The state legislature had voted to loan to the credit of the city $200,000 for the construction of the Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati Railroad. In 1851 the road-bed of two hundred and sixty-three miles was completed, and on the morning of February 21 was formally opened by the passage over the road of a party of four hundred and twenty-eight persons, who took the train from Columbus and Cincinnati to Cleveland, the “city of the Lake Shore.” The party was made up of members of the legislature, officers of the state, the councils of both cities, and many citizens. The road over which these people travelled was a very different one from the Toledo road of fourteen years before, and from the number of people accommodated it is evident that the passenger coaches were very different, also. Iron rails had taken the place of wooden ones, and heavier locomotives and more comfortable cars had been built. When the excursion train reached the city of Cleveland, thousands of citizens were lined up along the track and about the station and the cannon of the city boomed out a loud welcome to the incoming guests. The party had arrived late in the day, as it was a twelve-hour journey. The next morning a procession of Cleveland people was formed, with General Sanford as chief marshal, to escort the guests to the public square in front of the court-house, where the mayor received them with a speech of welcome. He was followed by Mr. Convers, speaker of the senate, Mr. Starkweather, who spoke for the people of Cleveland, three gentlemen from Cincinnati, and the governor of the state, Mr. Wood, who was a Cleveland resident. Last on the programme came Mr. Cyrus Prentiss, the president of the Cleveland and Pittsburg Railroad, forty miles of which were also opened that day. This road ran to Ravenna, where passengers could take the canal packet to Beaver River, and there transfer to a steamboat for Pittsburg. Mr. Prentiss invited the guests to take an excursion on that road. After that trip they returned to a banquet and grand torchlight procession in the evening. In their pulpits on Sunday the ministers discoursed on the wonderful event that had taken place, the arrival of the railroad, and on Monday morning the people gathered from all the region round to see the strange iron horse start back across the state with its load. Just before the train pulled out of the station, one of the visiting party sang a humorous song, describing the effect of the trip upon the interior regions of the state. He told of the delight and astonishment of mothers and children in their log cabins, and of wood-choppers of the back country as they had looked up and seen this “snorting iron horse with the long tail” race through the country. He ended his song with praise of the governor Cleveland had given the state and of Cleveland itself, “The beautiful city, the forest-tree city, The city upon the lake shore.”