in length, which have been prepared for the
transit of travelers and freight. The requirements of business
necessitated the piercing of the Alps, and as soon as the necessity was
shown, funds in abundance were forthcoming for the enterprise.

But tunneling a mountain is a different thing from climbing it. Many
years ago the attention of inventors was directed to the practicability
of constructing a railroad up the side of a mountain on grades which, to
an ordinary engine, were quite impossible. The improvements in
locomotives twenty-five and thirty years ago rendered them capable of
climbing grades which, in the early days of railroad engineering, were
deemed out of the question. The improvements proved a serious stumbling
block in the way of the inventors, who found that an ordinary locomotive
was able to climb a much steeper grade than was commonly supposed. The
first railroads were laid almost level, but it was soon discovered that
a grade of a few feet to the mile was no impediment to progress, and
gradually the grade was steepened.

The inventors of mountain railroad transportation might have been
discouraged by this discovery, but it is a characteristic of an inventor
that he is not set back by opposition, which, in fact, only serves to
stimulate his zeal. The projectors of inclined roads and mountain
engines kept steadily on, and in France, Germany, England, and the
United States many experimental roads were constructed, each of a few
hundred yards in length, and locomotive models were built and put in
motion to the amazement of the general public, who jeered alike at the
contrivances and the contrivers, deeming the former impracticable and
the latter crazy.

But the idea of building a road up the side of a hill was not to be
dismissed. There was money in it for the successful man, so the cranky
inventors kept on at work in spite of the jeers of the rabble and the
discouragements of capitalists loath to invest their money in an
uncertain scheme. To the energy and perseverance of railroad inventors
the success of the mountain railroad is due, as also is the construction
of the various mountain roads, of which the road up Mt. Washington,
finished in 1868, was the first, and the road up Pike's Peak, completed
the other day, was the latest.

Of all the mountain roads which have been constructed since the one up
Mt. Washington was finished, the best known is that which ascends the
world-famous Rigi. With the exce