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

348 LIFE OF GEOEGE STEPHENSON. [chap, xxthi.
ful completion, with certain modifications, including the grand
original feature of the tubular bridge across the Menai Straits.*
The completion of a main line of railway communication
between London and Glasgow by the western side of the island,
was another of the great projects on which Mr. Stephenson was
now engaged. In 1837, he was requested by the Caledonian
Eailway Committee, and also by the Whitehaven, Workington,
and Maryport Railway Committee, to make an examination of
the country, and report to them as to the best line that could be
formed. With this object, he made a careful survey of the
entire country between Lancaster and Carlisle, by Ulverstone
and Whitehaven, and also by Kirby, Lonsdale, and Penrith. As
on the eastern coast, here also he reported in favour of the coast
route. Besides the flatness of such a line, and the consequent
superiority of the gradients—a point to which he always attached
the greatest importance—the coast line could be formed at com-
paratively small expense ; valuable iron mines would be opened
out, from which a large traific might be anticipated, while, as a
collateral advantage, an extensive tract of valuable land would
be reclaimed by the formation of his proposed embankment
across Ulverston sands at the head of Morecombe Bay. There
would also be fifteen miles less of new railway to be constructed
by the coast line than by the more direct inland route across Shap
Fell. The latter route— planned by Mr. Locke—was twenty
miles shorter between Lancaster and Carlisle ; but the gradients
were much heavier, and the works far more difficult and costly.
It was, however, eventually preferred to the west coast line of
Mr. Stephenson, which was, for a time, lost sight of. Neverthe-
less it has since been formed ; the large traffic in iron ore which
he anticipated has been obtained ; and his favourite scheme of
reclaiming the immense tract of land at the head of Morecombe
Bay—from forty to fifty thousand acres in extent—by means of
the railway embankment necessary to complete the connection
with the Lancaster and Carlisle line, has recently been carried
into effect in a modified form, and to some extent aftep his plans.f
The Leeds and Bradford Railway, surveyed by Mr. Stephen-
* The Chester and Holyhead Act was obtained in the session of 184i.
t See Reports by Mr. Stephenson on the subject, dated October 12th, 1836;
March IStfa, 1837; and August 16th, 1837.