Grand National railroad from Washington to New York.
Quoting the bill in regard to railroads, which we published yesterday as having passed the House of Representatives, the
Washington Chronicle remarks:
‘
"Great satisfaction and discussion have been excited by this passage, and some persons have conceived it was intended to have a special reference to one or two particular railroads, whereas it was simply an enunciation of a clear and general policy of vast importance.
It is believed that
Mr. Stevens will introduce a bill for a direct line between
Washington and New York — so direct and level as to avoid every local interest of any diversion from its main course to help any other road.
That it will cross leading railroads on the route it must traverse; is to be expected; but that it will be so surveyed as to look to the promotion of any particular interest will simply be to discard the object the
President had in view and to forget the public interests.
It will probably cross the
Susquehanna at a point near the mouth of the
Conestoga, and will therefore run through one of the richest sections of
Pennsylvania.
It is confidently calculated that when this road is built, the travel between
Washington and New York will not take more than seven hours. This will, in fact, be a national road, built by the
Government as well for its own purposes as for the promotion of the general weal."
’