THE FIRST AMERICAN STANDARD TRACK.
The laying of the track through the "deep cut" led to an event of great importance to future railway construction. The authorities at Sing Sing having failed to deliver the stone blocks rapidly enough, Mr. Stevens ordered hewn wooden cross ties to be laid temporarily, and the rail to be directly spiked thereto. A number of these ties were laid on the sharpest curves in the cut. They showed such satisfactory properties when the road began to be operated that they were permitted to remain, and the stone blocks already in the track were replaced by wooden ties as rapidly as practicable. Without doubt the piece of track in "deep cut" was the first in the world to be laid according to the present American practice of spiking the rail directly to the cross tie.