The Great Bore
A Souvenir Of The Hoosac Tunnel

i3 had pointed out this route from the east to the west." Whereupon a bystander, who was somewhat less of an optimist, remarked dryly, “It s a great pity the same finger was n’t thrust through the mountain. It was in this same year, 1825, that the first Ameri- can railway was put in operation at the Quincy granite works, for the transportation of granite by horse-power to the Neponset river, a distance of three miles. Its construction Cciused such a sensa tion that the canal tunnel project was given up. EARLY RAILROAD HISTORY. Then came the years of the introduction and de- velopment of the railway and the locomotive engine. During this period the fascinating scheme of pieic ing the Hoosac mountain was not permanently lost. In spite of the fact that before the end of the year 1842 the Boston and Albany railroad was running smoothly, there were some discontented spiiits who clamored for a more northern route to Boston, that is, for a route which should follow the canal suivey of 1825, claiming that the distance was shoitci by nine miles and that the gradient was easier The agitation was successful and the first link in the chain to bind the east to the west through the I loo- sac mountain was forged when, in 1845, ^ie Boston