It is the great rival of the Baltimore and Ohio railway, on which we
travelled with Mr. Tyson, and we were rather anxious to have an
opportunity of comparing the two, which, having now seen them both, we
feel competent to do. The great change which nature presents now, to
what it did when the leaves were in full foliage, may make us underrate
the beauties of the road we passed over to-day, but, notwithstanding
this, we think there can be no doubt that the Baltimore and Ohio, taken
as a whole, is by far the most picturesque and beautiful. The length of
the two roads is very nearly the same; but, while the whole of the
Baltimore and Ohio was beautiful, one side of the mountain being as much
so as the other, the first part of the road to-day, till we reached the
summit level, was very much of the same character as many other mountain
regions we have passed. For many miles the road followed the course of
the Conemaugh, crossing and recrossing the river, but without any very
striking feature. But the moment we had passed through a tunnel, 3612
feet long, and began the descent of 2200 feet, on the eastern side of
the Alleghany chain, the scene quite baffled description. The summit
level of the Baltimore and Ohio is 500 feet higher; but the descent
occupies a distance of seventeen miles, while the descent to-day was
effected in eleven, so that, with all our partiality for the Baltimore
and Ohio, it must be confessed there is nothing on it so wonderful and
sublime as this.
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