By the 1870s it was clear that Wellington’s future as a trading centre rested on farming. A government-sponsored railway line to Wairarapa was completed In 1878, but a government scheme to build a railway to Manawatū stalled due to rising costs. Several Wellington businessmen took over the project, which was completed in 1886. This 1885 plan, drawn by the railway’s promoters, shows the route. The line required the construction of several tunnels and one of New Zealand’s largest wooden viaducts, the Belmont viaduct near Johnsonville.
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Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference:
MapColl-832.4gme/1885/Acc.2705-01
Ink and watercolour sketch by A. Falkner
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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