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

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RAILWAY SYSTEM AND ITS EESULTS.
At the end of 1854 the total length of the lines authorized by Parliament
was 13,983 miles ; but as 1,177 miles had been abandoned, and
there still remained about 4,752 miles to be constructed, the aggregate
length of railways opened in Great Britain and Ireland at that time
measured about 8,054 miles,—about the diameter of the globe, and
nearly 500 miles more than the united lengths of the Thames, the
Seine, the Khone, the Ebro, the Tagus, the Rhine, the Elbe, the Vis-
tula, the Dnieper, and the Danube, or the ten chief rivers of Europe.
Of these 8,054 miles completed, 1,962 miles are single lines. Tak-
ing double and single lines together the total length of railway in the
kingdom is, therefore, 14,146 mUes.
To this must be added the very considerable extent of rails laid for
sidings, which, on an average, may be said to be equal in length to one
third of the total mileage. Add, then, say 4,000 miles for sidings,
and there is a total of 18,000 miles of railway in Great Britain and
Ireland.
These 18,000 miles have been the work of only twenty-five years,
and in that short space of time there have been laid rails, within these
islands, far more than are sufficient to " put a girdle round about the
earth!"
It will naturally be asked, what amount of Capital has been required
for the construction of these vast works ? The amount authorized by
Parliament to be raised for railway works amounted at the end of
1854, to £368,000,000. Of that amount £286,000,000 has absolutely
been raised. It is difficult to realize to the imagination what is
£286,000,000 sterling. Let us try to test the importance of the
amount by some famihar comparisons. It is more than four times the
amount of the annual value of all the real property of Great Britain.
It is more than one third of the entire amount of the National Debt.
We have, indeed, already spent nearly a third of this sum, in two
years, in the prosecution of the war in which this country is engaged
but it is impossible not to reflect that if nearly £100,000,000 expended
by the State has only gained for us the advantage of occupying one
side of the city, which the valour of England and of France has
doomed to destruction, the expenditure of £286,000,000 by the people
has secured to us the advantages of internal communication all but
perfect,—of progress in science and arts unexampled at any period of
the history of the world,—of national progress almost unchecked,
and of prosperity and happiness increased beyond all precedent.
In considering the results produced, it is impossible to pass over the
magnitude of the Works. Our tunnels have traversed hills and
penetrated beneath mountains to the extent of nearly 70 miles. Of
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