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SOLOMON W. ROBERTS
Chi.eC Ent/ineer.
IB49.
" OHIO AND PENNSYLVANIA RAIL-ROAD."
(To conned Pittsburg with the Great West.)
REPORT
TO THE
PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORS
OF THE
OHIO AND PENNSYLVANIA
RAIL-ROAD COMPANY.
BY
SOLOMON W. ROBERTS,
CHIEF ENGINEER.
PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED BY JOHN C. CLARK, (it) DOCK STRKKT.
18/11).
LIBRARY
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REPORT
ON THE
"OHIO AND PENNSYLVANIA RAIL-ROAD."
One of the greatest enterprises ever undertaken in America, is
the Great Central Rail-road of Pennsylvania from Philadelphia to
Pittsburg.
But it can never take rank as the first of all the thoroughfares
between the east and the west, until it is connected with the rail¬
roads of Ohio and of the States farther west.
To accomplish this connexion is the primary object of the
"Ohio and Pennsylvania Rail-road."
For this purpose the Company has been granted a perpetual
charter by both the States which have given it their names. The
Corporation is a unit, with concurrent powers in both Common¬
wealths ; and certified copies of the necessary laws have been in¬
terchanged between their respective Governors.
Most of the rail-roads in the State of Ohio run in a northerly
and southerly direction to connect the Ohio river with Lake Erie.
The general direction of the "Ohio and Pennsylvania Rail-road"
is easterly and westerly, running over the elevated and highly cul¬
tivated table lands, and intersecting the other roads.
It will thus become a "Back-bone Line," of which they will
represent the ribs.
'idie road begins at Pittsburg, where the "Pennsylvania Rail¬
road" ends. The first points west of Pittsburg, fixed in the char-
4
tor, are Canton, the county town of Stark county, Ohio, 92 miles
* •- 7 7
from Pittsburg, and Massillon, the great wheat mart of Ohio, on
the Ohio canal, 101 miles from that city.
Very extensive and elaborate surveys have been made to ascer¬
tain the shortest, cheapest, most productive and best line between
Pittsburg and Canton and Massillon.
Soon after my appointment as Chief Engineer of the Company,
the surveys were begun, under my direction, on the 11th of July,
1848, and they have resulted in proving the important fact, that the
best route for the rail-road, in a commercial sense, is also the best
in an engineering point of view.
Commencing at the twin-cities of Pittsburg and Allegheny, the
line continues along and near the northerly bank of the Ohio river
to the mouth of the Big Beaver river, a distance of twenty-five
miles.
It may conduce to perspicuity to consider the road, in the first
instance, in separate divisions. And as this Report is based upon
our preliminary surveys, my object will be to give correct general
views rather than much minute detail.
From Pittsburg to Beaver, 25 miles.
This portion of the road, being in the valley of the Ohio river,
on its northern side, is estimated to cost $10,000 per mile, for
grading and bridging. This supposes the work to be done in a
substantial manner, for a single track and turnouts. It would be
easy to make a lower estimate; but, considering the importance of
this part of the road, a less sum ought not to be expended upon it.
The public is too often misled by insufficient estimates of the cost
of such enterprises; but it should never be forgotten that only a
certain amount of work can be done for a certain sum of money;
and, on main trunk-lines, if the means required to build them well
cannot he raised, it only shows that the time for beginning them
has not arrived.
There are few places in the United States where a piece of rail-
road is likely to pay so well as between Pittsburg and Beaver.
The valley of the Ohio river here is the narrow neck of a vast
funnel, of which Pittsburg is the outlet, and which expands at
the mouth of Big Beaver, to the north-west towards the lakes, and
to the south-west towards the Mississippi.
At Pittsburg the Pennsylvania Canal terminates, and at Beaver
the canal connecting with Lake Erie, at Erie and Cleveland, be¬
gins. The termini of these canals have no canal connexion, and
the only land-carriage is by a common country road. The Ohio
river, between these points, is a broad, rapid and shallow stream,
falling 35 feet in 28 miles; and having, in low water, a narrow and
crooked channel, obstructed by bars. In summer and autumn the
droughts stop all but the smallest class of steamboats ; and in win¬
ter the navigation is sometimes closed by ice. These facts are
well known to the merchants and manufacturers of Pittsburg, as
well as to the hotel-keepers and the travelling community. The
remedy is obvious. A rail-road, 25 miles long, will carry people
in an hour, where they are now often detained on steamboats half
a day.
Without taking into the account the passengers on the larger
boats, an examination of the books of the small steamboats plying
between Pittsburg and Beaver, has shown that they carry, on an
average, 163 passengers each way per day, or 326 in the two direc¬
tions between those points. If we follow the English rule of mul-
tiplying by four to estimate the number of passengers that will
travel after good rail-road facilities are established, it will give us
1300 passengers per day; which, of itself, without counting any
thing for freight, or any thing for through travel, would more than
justify the construction of this portion of our Road.
