Next to Great Britain, France is the nation which has the most extensive line of railways. Of these, the chief are the St. Etienne Andrezieux, the Roane and Andrezieux, Lyons and St. Etienne, Paris and Versailles, the Epinac, Paris and Havre, Paris and Lyons, Paris and Strasburg, Calais and Paris, the Orleans, &c., &c.
Germany began to experience the luxury and benefit of fast and comfortable riding in the year 1848, by constructing a railroad, of which eighty miles (more than 860 English miles) were completed in that year. At the beginning of 1850, there had been added 840 German miles more to the length, so that there were then more than four thousand English miles of railroad opened for passengers in that country. Add to these both tracks of the Maine Weser line, from Cassel to Frankfort, we have nearly fifty English miles farther. Of the aggregate, over fifteen hundred miles belong to the different governments.
Prussia owns an extent of 340 Ger man miles, or 2,025 United States miles ; Austria, 187; Bavaria, 82I; Saxony, 551; Hanover, 48 ; Baden, 52 ; Electorate of Hesse, 38 ; Wurtemburg, 25 ; Meehlen burg Schwerin, 19; Anhalt, 12; Bruns wick, 11I; Saxe Weimar, 10. In Austria there are 700 miles of railway, and 248 miles being constructed. All tile remain ing States of Germany have about 1,148 miles.
The Wurtemburg railroads, and the Budweiz-Linz-Ginunder horse line, are quite isolated. The upper Rhenish rail road system, which comprehends the Baden government line, the Maine Neckar line, the Palatinate Ludwig's line, the Taunus line, and the lines from Frank fort to Offenbach, Harlan, and Friedburg, is separated from the large North Ger man system-of roads by the unhuilt por tion between Friedburg and Marburg, as the Bavarian lines are separated by the tract from Plauen to Reichenbach, and the Austrian southern line by the tract from Glognitz to Mucrtzenschlag, (over the Sommering.) Forty one joint stock companies own the private lines, and their funds amount to one hundred and fifty-eight and a half million thalers. To this other loans should be added, of sixty two and a half millions.
Major Brown, our countryman, the .eonsuhing railroad engineer of the Em peror of Russia, states in a letter, that the Emperor has determined, as soon as the season will allow, to commence the pro jected railroad from St. Petersbnrgh to
`Warsaw, the surveys for which were made in 1848. Major Brown will, by his position, have the chief superintendence. The distance in this instance to run is from 750 to 800 of our miles, and stretch ing, for the most part, through an inhos pitable tract of country, intersected by many rivers, broad morasses, and low lands.
The railroad from St. Petersburgh to Moscow, of which our talented country man, Major Whistler, was chief engineer when he died, is now nearly finished. It is 421 miles long.
In 1830 there were only thirty miles of locomotive railway in the world, now there are no less than 18,000 miles. Ame rica has no less than 8,680 miles, and will soon have 10,000 in operation. Mas sachusetts alone has more than 1,000, and Pennsylvania 1,200. In 1836 there were only 15 miles of railroad in the State of New York, now there are about 2,283.
The entire amount of capital invested in railway communications in all the countries of the world, is estimated at three hundred and sixty-eight millions and a half. Upwards of 18,656 miles of railway have been constructed. The cap ital to be invested in 7,800 miles in pro gress, will amount to nearly $147,000,000.
The total extent would then be 26,450, miles, which is more than would sur round the globe. So great is the amount of railway mileage in Great Britain, that it is calculated 27 out of every hundred miles in the world are in the British isles. Among the projeetedlines of the U.S. are two stupendous lines, one from Cincinnati to St Louis, to cost $5,000,000; and an other from Lake Michigan or the Mis sissippi to the Pacific Ocean, to cost over $60,000,000, for a distance of more than 2,000 miles. Besides these, Ohio, Penn sylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and, indeed, almost every State has various routes surveyed and in contemplation.
The Erie Road is the longest in the world-467 miles. That between Mos cow and St. Petersburg, in Russia, is next in length, being 420 miles. The Russian government is about beginning a road from Warsaw to St. Petersburgh, a dis tance of snore than 700 miles, of which T. S. Brown, (already alluded to,) will be chief engineer. It is noteworthy that the American great enterprise is by.a private company; the Russian is built by Government.