The undertaking was commenced in June 1826, under the direction of Mr. Geo. Stevenson. It was proposed to lay the railway as nearly as possible in a straight line ; but the nature rendered this work one of immense labour and difficulty. Upwards of 200,0001. were expended in excavations and em bankments; in bridges alone, over and'under the railway, upwards of 99,0001.; and out of a total expenditure, amounting to 820,0001., only the stim of 67,9321. for the railway itself, the particulars of which, as furnished by Mr. Booth, we subjoin ; namely, The following summary view of the working of the concern, during the first fifteen months of its existence, obtained from an Annual Report from the directors to the proprietors, we insert, as furnishing some important data to all persons interested in similar undertakings :— The tunnel under Liverpool, which commences in Wapping, near the Queen's Dock, and ends at Edge Hill, outside the town, was constructed in seven or eight separate lengths, each communicating with the surface by means of perpendicular shafts. This tunnel is whitewashed throughout, and lighted with gas, and the effect produced is very singular and picturesque. The whitened roof and sides contiguous to each light are so strongly illumined, that the whole vista (observes Mr. Walker, in his " Description of the Railway,") appears like a succession of superb arches formed through massive parallel walls, the intervening spaces being left in comparative darkness. About half a mile from the tunnel the railroad crosses Wavertree-lane. Half a mile to the north of Wavertree, at Olive Mount, there is an excavation through the solid rock, 70 feet below the surface, and two miles in length. The road is then carried by means of a great embankment, varying from 15 to 45 feet in height, and from 60 to 135 feet in breadth at the base, across a valley at Roby, or Broadgreen, two miles in length. It then crosses the Hayton turnpike road, a little past Roby ; six miles and three quarters from Liverpool there is a junction railway for the conveyance of coals from the neighbouring mines ; on the right, and at a distance of seven of eight miles from the Liverpool station, it comes to the Whiston inclined plane, which is one mile and a half long, and rises about 1 in 96. There is here a stationary engine to assist the carriages in their ascent. For nearly two miles the road is then on an exact level. It was on this part of the road that the contest of locomotive carriages, for the premium of 5001., took place in October, 1830, the result of which determined the directors to make use of locomotive engines instead of stationary ones. AbOut half a mile from the Whiston plane, at Rainhill, the Liverpool and Manchester turnpike-road crosses the railway, at an angle of thirty-four degrees. On leaving the level at Rainhill, the railway crosses the Sutton inclined plane, which is of the same extent as that at Whiston, and descends in the same proportion that the other rises. There is here another stationary engine. A little beyond Rainhill several collieries communicate with the road by means of railways, and the Runcorn Gap railway will here cross the line to St. Helen's.
The next object of interest is Parr Moss, the road over which is formed principally of the clay and stone dug out of the Sutton inclined plane, and extends about three quarters of a mile. The moss was originally about twenty feet deep, and the embankment across it is nearly twenty-five feet high, though only four or five feet now appear above the surface, the rest having sunk below it. The road is then carried over the valley of Sandy, by means of a massive and handsome viaduct, consisting of nine arches, of fifty feet open each • the height of the parapet being seventy feet above the Sankey canal in the ;alley beneath. The viaduct is built principally of brick, with stone facings, and the
foundations rest on piles of from twenty to thirty feet in length, driven into the ground. The breadth of the railway between the parapets is twenty-five feet. The viaduct is approached by a stupendous embankment, formed principally of the clay dug from the high lands surrounding the valley. A little to the south of the town of Newton the railway crosses a narrow valley, by the short but lofty embankment of Sandy Mains, and a handsome bridge of four arches, each forty feet span, under one of which passes the Newton and Warrington turnpike road. The Wigan and Newton branch here enters the railway.
A few miles beyond Newton is the great Kenyon excavation, from which above eight thousand cubic yards of clay and sand were dug out. The Kenyon and Leigh Junction railway here joins the Liverpool and Manchester line, and, as it also joins the Bolton and Leigh line, brings into a direct commu nichtion Liverpool and Bolton. The Liverpool and Manchester railway then passes successively under three handsome bridges ; and a little beyond Culcbeth, over the Brosely embankment, which is about a mile and a half in leugtb, and from eighteen to twenty feet in height. It then passes over Bury-lane, and the small river Glees, or Glazebrook, and a river at Chat Moss. This is a huge bog, comprising an area of about twelve square miles, no soft, that cattle cannot walk over it, and in many parts so fluid, that an iron rod laid upon the surface would sink to the bottom, by the effect of its own gravity. It is from ten to thirty-five feet deep, and the bottom is composed of clay and sand. It was accounted by some an impossibility to carry the road across this huge bog ; but by ingenuity and perseverance the work has been effected, and a firm road is now carried across the moss. Hurdles of brushwood and heath are placed under the wooden sleepers, supporting the rails over the greatest part of the moss, and the road may be said to float on the surface. The most difficult part was ou the eastern border, extending about half a mile, where an embankment of twenty feet in height was made, and many thousand cubic feet of earth sank into the moss, and disappeared, before the line of road approached the proposed level. At length, however, it became consolidated ; in 1829, one railway was laid over the whole moss, and on the let of January, 1830, the Rocket steam engine, with a carriage and passengers passed over it. The line extends across the moss, a distance of about four miles and three quarters, and the road is not inferior to any other part of the railway. The work was completed at an expense of 27,7191. 118. 10d.
On leaving Chat Moss, the road passes over the lowlands at Barton, extending about a mile between the Moss and Woreley canal, by means of an embank ment; it is carried over the canal by a neat stone viaduct of two arches ; it then proceeds through Eccles, and a portion of Salford, under six bridges ; it is carried over the Irwell by a handsome stone bridge of sixty-three feet span, thirty feet from the water, and then over twenty-two brick arches, gnd a bridge over Water-street, to the Company's station in Water-street, ilanchester, a distance of thirty-one miles from the Liverpool station. The railway is there on a level with the second story of the Company's warehouses. On the line between Liverpool and Manchester, there are, besides culverts and foot bridges, sixty-three bridges, of which thirty pass under the turnpike-road, twenty-eight over it, four over brooks, &c , and one over the river Irwell. There are twenty two of brick, seventeen of wood and brick, eleven of brick and stone, eleven of wood, and two of stone and wood, at a total expense of 99,0651. 1 Is. 9d.