led that the road-bed of the railway ought to
be a public highway upon which any individual or company might run its
own conveyances, on the payment of a fixed toll; indeed, in both Europe
and the United States, public opinion could see no difference between
the railway and the canal. The employment of a steam-driven locomotive
engine, however, made such a plan impossible, and demonstrated that the
roads must be thoroughly organized.

At the close of 1850 there were nearly four hundred different railway
companies in England; in the United States about a dozen companies were
required to make the connection of New York City and Buffalo. A few of
these paid dividends; a large majority barely met their operating
expenses, defaulting the interest on their bonds; a great many were
hopelessly bankrupt.

=Consolidation of Connecting Lines.=--Between 1850 and 1865 a new feature
entered into railway management, namely, the union of connecting lines.
This was a positive advantage, for the operating expenses of the sixteen
lines, now a part of the New York Central, between New York and Buffalo
were scarcely greater than the expenses of one-third that number. The
service was much quicker, better, and cheaper. In England the several
hundred companies were reduced to twelve; in France the thirty-five or
more companies were reduced to six in number.

The consolidation of connecting lines brought about another desirable
feature--the extension of the existing lines.[17] The lines of
continental Europe were extended eastward to the Russian frontier, and
to Constantinople; then the Alps were surmounted. In the United States
railway extension was equally great. The Union and Central Pacific
railways were opened in 1869, giving the first all-rail route to the
Pacific coast. Other routes to the Pacific followed within a few years,
one of which, the Canadian Pacific, was built from Quebec to Vancouver.

[Illustration: A TRUNK SYSTEM--THE VARIOUS BRANCHES EXTEND INTO COAL,
GRAIN, IRON, CATTLE, TIMBER, AND TOBACCO REGIONS]

The period from 1864 was one of extensive railway building both in the
United States and Europe. Some of the roads, such as the transalpine
railways of Europe and the Pacific roads of the United States, were
greatly needed. Others that created new fields of industry by opening to
communication productive lands were also wise and necessary; the lands
would have been valueless without them. Not a few lines that were to be