ilway will extend north far enough to intersect with
the North Pacific.

COST OF CONSTRUCTION.

The census of 1860 gives thirty thousand miles of railroad in operation,
which cost, including land damages, equipment, and all charges of
construction, $37,120 per mile. The average cost of fifteen New England
roads, including the Boston and Lowell, Boston and Maine, Vermont
Central, Western, Eastern, and Boston and Providence, was $36,305 per
mile. In the construction of this line, there will be no charge for land
damages, and nothing for timber, which exists along nearly the entire
line. But as iron and labor command a higher price than when those roads
were constructed, there should be a liberal estimate. Lieutenant Mullan,
in his late Report upon the Construction of the Wagon Road, discusses
the probability of a railroad at length, and with much ability. His
highest estimate for any portion of the line is sixty thousand dollars
per mile,--an estimate given before civilization made an opening in the
wilderness. There is no reason to believe that this line will be any
more costly than the average of roads in the United States.

In 1850 there were 7,355 miles of road in operation; in 1860, 30,793;
showing that 2,343 miles per annum were constructed by the people of the
United States. The following table shows the number of miles built in
each year from 1853 to 1856, together with the cost of the same.

Year. Miles. Cost.

1852 2,541 $ 94,000,000
1853 2,748 101,576,000
1854 3,549 125,313,000
1855 2,736 101,232,000
1856 3,578 132,386,000
-----------
Total expenditure for five years, $554,507,000

This exhibit is sufficient to indicate that there need be no question of
our financial ability to construct the road.

In 1856, the country had expended $776,000,000 in the construction of
railroads, incurring a debt of about $300,000,000. The entire amount of
stock and bonds held abroad at that time was estimated at only
$81,000,000.[Q]

AID FROM GOVERNMENT.

The desire of the people for the speedy opening of this great national
highway is manifested by the action of the government, which, by act of
Congress, July 2, 1864, granted the alternate sections of land for
twenty miles on each side of the road in aid of the enterprise