“The tracks may be formed of granite, whinstone, or any of the hard varieties of rock capable of being hammer-dressed.”
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Section for Road Metal. Section for Causeway.]
Specimens of these stone tracks were laid in Edinburgh, in terms of Mr. Stevenson’s specification, on South Bridge Street opposite to the College, and in the Pleasance, and a third specimen was laid by the Road Trustees on Liberton Hill, which still remains after a lapse of half a century.
Subsequently to this Mr. Walker laid similar tramways in the Commercial Road, London, and as is well known, they have been pretty largely used in the principal towns in Italy.
For a “city road,” as Mr. Stevenson termed it, the system he proposed has certain advantages, inasmuch as carriages with any form of wheel may use it, and this freedom of use admits of any amount of traffic being accommodated, carriages having the freedom of passing from the stone track to any part of the road. The introduction of iron “street tramways” may, however, be said, for the present, to have taken the place of all other plans for improving city passenger traffic.
Design for approaches to Edinburgh from the East by Regent and London Roads, and opening up access to the Calton Hill--Sites for the new Jail and Court of Justiciary, and buildings in Waterloo Place--Regent Bridge--Feuing Plan for Eastern District of Edinburgh--Improvement of accesses to Edinburgh from the West and North, and from Granton--Removal of old “Tolbooth” Prison--Removal of University buildings.
Ancient Edinburgh was famed for its narrow streets and crooked wynds, and even at the period when this Memoir begins, much remained to be done for the improvement of the various accesses to the city. These roads, leading from north, south, east, and west, were under the management of different Trusts or public bodies, by all of whom Mr. Stevenson was on various occasions consulted; and the subject seems to have had for him more than a merely professional interest, for his advice was generally far “ahead” of the cautious views of his employers, on whom he seems often to have had no small difficulty in urging the adoption of sufficiently comprehensive designs. His love for the beautiful rose above all other feelings, and he succeeded, not without difficulty and perseverance, in securing for Edinburgh those spacious road improvements which have undoubtedly helped her to claim the title of “Modern Athens.”