SKETCH OF THE CIVIL ENGINEERING OF NORTH AMERICA. BY DAVID STEVENSON, F.R.S.E., MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, SECOND EDITION. LONDON: JOHN WEALE, 59 HIGH HOLBORN. MDCCCLIX. 011-19-45 7W PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. Ar the urgent and repeated request of Mr Weale, I have consented to accede to his desire to publish a Second Edition of a "Sketch of the Civil Engineering of North America." A work on American engineering, founded on observations made by me twenty-two years ago, will be apt, I fear, to be regarded as worthless. Such, indeed, was my own conviction when Mr Weale first made the proposal. But after full inquiry and consideration, I have come to a different conclusion. If my observations were calculated to be useful to the profession at the time they were first published, nothing has taken place that should render them otherwise than useful to the younger members of the profession now, and I do not feel justified in withholding my assent to the request of the publisher and proprietor of the first edition of the work, which is now out of print. The geological features of America, comprehending its sheltered harbours, mighty rivers and lakes, wooded mountains, and boundless prairies, of course remain unchanged, and works which were found applicable to the physical state of the country twenty years ago are obviously applicable to it now. The fact is, that although public works in America have, since my visit, been enormously extended, the principles of engineering construction, with slight modifications, remain the same. Labour in the United States is still expensive, timber is still plentiful, and lines of communication have yet to be formed at as small a cost as possible through almost unexplored regions. So long, then, as engineering practice has, from the necessities of the case, to be adapted to such circumstances, no very great or radical change in mechanical construction, or in management, is likely to be introduced. It is no doubt true that individual works of great extent, and perhaps originality, may from time to time be erected, such, for example, as the bridge across the Niagara connecting the United States with Canada, which is a recent triumph of American engineering, or the bridge across the St Laurence on the line of the Grand Trunk Railway, which will be another exponent of the engineering skill of the British, but these may be regarded as exceptional works. They are proofs of engineering skill applied to overcome special difficulties, but they do not alter what may be regarded as the characteristics or peculiarities of American engineering, a sketch of which was all that my treatise was ever intended to give. The works alluded to are not indeed specimens of what may be termed indigenous American engineering, or, in other words, designs applicable to a country in its infancy, but rather examples of the engineering of an older school for the first time applied in America. In proof of my statement as to the unaltered condition of American engineering practice, I shall refer to one class of works which has been more extended in America during the last twenty years than in any other country, and in which there has consequently been greater scope for improvement-I mean railways. When I visited the United States in 1837, there were 1600 miles of railway open for traffic, and 2800 in the course of construction. In 1856 there were upwards of 26,000 miles of railway in full opera tion. Now, it is a singular and significant fact, that, notwithstanding the formation of so many new lines, and the experience that must have been gained during their construction, the American railway system, if we except its enormous extension, appears to have undergone little or no change during the last twenty years. In the interesting and valuable report by Captain Galton, R.E., made to the Board of Trade in 1857, the same features which I found to be peculiar to American railways in 1837 seem to be regarded as their peculiarities still; showing that there is in the people a conservative principle, if we may so express it, which leads them to cling to what they fancy best suited to their people and climate. We find, for example, in Captain Galton's enumeration of American engineering peculiarities, detailed descriptions of the locomotives with their long connecting rods suitable for steep gradients, and their four-wheeled trucks moving on a centre pivot, to enable them to pass quick curves, which were the distinguishing characteristics of American locomotives in 1837; while the cage for catching sparks still occupies the top of the funnel, and the guard or "cowcatcher," for warding off stray cattle, runs in front of the engine. The passenger "cars," as they are called, are still the same long-bodied carriages, resting on four-wheeled trucks at either end, with seats at either side, and a passage down the centre. The railways in the neighbourhood of towns are as imperfectly fenced as ever, and a large bell on the engine is still rung at all the level crossings, which are generally without gates or gate-keepers, while the rails are in some cases still carried to the station through the principal streets, "the public being," as Captain Galton expresses it, "left to take care of themselves." Nor have I been able to discover that any material progress has been made in the harbour, river, or canal en |