If we estimate for only 600 passengers per day, throughout the
year, at 50 cents each, it will give us $300 per day; to which we
may add half that sum, or $150, for freight and merchandise of all
descriptions; making $450 per day; which, multiplied by 313 work-
G
ing days per annum, gives a product of $140,850 gross receipts. If
we deduct one-third for expenses, there will remain a balance of
$93,900 net receipts, or more than 15 per cent, per annum on an
invested capital of $600,000; supposing so large a sum to be in¬
vested in constructing, furnishing and stocking the first or city di¬
vision of the road, extending from Pittsburg to Beaver, 25 miles.
If any one considers the foregoing to be an extravagant estimate
of travel, let him recollect the fact that on the Glasgow and Green¬
ock Rail-road in Scotland, which competes with the steamboat navi¬
gation of the tide-way of the Clyde, the introduction of the rail¬
way, with low fares, has increased the number travelling from
110,000 to 2,000,000 per annum; being an increase of 19 fold, and
equal to five times the population of the district.
We may estimate the population of the twin cities of Pittsburg
and Allegheny, with the contiguous towns, at 70,000; and that of
Beaver, including Brighton, Rochester, and the adjacent villages, at
10,000. Pittsburg has vast steam power, and Beaver great water
power. Both are important manufacturing towns, united by nume¬
rous and constantly increasing commercial ties. Pittsburg is the
greatest place in the west for the working of iron; and Beaver
ought to be the greatest for the grinding of flour. In my opinion,
the construction of our rail-road, passing through four of the best
wheat counties of Ohio, will make it so.
The population of both is rapidly increasing, and, with the in¬
crease of facilities, the travel will increase in a compound ratio, and
Beaver will become a suburb of Pittsburg. The land along the
line will be brought, as it were, close to the city, and will be valua¬
ble for many purposes, and especially for kitchen-gardens, dairy-
farms, and country seats.
There need be no fear of the construction of a rival rail-road
between Pittsburg and Beaver. On the same side of the river
space cannot he found for it; and on the opposite side a road would
have to encounter the cost of two enormous bridges, which must
be so lofty as to clear the tall chimneys of the largest steamboats
7
at the highest water, making the track so high as to be out of the
reach of facilities for business. No other plan seems open to a
rail-road attempting to enter Pittsburg on the south, unless it be by
a line built on the river, cutting off Sligo from its river front, and
crossing above the Monongahela bridge. Such a line could not, by
any convenient means, connect with the Pennsylvania Rail-road,
excepting at a point on the Monongahela, some miles above Pitts¬
burg.
On the whole, it is clear that our road, between Pittsburg and
Beaver, must be a most profitable investment; provided it be judi¬
ciously constructed and managed, and provided the requisite funds
are obtained, so as to protect the interests of the stockholders, and
not to permit financial sacrifices to add to the cost of the work.
Wherever a rail-road is begun, for which the whole capital re¬
quired to complete it throughout cannot at once be raised, it is
highly important to finish and bring into speedy use some portion
of the most productive part of the line, the usefulness and success
of which will insure its extension.
Such a course secures original subscribers to the stock from loss,
and gives confidence to capitalists, who are thus induced to seek
the stock as a profitable investment, and to furnish the funds for
the rapid extension and completion of the work.
One main cause of the remarkable success of the rail-road com¬
panies in New England, has been their not beginning more than
they were able to finish; and the losses on such enterprises, expe¬
rienced in some other parts of the Union, are to be attributed, not
so much to bad engineering, as to the pursuit of a contrary policy,
which, preferring the counsel of hope to that of experience, and
beginning the work along an extended line with insufficient capital,
has resulted too often in swamping the company in debt, and com¬
pelling it to submit to the most injurious financial sacrifices.
While our work is in its infancy, we have the opportunity of
profiting by all the experience of the past, in order to make its
success certain.
8
From Beaver to Scdem and Mount Union.
On this part of the line we reach the elevated table-lands of the
State of Ohio, so favourable for rail-road construction, and so cele¬
brated for the production of wheat.
Under the head of Ohio, in a book on the Public Works of the
United States, published in 1840, by the distinguished geographer,
Henry S. Tanner, there is a remarkably correct description of the
topography of the State.
Mr. Tanner says: " Westward from the valley of the Allegheny,
that of the Beaver exhibits the commencement of the central
plain, which divides the basins of the Mississippi and St. Law¬
rence. This plain stretches westward, and, widening in extent
over the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, reaches the Missis¬
sippi river."
It is over this elevated plain that the route of our rail-road runs,
and our point of divergence from the Ohio river is at the mouth of
the Beaver, which is the first practicable point of divergence west
of Pittsburg.
