sills are laid iron bars or rails, 2
inches wide, 1-1/2 inches thick, fastened with iron bolts. Bridges to
pass water courses and drains to carry off the water are to be made in
the common way. * * * The work is now done. As to its cost--Unless the
route be through hills and vallies and, of course, a very unfavorable
one, the necessary grading of a narrow line for a railway will not cost
more than the like work for a wide turnpike. * * * The next item of
expense is stone work. The stone sills will cost 20 cents per foot, or
$2,112 per mile for two rows. The iron rails and bolts will cost $57 per
ton, or $969 per mile, allowing 17 tons which will do, fastening the
same from 1 to $200 a mile. * * * No greater difficulty exists in fixing
the precise cost of a railway than of a house of given dimensions or of
a brick wall. In reference to the Lexington and Ohio Railroad the
requisite data to form true estimates of the cost of each separate mile
will soon be in possession of the Company. The Engineers are of the
opinion that it is throughout an eligible cheap line. The whole cost
then is less than $8,000 a mile."

* * * * *

The Reporter of December 1st, 1830, makes an interesting correction:
"In speaking in our last of the iron rails, we should have described
them as _half an inch_ thick instead of an inch and a half. The
engineers have run the experimental line on a grade thirty feet to the
mile instead of fifty feet as we supposed. A locomotive engine will act
advantageously upon a grade of forty feet or more, but the country
between Lexington and Louisville will admit of as low a grade as thirty
feet without expensive excavations or embankments, there being no
natural obstacle on the whole line except at Frankfort where an inclined
plane and stationary power will be required to reach the Kentucky River."

* * * * *

In the issue of March 30th, 1831, the Reporter makes an interesting
calculation, proving in dollars and cents the value of the prospective
railroad. It says: "It appears by a statement of the performance on the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway that an engine has transported 142 tons
of freight 180 miles in one day, making six trips between the two towns,
and that on the next day, the steam engine travelled 120 miles with
similar loads. The transportation of 142 tons in 180 miles is equivalent
to the conveyance of one ton 4620 miles. Now, if as i