The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

236 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xx.
floating bog was this :—That a ship floated in water, and the
moss was certainly more capable of supporting such a weight
than water was ; and he knew that if he could once get the
material to float he would succeed. That his idea was correct
is proved by the fact that Chat Moss how forms the very best
part of the line of railroad between Liverpool and Manchester,
Nor was the cost of construction of this part of the line ex-
cessive. The formation of the road across Chat Moss amounted
to about 28,000Z., Mr. Giles's estimate having been 270,000Z.
During the progress of these works the most ridiculous
rumours were set afloat. The drivers of the stage-coaches,
who feared for their calling, brought the alarming intelligence
into Manchester from time to time, that " Chat Moss was blown
up!" "Hundreds of men and horses had sunk in the bog;
and the works were completely abandoned!" The engineer
himself was declared to have been swallowed up in the Ser-
bonian bog ; and " railways were at an end forever !
" With
the originators of these alarming reports, the wish was father to
the thought. The majority of people knew nothing about rail-
ways—they were yet a deep mystery ; and they were not dis-
posed to believe in them till they had seen them put to the proof.
The rumours were therefore credited for the time, until sup-
planted by others.
Although the works of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
are of a much less formidable character than those of many lines
which have since been constructed, they were then regarded as
of the most stupendous description. Indeed, the like of them had
not before been executed in England. There were sixty-three
bridges over and under the line at different points. The great
Sankey viaduct, consisting of nine arches of fifty feet span, was
a noble structure, rising to a height of nearly seventy feet above
the level of the Sankey canal. The skew bridge at Rainhill,
the bridge at Newton, and the bridge over the Irwell at Man-
chester, are still looked upon as good specimens of railway work,
and at the time of their formation were regarded with high ad-
miration by engineers. The tunnel under part of the town of
Liverpool, and the Olive Mount excavation—a deep cutting
through solid sandstone rock, extending for upwards of two miles
!