To quote again from Mr. Tanner's book, he says: "For the
construction of canals and rail-roads, the entire region compre¬
hended by the States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, pre¬
sents fewer impediments to the construction of such works than
any other with which we are acquainted." " Perhaps the best
idea of the topography of Ohio may be obtained by conceiving the
State to be one vast elevated plain, near the centre of which the
streams rise, and in their course wear down a bed or valley, whose
depth is in proportion to their size, or formation of the earth over
which they flow. So that the hills, with some few exceptions, are
nothing more or less than cliffs or banks, made by the action of the
streams; and, although these cliffs or banks, on the rivers or larger
creeks, approach the size of mountains, yet their tops are gene¬
rally level, being the remains of the ancient plain."
Tin; results of our surveys corroborate the foregoing description.
9
The southern and south-eastern parts of Ohio are cut up by the
deep and crooked valleys, in which numerous streams flow on
their way to empty into the Ohio river. Rail-road lines following
these streams must be very crooked, and lines crossing the streams
and the intervening ridges must encounter still greater difficulties.
We have found that the northern route, which we have adopt¬
ed, turning the hill country on its northern flank, is the shortest
and best route to the table lands of Ohio.
It has also the advantage of crossing the streams where they
are small, thereby reducing the amount of bridging required, as
we cross no stream where it is large, excepting the Beaver at New
Brighton, which at that point may be readily bridged.
The northern route, by Salem, by means of its connexion with
the Cleveland Rail-road near Mount Union, will afford the shortest
and best line between Pittsburg and the important city of Cleveland
on Lake Erie; 75 miles of the distance being traversed on our
road, and 60 on the Cleveland road. The line will cross the river-
hill summit near the present mail-stage route. The summits here
are materially lower than on the more southern lines, and our
course has less curvature and a shorter distance. This matter has
been very fully investigated; and the results of our preliminary
surveys show, that of the different lines examined, the one by way
of Yellow creek comes next in order to ours, and that, from Pitts¬
burg, ours has an advantage over it of about ten miles in distance,
to Cleveland, on the lake, and seven miles to Canton, Massillon,
and the west. If we adopt the usual estimate of $50,000, as the
amount of capital, which is equivalent to the saving of one mile of
absolute distance on a great rail-road thoroughfare, this will make a
difference of $500,000 in favour of our road as a route to the lake,
and of $350,000 as a route to the west; and both these advantages
are combined by us in one line.
Besides which, in view of the construction of rival roads to
Wheeling, it is evidently of the first importance to the interests
of Pittsburg, that her great western rail-road should strike
n
10
the Ohio river as high up as possible, which our line does at
Beaver.
A line has been talked of from Pittsburg across the hill country
of Washington county, and through a portion of the territory of
Virginia, to strike the Ohio river opposite Steubenville, and to con¬
nect by means of an immense bridge, with a rail-road chartered in
Ohio, to terminate at that place. Such a line would encounter
much unnecessary elevation for the purpose of cutting off the north¬
ern bend of the Ohio; it would be of no avail, as a line to Lake
Erie, or to those rich agricultural counties traversed by our road;
and even as a line to Cincinnati and south-western Ohio, the saving
in distance would be inconsiderable. Assuming $5000 as the ave¬
rage cost of grading and bridging a mile of rail-road in Ohio, the
bridge at Steubenville, if built in such a way as not to obstruct the
navigation, would probably cost as much as the grading and bridg¬
ing of Jifty miles of such rail-road. The distance down the river
bank from Steubenville to the Wheeling bridge is about 20 miles.
The difficulty of bringing such a line into Pittsburg without ob¬
structing the harbour, has already been adverted to; and, if it
should ever be constructed, it will probably connect with the
" Pennsylvania Rail-road" at or near the mouth of Turtle creek, on
the Monongahela.
Many persons are misled, when judging of rail-road routes, by
what they see on ordinary maps of the course of common roads;
forgetting that such maps do not indicate the elevations of the
ground, and give very imperfect information as to the distances by
rail-roads of moderate grades and curvatures in a broken country.
If, in order to avoid bridging the Ohio, a rail-road should be brought
from Steubenville to Pittsburg, along the river bank, via Wellsville,
the distance to Cincinnati, by that route, will be greater than by
our "back-bone line," diverging at Beaver; and if the route across
the country and across the river be adopted, it will be very little less;
and the important towns at the mouth of Beaver will not be touch¬
ed, though they are more populous and important, than Steubenville.
11
Heavy bridges cost much to build them, and much to keep them
up, and are liable to casualties from fire and flood. If of long span,
great expense is required to make them stiff enough for locomotive
engines; they need watchmen, and are not easily insured.
