gas, or sewerage, it is readily unlocked by the removal of ten keys, serving to displace two blocks, after which they are removed laterally. They may be replaced in the same manner, and when again keyed the pavement is as perfect a structure as when first laid.

This plan of pavement seems to fulfill every condition required in a perfect carriage way. It is ornamental, (as without any additional cost the surface can be wrought into any required patterns,) and suitable for any particular locality. The foothold is perfect, depending upon the form of surface without regard to material. The bosses are so shaped and so arranged, and are at such distances apart, that the draft is smooth and easy. The blocks are so connected and supported that a perfect surface is preserved without reference to the quality of the foundation. There are no interstices through which dirt can accumulate by being forced through the pavement. It is so constructed as to form a perfect arch from one side of the street to the other, and the joints between the blocks are never longitudinal with the street, but either crosswise or oblique. It is easily taken up and relaid without injury. It can be swept and cleaned with facility. Experience demonstrates beyond a question that iron must be adopted for the pavement of the principal thoroughfares of our large cities, and that no other material will fully answer the purpose. Where granite can readily be obtained the cost of iron is no greater than that of the Russ pavement. When it becomes necessary to transport the stone for considerable distances the iron can be laid much cheaper, and when worn out the material left is worth one-third the original cost.

The weight of iron required is from 200 to 300 pounds per square superficial yard, dependent upon the traffic to which it is to be subjected and upon the width of the street. For a street the width of Pennsylvania avenue and to suit its traffic, two hundred and fifty pounds weight would probably be sufficient. The cost of this would be about seven dollars and fifty cents ($7 50) per square yard. The minimum weight would be ($6 50) six dollars and fifty cents.

In regard to the question of railways as a means of transport for passengers through the streets of cities, it must be admitted, there is a great diversity of opinion; but it is believed that objections are made only by those who are not familiar with their working, or against some particular detail of their construction. The railway, as a principle, has every argument in its favor; and if any valid objections can be made against them, as they are constructed, it is against such features as can be readily modified. The Harlem railway, in New York, was the first used for the local business of the city, in the carrying of passengers in small horse cars. It was not originally constructed for this purpose, and was laid with a rail of the ordinary pattern in use upon ordinary railways, and with a gauge of four feet eight and a half inches. The form of rail did not admit of a smooth surface or perfect connexion with the pavement, offering serious obstruction to the passage of ordinary vehicles. When subsequently it was proposed to lay railways through the Sixth and Eighth avenues, this objection was most seriously urged. To avoid the difficulty, a rail of a groove pattern was adopted. This admitted a pavement laid close against both sides of the rail and even with its top, and

removed, to a considerable extent, one very important objection. The groove is made shallow, wide and flaring, so that the wheels of an ordinary vehicle will readily enter or leave it. To make the surface more perfect, square blocks were laid on each side of the rails, while the remainder was laid with the ordinary cobble stone. Successive improvements in the method of paving, and in the form of rail have been made until railways have, in that city, become an indispensable convenience. They have been adopted in Boston, Brooklyn and Philadelphia, and the construction of new lines is in progress. It is not, however, to be said that they have been perfected, or that all the objections to them have ceased, although in the city of New York, as the longitudinal avenues are extended, the rule which once prevailed has been reversed, and the extension of the railways is demanded by the people, instead of being asked for by the railway companies. There are those who are ready to concede their utility to the fullest extent, and yet who object to them on the ground that they still offer obstruction to other travel, in consequence of the faults of their construction, and the width of track, as well as the cumbersomeness of the carriages. The grooved rails are laid upon longitudinal wooden sills, which in their turn lay upon wooden cross-ties. This wooden structure is filled up with gravel in which the pavement is laid. The pavement and railway are therefore two independent structures, neither dependent upon the other. In some cases the rails settle below the paving, and in others the paving below the rails. The greater the difference of level between the two, the greater is the obstruction to ordinary travel. If both could be kept upon the same level this objection would cease.

Another difficulty is, that the perishable nature of the sills renders a renewal necessary every few years, and a constant repair is going on. The adoption of the proposed railway in Pennsylvania avenue, and the connexion with the iron pavement, will make available all the advantages to be derived from their use without the difficulties last referred to.

