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EAST CAMBRIDGE The Meigs Elevated
"The City Government, Middlesex County
Commissioners, and a large number of citizens, upon the invitation of the Meigs
Elevated Railroad Construction Company, visited the works of the company in the
Ward Monday afternoon, to witness the working of the system under the Meigs
patent. A section of roadway had been contracted with sharp grades and sharp
curves, and upon it was placed the steam engine, tender and passenger car. The
engine weighs 20 tons. The tender carries two water tanks capable of holding
about 1800 gallons of water, commodious coal bins, and a boiler to make steam
for [h]eating the train. The car is a little more than 51 feet long and weighs
34,000 pounds, it being from 8,000 to 14,000 pounds lighter than an ordinary car
of its length. It can seat 73 passengers easily and 84 with but little
inconvenience. The experiment Monday afternoon gave ample
evidence of the capacity of the engine and train to traverse grades and
successfully encounter sharply defined curves; also demonstrated that the
engineer had complete control of the train when descending a heavy grade. So far
as could be seen by the observers, the experiments were eminently successful,
and all present seemed satisfied with the result. The company propose to
petition the cities of Cambridge and Boston and the town of Watertown for
locations so as to run their road from the centre of Watertown to Bowdoin
Square."
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