The results of our preliminary surveys conclusively show, that
our route from Beaver and New Brighton, by Salem, to Mount
Union, possesses a combination of advantages not to be met with
on any other line. The distance from Beaver to the point of in¬
tersection with the Cleveland Rail-road, near Mount Union, will be
about fifty miles; and progress will speedily be made in the defi¬
nite location of the line, the experimental surveys of which have
already been tested. The passes of the natural summits of the
river hills, from which the selection of a point of crossing is to be
made, vary from 450 to 500 feet above low water at the mouth of
Beaver; being a less elevation than on the more southerly routes.
In reaching the summit between Big and Little Beaver, grades of
from 40 to 50 feet per mile will be required; the latter of which is
the maximum used on the Western Division of the "Pennsylvania
Rail-road."
The line which we have adopted traverses the broad belt of ele¬
vated, highly cultivated, and populous table-land which intervenes
between the Sandy and Beaver canal on the south, and the Penn¬
sylvania and Ohio canal (commonly called the "cross-cut canal) on
the north; and not far from the centre of which the flourishing
town of Salem is situated. On an average, our "back-bone line"
is about ten miles north of the Sandy and Beaver canal, and twenty
miles south of the "cross-cut" canal. We traverse a very fruitful
country, inhabited by a moral, industrious, and thriving population,
who now have no communications but common country roads,
made over an alluvial soil, and very bad in wet weather. The ex¬
pense of land carriage is so great, that, in my opinion, the increased
value of real estate, caused by the construction of our rail-road, will
more than equal the whole cost of it, without reckoning its other
advantages.
1°
-I
In Beaver county our line opens an extensive field of bituminous
and also of cannel coal, both of excellent quality. For making;
steam, for making gas, and for domestic use, the cannel coal is a
most beautiful fuel, and the bed is about eight feet thick. We will
thus have every opportunity of obtaining for our locomotives the
best fuel at the lowest rates, and of reducing the expense of motive
power to a minimum. Those familiar with the management of
rail-roads in operation, best know the importance of this advantage.
♦
Cheap fuel is the first element of cheap transportation. The same
cause which enables us to carry cheaply, will also give us a heavy
tonnage to carry; for the coal trade upon the line will be of great
magnitude and importance.
These are some of the reasons why the interior route, which we
have adopted, is preferable to a route along the river shore below
Beaver. Instead of being hemmed in by the river on one side and
the hills on the other, we have a broad tract of open country tribu¬
tary to our line on both its sides. The table lands are very favour¬
able for the construction of improvements, and we have reason to
expect branches, either by rail-roads or plank roads, both from
Newcastle and Warren.
The distance from Beaver to the State line will be about twenty
miles, estimated to cost, for grading and bridging, $10,000 per mile.
After crossing the State line into Ohio, we estimate the average
cost of grading and bridging at $5000 per mile. These estimates
are for a substantial, single-track rail-road, with the necessary turn¬
outs ; the usual maximum grade being forty feet per mile, and the
minimum radius of curvature one thousand feet. In many places,
where the ground will readily admit of it, it is intended to grade
the road-bed wide enough for a double track in the first instance.
It has been represented by parties locally interested in diverting
our rail-road to the town of Wellsville, and to the mouth of Yellow
creek, on the Ohio river, 50 miles below Pittsburg, that our line to
Mount Union could not be materially shorter than one in the Yel¬
low creek valley, because Wellsville is not very far from a straight
13
line drawn on an ordinary map from Pittsburg to Cleveland. But
if any one will take the trouble to draw such a line, he will see
that it crosses the Ohio river twice; and that Beaver, where our
line diverges from the river, and which is the most northerly point
upon the Ohio, and where its southerly bend begins, is the true
point from which a fair comparison of distances must be made.
The results of actual and repeated surveys have, however, conclu¬
sively answered this question.
We are not engaged in locating a paper rail-road, nor a local line.
The work which we have in hand will be the second link in the
shortest and best chain of rail-roads between the eastern Atlantic
cities and the vast west; of which the first link is the Pennsylva¬
nia Rail-road.
Our road will be the union line between the rail-road system of
Ohio, the first agricultural State, and that of Pennsylvania, the first
manufacturing State in the Union. Where we connect them, these
States are contiguous, and divided but by an imaginary boundary.
When its importance is duly considered, the claims of most other
rail-roads, which are urged upon public attention, sink into insig¬
nificance in comparison. Gradually the public mind will become
aware of the truth of this fact.
Such being the case, it becomes us to act with caution and firm¬
ness, aware that as we do our work well or ill, it will be a lasting
honour or a lasting disgrace to us. In determining the route be¬
tween those towns which are made fixed points by the charter, or
which become so on account of the topography of the country,
that line which is best for the general public, will also be the best
for the whole of the stockholders as a corporation. It was the as¬
surance given me, that the Board of Directors were determined
that the location should be decided upon these principles, that in¬
duced me to accept, at their hands, the appointment of Chief En¬
gineer of the Company.
