Unattributed "Map of the United States with the Railways”

"Map of the United States with the Railways." 

London: Routledge & Co., 1854.  17 x 21 3/4 (neatlines) plus full margins, close at top.  Steel engraving.  Bottom left cites, "Engraved by Becker's Patent Process, 11 Stationer's court City."  Fine condition.  Conserved with separations at folds well repaired. 

The handbook is filled with information about how an Englishman saw areas of the United States and conveyed information on how to go from one place to another.  The map dramatizes that the new railroads are the best way to go from one place to another.  The pattern of few railroads is striking for how limited they were, and the obvious trend is that the railroads first replaced the canals, but had not yet paralleled the great river valleys such as the Ohio and the Mississippi.  A constructed railroad goes to Alton, Illinois, but it does not cross to St. Charles or St. Louis.  A number of longer runs are interrupted by unfinished or contemplated lines.