This tunnel, after having fallen in, has only been repaired
within the last two months. The history of this catastrophe, and of the
mode of remedying it, forms quite an incident in the history of the
railway, and shows with what resolution difficulties in this country are
overcome. To reopen the tunnel it was clear would be a work of time, so
Mr. Tyson resolved to run a new temporary railway for three miles over
the mountain which had been tunnelled, and this was accomplished by 3000
men in ten days. We saw the place where this road had passed, and the
zig-zag line by which the mountain was crossed. The road seems
positively to overhang the precipice, and reminded me of a mountain pass
in Switzerland--as, indeed, the whole of the road here does. Mr. Tyson
himself drove the first train over, and he said his heart was in his
mouth when, having got to the top, he saw the descent before him, and
the engine and train on a precipice where the least _contretemps_ would
have plunged the whole into the abyss below; but happily all went right,
and till within the last two months this temporary road has been used.
It was really quite frightful to look up and think a train could pass
over such a place, the grade being 420 feet in a mile, or 1 in 121/2; but
you will one day be able to form some idea of it, as a photograph was
taken, and Mr.
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