The citizens of Pittsburg, the citizens of Philadelphia, and the
great body of the people of Pennsylvania, have a vast interest in
14
securing the best rail-road route westward from Pittsburg. It may
be said, that it is desirable to have more than one such road; but,
if so, bow important it is that the best and most profitable should
be made first, and that there should be a concentration of effort
upon it until it is accomplished. This is especially desirable when
we consider the difficulty of raising capital for such enterprises.
Local interests on other lines may controvert this doctrine, but it
commends itself to the common sense of every man who is free
from local bias, and who wishes to promote the general interest of
the community. Sooner or later the best line will be made, then
let it be made first.
When we see the New York and Erie Rail-road pushing for¬
ward on the north, and the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-road on the
south of us, and both companies acting with renewed vigour and
redoubled energy; and when we know that the broad plains of
Ohio are the battle-field upon which the sea-coast cities of the east
are to contend for the trade of the west, we must feel that this is
no time to sit down supinely, or to content ourselves with talking
about the importance of going on with our work. The time for
action has come; and that which is needed is such a subscription
to the stock of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Rail-road Company
as will lay a broad and solid foundation on which the superstruc •
ture of the enterprise may safely be erected.
The rapidity with which commercial changes are effected is one
of their most remarkable characteristics. In less than twenty years
rail-roads have revolutionized the inland transportation of civilized
communities. It is in vain to think of moving on in the old way,
when others all around us have called to their aid newer and
more active instruments of commercial power. If we do not has¬
ten to avail ourselves of the most recent improvements, we will
speedily be distanced in the race of commercial competition. A
large town, which has no rail-road, will soon cease to have many
visiters.
It is believed to be a fact, that the " Iron Cily," as Pittsburg is
15
often called, is the only one of its size and importance in our coun¬
try that has no rail-road.
It will require the construction of about 75 miles of rail-road to
connect with the Cleveland road near Mount Union ; and, when
that is accomplished, Pittsburg will have a rail-road communication
by the most direct and best route, through the Western Reserve of
Ohio, to the important city of Cleveland on Lake Erie; the whole
distance being about 135 miles. The line will traverse a very po¬
pulous country, and will furnish a most important outlet for Pitts¬
burg manufactures.
The distance by rail-road from Cleveland, by the way of Pitts¬
burg, to Philadelphia, will be 493 miles; while to New York, by
Dunkirk, will be 630 miles, and by Buffalo 665 miles. So that
much the shortest route from Cleveland to New York will be
through Pittsburg and Philadelphia.
A rail-road is in rapid progress of construction from Cleveland
to Columbus, by what is called the western route, passing about
twelve miles west of Mansfield. Its length is 135 miles; so that
the rail-road distance from Pittsburg to Cleveland will measure, as
nearly as may be, the same as that from Cleveland to Columbus;
each being 135 miles, and both together 270 miles.
In this way, as soon as our road is completed to Mount Union,
Pittsburg will obtain, by a circuitous route, continuous rail-road
communications with central, western, and south-western Ohio;
and those parts of the country will obtain a connexion with the
eastern cities more direct than they can by the Lake route from
Cleveland.
It is evident, from this, how greatly Cleveland is interested in
the speedy completion of the direct road from that city to Pitts¬
burg by the way of Mount Union.
The citizens of Salem are well aware of the great importance
of our road to that flourishing town; which their energy has made
to grow, in spite of the disadvantage of having to haul every thing
over common country roads.
16
That the Ohio and Pennsylvania Rail-road, when completed
from Pittsburg to Mount Union, will be, if properly conducted and
managed, a highly productive investment, there is no doubt in my
mind. It will confer innumerable advantages upon the country
through which it will pass; will vivify industry in all its forms,
and raise the value of real estate in a remarkable degree.
From Mount Union to Canton, Massillon, Wooster,
From Mount Union to Wooster the distance is 50 miles, and
the road will open a country which, for the production of wheat,
is, perhaps, unequalled in America. It runs through the heart of
Stark and Wayne counties, passes by the important town of Can¬
ton, the county seat of Stark, and, at the distance of 101 miles
from Pittsburg, crosses the Ohio canal at Massillon, the great wheat
mart of Ohio.
As the immense trade of Massillon has always sought the New
York and Boston markets, it strikes the minds of most persons
with surprise when they are first informed that the place is only
101 miles from Pittsburg.
By official returns, it appears that in 1847 there were shipped,
at Massillon, upon the Ohio canal, the almost incredible amount of
1,489,697 bushels of wheat; besides 55,669 barrels of flour;
45,139 bushels of corn; 202,719 pounds of wool; 73,889 pounds
of leather; and 37,388 pounds of eggs.
