In the fine saga of the Bunker Hill Monument, the Granite Railway plays a prominent part. The demand of the monument for granite definitely inspired Bryant to conceive the idea of America’s first railroad, and to design pioneer equipment that contributed hugely to the subsequent progress of America’s great railroad system. The accurate account of the building of the monument, however, has to record the fact that the railroad was not so great a benefit as anticipated. In the short distance of 12 miles there was too much loading and unloading. Willard freely expressed his annoyance at these hindrances. That he took action is indicated in the following quotation from an apparently authentic source: “The stone used for the foundation and for the first forty feet of the structure (the monument) was transported from the quarry on a railroad to the wharf in Quincy (actually located in Milton) where it was put into flat-bottomed boats, towed by steam-power to the wharf in Charlestown, and then raised to the Hill by teams moving upon an inclined plane. The repeated transfer of the stones, necessary in this mode of conveyance, being attended with delay, liability to accident, and a defacing of the blocks, was abandoned after the fortieth foot was laid, and the materials were transported by teams directly from the quarry to the hill.”[9] This account fails to tell how the teams got up and down the steep hill at the quarry: the 84-foot rise at an angle of 15 degrees. Clever Bryant must have used his endless chain to drag the empty teams up, and to brake the loaded ones down. [9] George E. Ellis, _History of the Battle of Bunker’s (Breed’s) Hill_ (Boston: Lockwood, Brooks and Company, 1875). [Illustration: HOC NOMEN est in æternum, et hoc memoriale in generationem et generationem. © R. RUZICKA 1915 Bunker Hill Monument in 1915 Reproduced from a wood engraving by Rudolph Ruzicka in the Boston Athenæum] [Illustration: Judah Touro Reproduced from a portrait in the Redwood Library, Newport, R. I.] [Illustration: Amos Lawrence Reproduced from a portrait by Chester Harding owned by the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company] [Illustration: Foundation of Bunker Hill Monument Reproduced from Willard, _Plans and Sections_, Plate II] [Illustration: Construction of Bunker Hill Monument Reproduced from Willard, _Plans and Sections_, Plate IV] [Illustration: Construction of Bunker Hill Monument Reproduced from Willard, _Plans and Sections_, Plate X] [Illustration: Bunker Hill Monument in 1830 Reproduced from C. H. Snow, _A Geography of Boston_ (Boston, 1830)] _Beacon for Mariners_