The moorish arch in the cuttings at edge hill on the liverpool and manchester railway, where locomotives were originally attached and detached from trains. The arch, designed by the liverpool architect john foster, responded to the railway directors' desire for a monumental ornate structure to mark the entrance of the railway into the city. It also housed the two steam engines, one on either side, that powered the cable railway apparatus which was used to haul wagons with goods from the docks up to edge hill through the wapping tunnel, and passenger carriages up the final stretch from edge hill to the railway terminus at crown street. First class passengers could also join the trains here, conveyed by horse-drawn carriages from dale street in the city centre. Steam and smoke from the engines was ducted through flues in the rockface on either side to two tall chimneys, nicknamed "the pillars of hercules", at the other end of the cutting. The arch was demolished in 1864, when the right hand (south) side of the cutting was widened out. (another source says the late 1830s [1], p. 19). Date: 1831. Medium: aquatint print. Moorish Arch looking from the Tunnel, from Bury's Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1831 - artfinder 122454
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