By the same process of keying, as adopted between the blocks and between the blocks and gutters, the rails are held in place in the pavement. The rails are kept upon the same level as the pavement and are a part of the same structure. They merely form four parallel grooves in a cast iron paving, serving to guide the carriages and keep them in given lines in the street. No perishable wooden material is required, and the obstruction and defacement of the street consequent upon constant repairs is avoided.

The width of gauge adopted upon existing street railways seems to be entirely an accidental feature, the other roads in New York adopting the same gauge as the Harlem road, which was constructed originally without reference to being used as a street railway. In other cities the same gauge has been adopted without any better reason. There is certainly no good reason why a railway for street purposes, to be used with horse power and with small light cars, and at a speed not exceeding five or six miles to the hour, should require a width of gauge such as is sufficient for bearing locomotives and trains at a speed of thirty or forty miles per hour.

The ordinary street cars in use are 7 to 7 feet in width, and might with advantage be reduced to six. Our large passenger cars drawn by locomotives are 9 to 9 feet. The same proportion between the width of car and width of track would give from 3 to 3 feet as sufficient for a street railway, without making allowance for the difference of speed.

The objection to the wide gauge and the wide car does not apply with the same force in Pennsylvania avenue as in some of the narrower streets in New York, Boston, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia, through which railways are laid. But there are other considerations in favor of the narrow track and narrow car, which apply equally everywhere. The width proposed for this avenue is three feet six inches to four feet for the track, and five and a half to six feet for the cars. Their height from the pavement will be about twenty-two inches. They are, in fact, similar to an omnibus body, elongated and resting upon carwheels, but much lower. Their capacity is for twenty passengers, and they are designed to be drawn by one horse only. These carriages are ornamental in form and design, and will not occupy more than thirteen feet of the width of the street, from out to out of carriages on a double track. No conductor is required, the driver performing the same duties as the omnibus driver. Passengers need not be annoyed by persons standing in their front, or by the constant passing of a conductor through a crowded passage way. In the use of one horse only, which is permitted by the lightness of the carriages, the travel is in the centre, between the two tracks, where a perfect foothold is obtained.

A more prompt, speedy, and comfortable transit of passengers is insured, because of the small number that it is proposed to carry in each carriage. Their stops will be fewer than the large car; they can stop and start more readily. To do a given amount of traffic the carriages must be run at more frequent intervals; thus accommodating the public better. The transit will be more regular and rapid, and their convenience in every way enhanced to the public over any heretofore used. The whole amount in the street will not be dissimilar to that of only two lines of omnibuses, but far more safe and convenient because less elevated from the pavement, occupying less width, having no axles, wheels, and hubs projecting beyond the body of the carriage, and confined to straight lines in the centre of the street instead of being scattered over its entire width.

While admitting the plausibility of some of the arguments against railways in thronged thoroughfares, on account of a few defects in their construction and of the space the ordinary carriages occupy, and the consequent interruption to other vehicles, there can be no question but that the railway affords the most comfortable and the most convenient and economical means of transport for passengers from one point of a city to another. Remedy the few defects in the tracks referred to, and divest the railway carriage of its cumbersomeness, and these objections cease. The same number of passengers may be carried by railway with half the number of carriages and one-quarter the number of horses that would be required with omnibuses. The pavements are relieved from immense wear and tear.

The noise and dust is avoided. The ingress and egress is easier and more convenient. They are safer to pedestrians, because the route of the car is fixed and well known; and, finally, the rates of fare less than in omnibuses.

It cannot be believed that conveniences of public transport of such a nature, and so divested of all the remaining objectionable features which it is alleged pertain to them in cities where they are used, can be otherwise than beneficial to the interests of the city, and to the value of property along their route.

It is a significant fact that in the city of New York, where railways are used with all the faults in their construction which their opponents set forth against them, property in the longitudinal avenues through which they run has, since their construction, increased in value 50 per cent., while in similar and parallel avenues which have no railways it has not increased 10 per cent. In Brooklyn the railway system has developed and brought into use property to the extent of ten times the whole cost of the roads, which for years yet, without such facilities, would have been unimproved and valueless. Extracts from the testimony of men of respectability, who have had peculiar opportunities of witnessing the operation of these railways and their effects upon the value of property, are appended. This testimony was taken by commissioners to be used in a case between the city of Louisville and the Louisville and Portland Railway, but it is none the less pertinent.