The whole amount of flour and grain shipped coastwise from
Cleveland, in 1847, was 2,066,484 bushels of wheat, and 701,870
barrels of flour.
The arrivals at Cleveland, by the Ohio canal, in 1847, were
644,913 barrels of flour and 2,130,317 bushels.of wheat; and there
were cleared at that port, upon the canal, in the same season, up¬
wards o[fifteen millions of pounds of merchandise.
At the town of Akron, about twenty-five miles north of Massil-
17
Ion, where the " Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal" ends, the ship¬
ments were 231,221 barrels of dour, and 589,376 bushels of
wheat.
If any one will attentively consider the statistical returns of the
production and shipment of produce in Ohio, he cannot fail to see
that our line runs through the heart of that region which raises
the largest supply of the " staff of life." We need no long branches
to reach it, but we pass right through it. It is the granary of the
State; and, while it is a grain region, it is also a coal region. The
country south of the Sandy and Beaver Canal, is much more hilly
and greatly inferior in its surplus productions.
Salem contains a remarkably enterprising and thrifty population
of about 1500; and Canton, Massillon and Wooster are dourish-
ing and improving towns of about 3000 people each. Our "back¬
bone line," passing through them, will benefit them more than could
possibly be done by any other enterprise.
Canton is the county town of Stark, and Wooster of Wayne
county. Stark stands first in the list of the counties of Ohio for
the production of wheat; the amount raised in 1840 having been
753,977 bushels ; and in 1846 it reached 989,808 bushels. No
doubt it now much exceeds a million.
The amount given- in the statistical tables, in 1840, was, for
Wayne county, 753,621 bushels, and it stood second in the list;
while Columbiana raised 445,834 bushels of wheat, being the
eighth in order; hut it stood first for the production of wool, and
raised 215,426 pounds.
The remaining county on our line is Richland, Ashland having
been recently formed. The county town of Richland is Mansfield,
164 miles from Pittsburg, by our rail-road. The wheat raised in
the county, in 1840, was 506,585 bushels, and the amount of other
productions was large.
Tli c, population of the four counties, in 1840, stood as follows:
Columbiana 40,378, Stark 34,603, Wayne 35,808, and Richland
c
18
44,532; making an aggregate of 155,321. Omitting Hamilton
county, which includes the city of Cincinnati, Richland stands
first in population among the counties of Ohio, and Columbiana
second.
These facts show the character of the country through which
our line passes; they show that the local trade along it will justify
its construction; and that we may safely and proudly challenge a
statistical comparison with any line of equal length that can be
drawn westward from the eastern boundary of Ohio.
These counties have greatly increased in population and wealth
since 1840, and their present valuation of taxable property is about
thirty millions of dollars.
To complete and bring into successful use a good rail-road, with
a heavy iron track, from Pittsburg to the point of intersection with
the Columbus and Cleveland road, twelve miles west of Mans¬
field, a distance of 176 miles, will probably cost about three mil¬
lions of dollars.
In view of the importance of the work, and of the trade which
it will command, the use of a heavy iron track is, in my opinion,
essential. Such a track costs about ten thousand dollars per mile.
At Mansfield we connect with the Mansfield and Sandusky City
Rail-road, 56 miles in length, which was opened for use in June,
1846. In 1847, that road carried 504,081 bushels of wheat;
62,598 barrels of flour; with a large amount of other articles;
and its net earnings were $61,406.03.
The Directors, in their Report, say : " The construction of this
road has given an impetus to Mansfield and the surrounding towns,
together with the towns upon the line of rail-road, and to San¬
dusky city, which far exceeds the estimate made three years ago by
our most sanguine friends/' " It has also created an interior mar¬
ket for the farmer; and, on an average, has doubled the value of
his surplus products, and made such marketable as were not of
cash value before; has cheapened all that he consumes, in the line
of staples and domestics, one-half their former cost; and has
19
greatl)- increased the value of real estate, where its effects have
been felt."
Similar results have attended the construction of the Little Mia¬
mi and Mad River Rail-roads; and all these works are highly pro¬
fitable investments. The net earnings of the Little Miami Road,
in 1848, were $146,072.48, being ten per cent, on the capital stock.
Similar results may confidently be predicted upon our road.
A very extensive and elaborate series of surveys has been made
between Wooster and Mansfield, a distance of about 39 miles.
Three routes, with a number of subordinate lines, have been exa¬
mined ; each of which routes has peculiar advantages, especially
with reference to the accommodation of local interests; and all the
facts bearing upon the question should be fully reviewed and con¬
sidered by the Board before a determination is made.
