Page:Description of the Line and Works of the Sao Paulo Railway in the Empire of Brazil.pdf/6

34 given to its culture by the high prices caused by the civil war in the United States.

The principal engineering features of the São Paulo railway (Plate 5) will now be noticed:- first, of the locomotive line both below and above the Serra,-and then of the inclined planes by which the ascent of the "Serra do Mar" is accomplished, with the mode of working them.

.

This portion of the railway runs over the low swampy ground which intervenes between the seaboard and the foot of the "Serra do Mar," and for the first 8 miles consists of a low embankment, alongside the existing public road constructed by Government over the marsh. Leaving the road, the line crosses the valleys of the Cubatão and the Mugi rivers, both subject to high and dangerous floods from the mountains, by embankments of considerable magnitude, and terminates at the foot of the spur of the Serra which has been selected for the inclined planes. There are three principal bridges on this length. The first, across the arm of the sea which divides the island on which Santos is situated from the mainland, is 500 feet in length, consisting of ten openings of 50 feet, each spanned by wrought-iron lattice girders placed under the rails, supported on piers composed of single rows of four cast-iron screw piles, 15 inches in external diameter. The bridge over the Cubatão river has four spans of 75 feet each, with lattice girders supporting cross-plate girders, the piers consisting of cast-iron cylinders 18 inches in diameter, also on screw foundations; and the bridge over the Mugi river is of three spans of 66 feet, also composed of lattice girders resting on cast-iron columns. There are six other bridges, with spans varying from 15 feet to 40 feet, all of wrought iron, resting on cast-iron piles, or on stone abutments. The steepest gradient is 1 in 75, for 51 chains, and the sharpest curve is 17-chains' radius. At the terminal station at Santos, a wharf was constructed on cast-iron piles, with creosoted pine superstructure, and a junction line affords direct communication with the harbour. The buildings for the passenger station and general stores are of masonry, but the goods sheds, engine and coke sheds, &C., are of corrugated iron. The intermediate stations are of brickwork. Great difficulty was experienced on this section in obtaining suitable ballast, as the sand available was much too fine, and broken stone is inapplicable for 'pot' sleepers.

The locomotive line recommences at the summit of the Serra, and runs in a N.W. direction, for a distance of 30 miles, to the city of São Paulo. In the neighbourhood of the Serra the