They said also that the lime used for building in the city of Washington was brought all the way from Rhode Island, while there was a great abundance of good limestone in their own mountains, although it could not be carried by wagons. There was coal also, in seams so thick and wide that it could never be used up, but there was no way of getting it down to the sea where it would run factories, smelt iron, and propel the new steamships that so soon would make the ocean a well-traveled highway. Slate also was to be had, and marble, and gypsum, and timber, but these could not be brought to the towns where they might be used. There was, moreover, much iron ore all along the proposed route, and we all know that iron is the most important of the metals. It had long before been learned that there were many fish in Chesapeake bay, and that New England was not to have the fishing business all to herself. Better even than this, there were then, as there are now, places under the shallow waters where countless oysters lived and multiplied. It was said, even in 1827, that if there could be a railroad to carry things quickly, oysters might be sent to people living far from the sea. Baltimore’s notion of swift carrying was much like that of the Erie canal packet owners. Trains could go four miles an hour, and thus goods might be sent from Baltimore to the Ohio river in sixty-two and one-half hours. Some hopeful people thought that the speed might even be raised to eight miles an hour. When cars run at that rate in these days we begin to talk about getting out and pushing the engine. The builders of the railroad had what seem to us curious ideas of laying a foundation for the track. They dug a trench in some places, putting into it broken stone, and on this they laid long slabs of stone, or “stone rails.” On these, in their turn, the iron rails were riveted down. Until car springs were invented the jolting must have been like that of a farm wagon.