A Description of the Canals and Rail Roads of the United States, Comprehending Notices of All the Works of Internal Improvement Throughout the Several States |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
15 feet 30 feet Aggregate length Albany Allegany aqueduct arch ascends average Baltimore Boston branch bridge Bronx canals and rail-roads cent centre chair Chenango Canal coal commences completed connected construction course Creek crosses Croton culvert curves Delaware descends direction distance edge rail embankment engines Erie Canal excavation extends Falls feet deep feet in length feet long feet per mile feet wide Fredericksburg Hollidaysburg Hudson inches inclined planes internal improvement intersects iron laid Lake Erie Lake Michigan legislature lockage locks miles in length Mississippi navigation nearly Ohio river passes Pennsylvania Canal Philadelphia Pittsburg Port proceeds proposed radius rail Richmond ridge road route Schenectady Schuylkill side sills single track sleepers South Southwark Rail-road spikes stream string piece summit surface Susquehanna terminates thence tion town tunnel United Utica valley viaduct West Stockbridge western wide at top width Wilmington York
Popular passages
Page 55 - Owing to the great depression of the stream below the grade line, and the peculiar inclinations of its banks, the length of the aqueduct bridge will greatly exceed the width of the strait at its surface, (620 feet.) The bridge will be 1,420 feet in length, between the pipe chambers at either end ; 18 feet in width, inside of the parapet walls ; and 27 feet be.
Page 177 - November next ensuing all that part of said District lying within the following lines, to wit : Beginning at the mouth of Cross Creek, thence up the same to the head thereof, thence southeastwardly to the nearest part of the ridge which divides the waters of the Ohio from those of the Monongahela, thence along...
Page 262 - MITCHELL'S UNIVERSAL ATLAS, containing Maps of the various Empires, Kingdoms, States and Republics of the World, with a special Map of each of the United States, Plans of Cities, &c., comprehended in seventy-three sheets, and forming a series of one hundred and seventeen Maps, Plans, and Sections.
Page 186 - Bourne. may be obtained, by conceiving it to be one vast elevated plain, near the center of which the streams rise, and in their course wearing down a bed or valley, whose depth is in proportion to their size or the solidity of the earth over which they flow. So that our 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 large creeks approach the size of mountains, yet their tops are...
Page 55 - ... between the pipe chambers at either end ; 18 feet in width, inside of the parapet walls; and 27 feet between the outer edges of the coping; 16 piers, built of stone laid in courses of uniform thickness. Of these, 6 will be in the river, and 10 on the land, (8 of which will be on the Westchester side of the strait.) The river piers will be 20 by 40 feet at base, and 84 feet in height, to the spring of the arch; diminishing as they rise in height. The arches will have a span of 80 feet. The land...
Page 105 - ... timber ; and the highest are for dry goods, drugs, medicines, steel and furs. On the United States' Mail, the toll is one mill per mile, for every ten pounds ; on every passenger one cent per mile. In addition to these rates, a toll is levied, of one cent per mile on each burthen car, two cents per mile on each baggage car, and on every passenger car one cent per mile for each pair of wheels. The motive power toll is, for each car having four wheels, one cent per mile, for each additional pair...
Page 50 - J miles. It is a long brick vault stretching from Croton to New York, descending at the rate of nearly 14 inches to the mile. Its dimensions are about 6 feet at bottom, 7 feet at top, and from 8 to 10 feet in height. The foundation is of stone, well laid, and the interstices filled up with rubble, and over this a bed of concrete composed of cement, broken stone and gravel, in due proportions, well mixed and combined together, except where the earth is of a compact and dry consistence, when the stone...
Page 62 - The whole cost of the work, including depots, motive and other power, &c., amounted to $1,100,000 or $137,500 per mile. The receipts for fare by the company, during the year ending December 31st, 1839, were $99,811. Notwithstanding the great number of persons conveyed on this road, about 1,200,000 annually, the directors have not as yet declared a dividend, and up to the 1st of January, 1840, the stockholders had not received a dollar from the work. The tunnel through which the line passes, is the...
Page 56 - ... of two four-feet pipes, whose capacity will be equal to that of the grand trunk. The pipes will be protected from the action of the frost, by a covering of earth four feet in depth, well sodded on the surface. The aqueduct will discharge its water into the northern pipe chamber, whence it will pass over the bridge into the southern chamber, where the aqueduct resumes its course towards the city. At the distance of half a mile, the line crosses a ravine of 30 feet to the top line of the embankment...
Page 186 - Perhaps the best idea of the topography of this region may be obtained by conceiving it to be one vast elevated plain, near the centre of which the streams rise, and in their course wearing down a bed or valley, whose depth is in proportion to their size, or the solidity of the earth over which they flow. So that our 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...