But whatever conclusion may be come to, on this subject, it is
clear, to my mind, that the importance of a connexion between
Wooster and Columbus, by the way of Mount Vernon, should
never be lost sight of. With that connexion once secured, we shall
be in a position to compete successfully for the Cincinnati travel,
with any other road that can be made between Pittsburg and Cin¬
cinnati; the whole distance between those cities being 330 miles,
by a route passing through a country of unparalleled productive¬
ness. This connecting link will be of vast advantage to the citi¬
zens of Mount .Vernon and of Knox county; the distance from
Wooster to Mount Vernon being 47 miles, and thence, to Colum¬
bus, 40 miles. Should the southern route, between Wooster and
Mansfield be adopted, but little over 20 miles of road will complete
the connexion with Mount Vernon.
Our line, running out westward over the table lands to Wooster,
and thence, turning south-westward in the direction of Columbus,
runs nearly parallel with the Sandy and Beaver and the Ohio ca¬
nals, but at a distance from them; and is much straighter than they
are, not being confined in crooked valleys. Our rail-road route
from Pittsburg to Columbus is 25 miles shorter than the river and
20
canal boat route by Glasgow, Bolivar, and the valley of the Tusca¬
rawas to Newark, combined with the proposed rail-road from New¬
ark to Columbus. We run through the heart of the rich farming
region; having a tributary country on both sides; and we do not
come into direct competition with any canal, or other public work,
already constructed.
One of the great advantages of a rail-road is that, unlike a canal,
it need not seek large supplies of water or the lowest levels. It
need not be exposed to inundations ; and, by establishing its depots
in the richest districts of the country, it saves to the producer a
large part of the expense which he must otherwise incur in haul¬
ing his produce to water communications.
A bushel of wheat, when taken from Massillon to New York, by
the usual canal, lake, and river communication, is carried 770 miles,
and a long period elapses before returns can be received. By our
rail-road route the distance from Massillon to New York will be
547 miles, and to Philadelphia 459 miles, and returns can be re¬
ceived without delay. On the Boston and Albany Rail-road, vast
quantities of flour are carried, with great promptness, 200 miles,
for thirty cents a barrel. The rail-road being open twelve months :
in the year, while the canal is open but eight, the former has an
advantage over the latter of fifty per cent, in the period of its use¬
fulness.
The country around Rochester is emphatically the wheat region
of New York, as that around Massillon is the wheat region of Ohio.
The New York wheat-grower now has an advantage of about 350
miles over his Ohio competitor in transportation to the eastern
markets; which, with a winter communication to Boston, makes
his produce worth twenty per cent, more; but the construction of
our road will put them, as nearly as may be, upon a par in distance
to the seaboard, and also in the possession of a winter communica¬
tion.
21
The Importance of the " Ohio and Pennsylvania
Rail-roadas a part of the General System of
Rail-roads in the United States.
Internal improvements are among the main elements of the com¬
mercial power of a nation. When they are wisely and well exe¬
cuted they confer upon it vast advantages and lasting honour. Their
moral benefits go hand in hand with those of a commercial charac¬
ter; and rail-roads especially, by facilitating personal intercommu¬
nication, break down the barriers of prejudice, and bind together
in a common bond the citizens of the most widely extended com¬
munities. Those works, by which we achieve our peaceful
victories over space and time, become enduring monuments of the
intelligence of the generation by which they were planned and
constructed. Practically, they lengthen life, for they enable more
to be done in the same period; and they quicken and facilitate the
movements of those whose high mission it is, in various ways, to
instruct and to improve their fellow men. It has been well said by
Macauley, in writing the History of the Progress of England, that
next to the alphabet and the printing-press, those inventions that
abridge distance have done most for the civilization of our species.
When we look upon a map of the United States, we are struck
with the position of the State of Pennsylvania. With its eastern
border washed by the 'tide-waters of the Atlantic, it stretches west¬
ward to the head of the Ohio river at Pittsburg, and to the shores
of Lake Erie. No other State combines these advantages. Di¬
rectly west of Pennsylvania are the great grain-growing States of
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; and their shortest route both to Phila¬
delphia and New York lies through her territory.
For a series of years the State of Pennsylvania enjoyed the ad¬
vantages of her geographical position by means of a system of
turnpikes. Hut the opening of the Eric canal, of New York, in
1825, changed the face of affairs, and transferred the advantages of
22
the western trade to that State. In the following year Pennsylvania
began her canal system, but the Allegheny range divided her terri¬
tory, and prevented her canals from being continuous.
In 1830, land carriage received its most signal improvement by
the successful opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Rail-way
in England. By the combination of the fire-tubes with the blast-
pipe, the " Rocket" engine became the parent locomotive of an innu¬
merable race ; and this invention, combined with that of rolled iron
rail-road rails, created a new era in inland transportation.
The legislature of Pennsylvania, at its next session, determined
to take advantage of the new improvement, for the purpose of unit¬
ing her canals by scaling the Alleghenies; and, in the spring of
1831, the writer of this Report was appointed to lead the exploring
party in locating the Allegheny Portage Rail-road.
