of the most favorable connexions with the domestic trade of the country and with foreign commerce and travel. These propositions constitute an era in the history of the State. A new life was infused into the public mind, and objects of the highest value held out as the reward of new efforts. The effect upon the policy and public sentiment of the State has been magical. The whole people felt and saw that they have rights and interests to maintain and vindicate, and that Maine, instead of being a remote and isolated State, removed from participation in the projects and schemes which are effecting changes so marvellous upon the face of society, could be brought by her own efforts into the very focus