Mt. Pleasant Hotel is passed a short distance from Fabyan’s, and a short distance from here are the WILD AMMONOOSUC FALLS, a natural curiosity well worthy of a visit. The river descends “about fifty feet, in a broken, irregular way, and in some places has worn curious channels in the rocks, resembling a cauldron, in which the water seethes and boils in its downward course, and issues laughing, singing and leaping in its wild and merry race for the intervales below.”
[Illustration: FABYAN HOUSE, WHITE MOUNTAINS.]
THE MOUNT WASHINGTON RAILWAY is one of the wonders of modern engineering skill. It was chartered by the Legislature of New Hampshire, in 1858, the passage of the bill being regarded as the huge joke of the session, one member offering to amend it by “extending it to the moon,” either terminal being regarded as equally liable to become a fact. In spite of obstacles, however, its construction was successfully accomplished, by the combined ingenuity of the projector and inventor, Sylvester Marsh, the mechanical skill of Walter Aiken, who built the engine and cars, and the financial aid and “push” of friendly individuals and interested railway companies. It was completed in 1869, and has carried thousands up and down the mountain without the slightest injury to any, so complete is the system of safety appliances in use, each independent of the other, and any one sufficient in itself to insure complete safety. The writer was once an eye-witness to the severest test to which it has ever yet been subjected, caused by the breakage of one of the gear driving wheels of the locomotive. The resultant disarrangement of the machinery set in operation the automatic safeguards, producing the effect of instantly holding the train to the track as firmly as though it had been bolted to the solid rock. Indeed, it was with no little difficulty that it was liberated, and enabled to proceed.
The accompanying illustration gives a good idea of the operation of the road. In addition to the ordinary rails of the common railroad, there is a toothed rail midway between, in which there “meshes” the geared wheel attached to the axle of the locomotive, which thus steadily _climbs_ up the mountain by the revolution of the machinery. All the axles, both of the engine and passenger coach, are provided with geared wheels, by means of which the train could be instantly anchored to the track, as in the case above cited. Each car has its own locomotive, and will carry about fifty passengers. The seats are inclined backward, so as to be in a good position on ascending the mountain. The car is always above the engine, both in the ascent and descent. The latter is accomplished by gravitation alone, the brakes being kept in requisition to hold the train in check.