Although that road was made in the infancy of the rail-road
system, its opening in 1834 was of vast advantage to the State and
to the Union. But the line between Philadelphia and Pittsburg,
being made up of an alternate series of canals and rail-roads, is
attended with many disadvantages, and burthened with the expense
of repeated transhipments. These evils will speedily be remedied
by the Pennsylvania Rail-road, now in course of construction, in
the best manner, and with the aid of all the lights of the experi¬
ence of the past.
Following nearly the fortieth parallel of north latitude, the di¬
viding line of the population of our country, it will be the " Central
Rail-road" of the Union; and the Ohio and Pennsylvania Rail¬
road, or " back-bone line," will be its extension westward from
Pittsburg over the fertile plains of Ohio.
In 1788, Ohio was a wilderness, with no permanent white popu¬
lation. Since 1830, its population has increased, in round numbers,
from one to two millions of people ; and the great free States, to
the west and north-west of it, have increased, and are increasing,
in population and wealth with unexampled rapidity.
The charter of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Rail-road Company
23
is of the most liberal character, and will enable the Directors to pur¬
sue the policy best adapted to add to the value of the stock, and to
protect and promote the interests of the stockholders; which is the
only safe policy for such a Corporation.
Neither the time for the completion of the work, nor its western
terminus is fixed by law; and under its charter, this Corporation
may either extend its operations to the western boundary of Ohio,
or may content itself with connecting with some of the other rail¬
roads in the western part of the State. Our surveys have been ex¬
tended to Bucyrus, the county town of Crawford county, 24 miles
west of Mansfield, which is an important point; but it would be
premature, at this time, to express an opinion as to the relative im¬
portance of the various extensions of our road beyond Mansfield,
which will, sooner or later, be made.
By connecting with the Mad River Rail-road at Kenton, we may
obtain a connexion vrith Cincinnati, making the distance from Pitts¬
burg about 360 miles; or nearly the same as that by the intersec¬
tion of the Columbus road, beyond Mansfield, and about 30 miles
more than by the cut-off connexion from Wooster to Mount Ver¬
non and Columbus. Our road will thus intersect three lines leading
to Cincinnati, besides being connected with Newark by the Mans¬
field and Newark road, now nearly completed.
The rail-road distance from Kenton to Bellefontaine is 24 miles,
and at that point comes in the important road, now in progress of
construction, from Bellefontaine to Indianapolis, a distance of 140
miles, 83 of which are in Indiana. There is a rail-road now in use
from Indianapolis to Madison, a distance of 86 miles, which makes
dividends of fourteen per cent, per annum, and the stock of which
is much above par.
From Indianapolis to St. Louis, by the general route of the Na¬
tional road, crossing the Wabash at Terre Haute, will be about
250 miles, passing through a highly productive country, and making
the whole distance from Philadelphia to St. Louis about 990 miles.
A more northerly line from Kenton westward, crossing the Wabash
at Lafayette, is also projected.
24
The present importance of St. Louis need not be dwelt upon,
Mild one of the proposed rail-roads to the Pacific will probably start
from that point.
The Ohio and Pennsylvania Rail-road will not only command a
greater amount of local trade and travel than any other road in
Ohio, stretching in the same direction, can do, but it will afford ex¬
cellent connexions with Cincinnati and St. Louis, by lines running
through the most populous parts of the country.
Combined with these advantages, it has, in addition, the remark¬
able characteristic of forming a part of the best rail-road connex¬
ions with Cleveland, Sandusky and Toledo, on Lake Erie; and, by
means of the " Ohio, Indiana, and Lake Michigan Rail-road," with
the city of Chicago, and the vast and growing empire of the north¬
west. This includes northern Indiana and Illinois, and southern
Michigan; and, by means of the Chicago and Galena Rail-road,
the States of Wisconsin and Iowa, the territory of Minnesota, and
the wide expanse of territory still farther west. The distance
from Philadelphia to Chicago will be about 850 miles.
To my mind it is clear that the inducements to capitalists, and
the prospects of benefit to the public, presented by the " Ohio and
Pennsylvania Rail-road," or " back-bone line," can scarcely be
surpassed.
In concluding this Report, it gives me pleasure to express my
entire satisfaction with the manner in which the Resident Engi¬
neers, Mr. Jesse R. Straughan and Mr. Edward Warner, have
fulfilled their duties. They have shown themselves to be gentle¬
men well worthy of the trust which has been confided to their care.
The outline of this, my first Report as Chief Engineer of the
Ohio and Pennsylvania Rail-road Company, based upon the preli¬
minary surveys, was drawn up at Pittsburg in January, 1849.
Respectfully submitted,
SOLOMON W. ROUERTS,
Civil Engineer.