First is that of Edwin Smith, who has been for the last twenty-five years a city surveyor and civil engineer in the city of New York. He says:

"These railways are preferable to any existing method for the transportation of passengers through the streets of cities, for various reasons, viz: a great saving is made in the wear and tear of pavements, and in the wear and tear of vehicles. The cars are safer to pedestrians and ordinary vehicles, as they can be stopped quicker than omnibuses. They are less noisy than vehicles upon the pavements. They create less dust. A given number of passengers require less than half the number of vehicles that would be required in transportation by omnibuses, and a correspondingly less number of horses. They are easier of ingress and egress than omnibuses; they are more comfortable, in every respect, to passengers. Passengers can be transported at less rates. Being confined to a straight line they offer less obstruction to other travel than omnibuses, and serve to systematize and regulate it. Few of the streets in New York city through which railways pass are as wide as the width assumed in this interrogatory for Main street, in Louisville. The avenues in the upper part of the city are about this width, viz: sixty feet between the curb stones, but, with the exception of Canal street and a part of the Bowery, the streets in the lower part of the city are much narrower; Oliver street, through which a railway passes, is but twenty-one feet between curbs. "New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, and, I think, New Orleans, have railroads in their streets.

"I know nothing about the business of Main street, in Louisville, and, therefore, cannot make a comparison. The travel in many of the streets in New York through which railways pass is very great.

Some of them are main thoroughfares. Fulton street, in Brooklyn, is the principal street. The system of railways in that city all converges into this street, and all the cars from the various lines run through it to the ferry at its foot. The track in South street, New York, runs directly along the wharves of East river, where an immense shipping business is transacted, and where heavy draying is required. The cars upon the roads mentioned are propelled by horse power, and the roads are esteemed of great public utility. I cannot say how they affect the business of the streets through which they pass in Boston, New Orleans, and Philadelphia. In Brooklyn, Fulton street remains the principal street, as it was before railways were laid in it. I do not know that its business is injured by the railway, on the contrary, the railway gives importance to the street and value to the property, and tends to retain for it the character of the principal street of the city. In New York the property has been greatly enhanced in value upon the streets where railways have been constructed. The effect upon the property may be judged by the effect in the avenues in the upper part of the city. The avenues in which railways have not been constructed, viz: A, B, C, and D, and Seventh avenue, are streets in which but little business is done, while Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, &c., have a large amount of business, and are business thoroughfares.

"With the exception of Fifth avenue, which has importance as a street conventionally retained for splendid residences, the property upon the avenues having no railways, is less valuable than that in which railways are laid.

"In the lower part of the city the most extensive and costly stores for wholesale and jobbing purposes are being constructed upon streets in which railways are laid, or in their immediate vicinity. That portion of the city upon and in the immediate vicinity of the lower terminus of the Sixth and Eighth avenue railroads, is now undergoing greater improvements in rebuilding, for heavy commercial purposes, than any other. As compared with omnibuses, the elements of convenience, not only to the passenger, but to the other travel of the streets, is decidedly in favor of the cars, even with their present width of 7 to 7 feet. They occupy less space than omnibuses, as the latter have their wheels projecting from and outside of the body of the carriage, occupying 8 to 9 feet, while the former have their wheels inside of the body. Cars for street purposes, if deemed expedient, might be made narrower than those at present used; and if the bodies were made of the same width as omnibus bodies, viz: 5 feet 3 inches, they would occupy but 12 feet from outside to outside, on a double line, allowing for a space of one and one and a half feet between them. With the same space between any two omnibuses, they would occupy about 17 feet.

"Property is rated higher, and is more valuable as a general thing, upon streets upon which railways are laid, than upon similar and parallel streets through which railways have not been laid. For instance, in Sixth and Eighth avenues, since the railroads have been laid, the property along the lines and on the crossing streets has more than doubled in value.