The Edmondson Blog

If a line were to be built between Settle and Carlisle, it would have to be by spanning valleys with stupendous viaducts, and piercing mountain heights with enormous tunnels; deep cuttings would have to be blasted through the rock; and mile after mile of high embankments would have to be piled on peaty moors, on some parts of which a horse could not walk without sinking up to his belly. However great the obstacle that lay in their path, they had simply one of four courses to take – to go over it, or to go under it, or to go round it, or to go through it: but go they must.