The northern galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1844-1848, 1845-04-23
OUR RAIL ROAD.

For some time past we have entertained a
very comfortable belief that at no very dis
tant day we should see the Iron Horse puff
ing and blowing through the County of Addi-
son. But recently our belief has ripened to
degree of certainty which it is difficult to
resist on the ground Iof probabilities. That
Rail Road will very speedily be constructed
uniting Boston with Montreal, recent dem
onstrations have shown is almost beyond a
peradYenture. Indeed the termin of the
road, the Rail Roads from Montreal TO ST.
Johns, and from Boston to Fitchburgh,a an ex-
tent Of IS miles have already been construct
ed. The probability is daily increasing that
the Cheshire Rail uniting Fitchburgh with
Bellows Falls will be commenced the ap-
preaching season. Arriving at this point it
must almost inevitably pass through Mount
Holley 10 Burlington, and from thence by
Missisqui Bay to St. Johns. There is not
the least obstacle in the way of the western
route, except the competition with various
Rail Road projects which are contemplated
to extend the line Of the Concord Rail Road
either to the mouth of White river, and on
through Montpelier to Burlington, or by the
the Valley of the Passumpsic by Derby to
Montreal. Even these various competitions
will be only as TO priority Of time. Should
any contemplated Rail Road from Boston to
Canada be completed, one from Bellows
Falls to Burlington and Montreal would not
fail Of being constructed. This route is short
er BY % miles. 1t can RECONSTRUCTED at as
little expense as any other Contemplated. II
passes through the most manufacturing dis
tricts in Vermont, and the richest in agricul-
tural productions and mineral wealth of any
portion of New England. On the east side
Of the mountains in Rockingham and Caveu-
dish &C.. are inexhaustable quarries of slate,
and mountains of the most beautiful scrpen-
tine ever yet polished by the hand of man.
In addition to the most abundant agricultural
productions who can calculate the immense
ore, or the inexhaus,able mines Of Essex
County, New York, the immense amount Of
copperas, of manganese, Of lime and of mar
bic, the best ever known in the country and
in quantities beyond the possibility of con-
sumption, which all the time would furnish
freight for this.trac,, and of most of which
other Rail Roads would be destitute. 1, is
not among the least of the advantages Of the
western route that not one-half the quantity
of snow falls on the western as on the eastern
side of the mountain, thus preserving facili-
ties il the winter in this northern climate of
the greatest magnitude.
But while the unsurpassed advantages of
the Middlebury and Rutland route are every
day made apparent to disinterested minds
from the Montpelier papers we perceive a
disposition to create obstacles and raise bug
bears against it which have no existence ex-
cept in the ingenuity Of the authors. The
Watchman makes it very difficult to get out
OF Burlington except at very great expense
of grading and loss of or miles in curv-
ing 10 strike point on Onion River the most
favorable to departure for the North That
or other papers represent the progress to Mis-
sisqui Bay of Sc miles and thence to ST.
Johns. distance Of &c miles as full of great
and almost unsurmountable impedimen,s.-
These are however asserted by the Free Press
to be mere Pigments OF Imagination which a
survey hich is soon to be undertaken will
speedily dissipate.
Another objection thrown in the way of
the Western route by the friends ofrival tracks,
requires more heightened investigations
They assert that the alledged increase of bus
mess to Boston by the Western route in pref
erence TO the Eastern is entirely delusive, as
New York will tap the Road at Rutland and
carry the trade to White Hall and thence on
to the South. This is no more to be appre-
hended than that the Western Rail Road
which has already diverted an immense Wes-
tern trade from New. Y ork to Boston should
reverse this course Of things and benefit New
York. The truth is, that Boston is the nat
ural emporium of the trade Of Western Vel
mont. While Massachusetts is the great
manufacturing district of the Union, she will
furnish as she ever has done, the best market
for our staple productions. Nearly one-half
our merchants even now hade at Boston, and
all would prefer Boston to New York were
both upon the same footing as to freight and
easy access. Here alone can they furnish
themselves with the immense amount of do
mestic goods which The eousiry market re-