JAN. 31, 1846

THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS

69


OPENING OF THE JAMAICA RAILWAY - KINGSTON STATION

The completion of a line of Railway from Kingston to Spanish Town, in Jamaica, is a most gratifying instance of colonial enterprise; and proves that the energies of the people have not been repressed even by the sweeping calamities of fire and tempest, incident to their country. Somewhat more than two years since we had to record the burning of a great part of the city of Kingston; and, it is with very different feelings that we now call attention to this town as a terminus of the newly completed Railway.

The opening took place on Friday, the 21st of November last. The event had been long and anxiously anticipated ; and, in order to invest it with the just degree of importance, his Excellency the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the several heads of departments civil and mili- tary, the hon. Members of the Council and Assembly, and a large num- ber of the more wealthy and influential members of the community, were invited to attend the ceremony; and a most propitious day ren- dered this attendance very general and numerous. An enormous crowd of spectators was collected all around the stations, and several very ex- tensive booths were filled with well-dressed females. His Excellency the Earl of Elgin arrived at a little after eleven o’clock, attended by his brother, Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Robert Bruce, and accompanied by the Receiver General. He was received by a guard of honour from the 1st West India Regiment, the band of that regiment playing the national anthem. After a short conversation with Mr. William Smith, the Projector and Resident Director of the Company, and a recognition of the numerous gentlemen who were collected on the occasion, his Ex- cellency was conducted at about half-past eleven o’clock to the hand- some state carriage provided by the Company for the accommodation of her Majesty’s representative, and the Company’s new engine “The Projector” having been attached, the train, consisting of some eight or ten well filled carriages, started on the first railway excursion in the British West Indies; the excellent band of the 1st West India Regiment taking its stand in the last, third class, carriage, and playing lively airs.

The train passed at a slow pace through the suburban portions of the line, which were densely thronged on both sides with crowds of won- dering citizens, who loudly cheered the novel exhibition as it passed before them. These crowds were more or less to be seen along the whole line of railway. At the embankment through the morass, beyond Hunt’s Bay, generally known as “The Islands,” the trains stopped, and his Excellency alighted, and walked forward with Lieut.-Col. Bruce, Mr. Smith, and the Engineer, Mr. Miller, in order to examine this diffi-