The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-02-10
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

s INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
The extension Of III. Manassas Gap Rail-
road is the next IN order, among the four great
Improvements noticed BY the Report of the
Board Of Public Works. This extension it
10 proposed to begin at It's present terminus al
Strasburg, and to continue TO a point upon the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. equi-distant be.
tween Baltimore and Pafkepburg. and about
seveniy-6ve miles West of Strasburg. This
] road would place Alexandra in direct COM
munica alton with the Ohio River at Parkers.
burg, aud, as matter Of course, with Cincin-
matt, and the whole system Of railroads and
canals which in,ersecis the Stale Of Ohio
BY making road only twenty-five miles in
length, from Fredericksburg to the Orange and
Alexandria Railroad, we should have con.
tinuous line Of Railroad all the way from the
Ohio River to Petersburg. passing through
many of the principal cities of the State
From Petersburg it would be extended to Nor
folk by the South-Side Railroad. The Report
says that the whole distance from Alexandra
to Parkersburg, is 1867 miles, aud that all of it
has been provided TOR, except the portion be-
tween Strasburg and Paddytown, the point ON
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad alluded to,
that is to say, seventy five miles.
q There 10 no doubt that the road from Paddy
town TO Parkersburg will be completed early
in the year 1855; and It is matter Of deep i'll
terest to have the communication between
Strasburg and Paddytown ready for use at the
same time. As soon, then, as Baltimore shall
have reached the Ohio, Richmond and Peters
burg will enter the field with her, as COMPETE
tor for the trade of the great Ohio valley. The
! trade this side of the valley is also large, and
for this trade we shall enter as rivals with Bal
timore. The best bituminous coal to be found
in the world lies on the Atlantic slope of those
mountains which this improvement will pass
through, and by means Of it we shall be ena-
bled to obtain it in the largest possible quaint.
ties, direct from the beds. Those who know
how difficult it is to obtain coal here. when the
weather is very hard, will hear of this prospect
with the greatest pleasure.
Such are the grand outlines of our present
system of railways. There is, first of all,
base running North and South. Then there is
. line penetrating the great tobacco region of
North Carolina and Virginia, and connecting
with system which gives us. railroad 10
Montgomery, in Alabama, with the exception
Of twenty five miles. A second branch passes
through the Southwestern portion of our State,
reaches the Mississippi, after connecting with
the Tennessee system, and places the cotton of
the South and the tobacco of the Northern por-
ton of the Mississippi valley in onr reach. A
third passes through the entire length of the
State, 10 the valley ofihe Ohio, and place us in
communication with the entire Northwestern
territory. fourth penetrates the Northwestern
frontier Of Virginia, and places us in commu.
nication with the Ohio at point much farther
North than that at which il is struck by the
third.
There never was State so admirably placed
for commanding all the outlets of commerce as
Virginin. Midway, commercially speaking, be-
tween New York and New Orleans, she can Ell.
ter into rivalry with the former for ell that
trade of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan
and has the advantage over her of being acces 1
sible at all times, whereas in the winter, she
cannot be approached on account Of the ice.
She may divide with the latter the inspection
Of cotton, and take from her the entire tobacco
trade & ~