A Yankee railroad,
--The Way They Build Then.--
Grant's railroad from city Point to the
Weldon road, is nine miles long, and was built in eleven days. A letter describing it, says:
‘
"Two days were lost to the force by the sinking of a vessel having a portion of the material on board, which reduces it practically to a nine days job. No previous surveys had been made to establish the route, or ascertain grades, and the most remarkable feature of the whole is, that none were made at all. The line was located by the eye, without the aid of a compass, and no instruments were need to guage the evenness or degree of curvature to be established at different points.
No measurement was made or taken in laying the track from one end to the other — not even a tape line or "ten feet." poles !-- All was gauged by the eye — estimated by paces.
The practical skill of the construction corps enabled them to seise the best location for the road at a glance, and to direct its details without the engineering appliances usually deemed indispensable.-- Several ravines of considerable pitch and depth on the way. A of logs were built up, heavy timbers run from one to another for stringers, cross-ties put down on these, the rails nailed down in the usual manner, and the result is a substantial roadbed, equal to best trestlework in the
United States for temporary use. One of these bridges is eight hundred feet long and fifteen feet high; the other, eight hundred and twenty feet in length and twenty-five feet in height at its greatest elevation.
Very little filling or cutting was done at any point on the line."
’
