The Ohio star. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1830-1854, 1853-09-14
DAYTON, July. II


The Rail lin Ohio.
.--- DAYTON. July. 1858.
To casual observer from the east, nothing ex-
cites so much wonderment as the large amount, l
had almost said profuson, of Railroad operations
and projections in this State. n every direction
crossing cbliquely and at right angles, the entire
surface of the country is, as the great Lexicogra
pher might have said, reticulafed with bands of
iron. One is fain to ask how it is possible that this
immense outlay for these particular improvements
can be remunerated. Yet the reports of every
railroad in the State show handsome returns upon
the improvement; and in the face of all that has
been done,u enterprises are put in motion daily,
and calculations mako it plain that they can be rem
dered profitable. -.-
Thsre a number of causes, not at the first
glance patent to an observer from the east, condu
cling to this condition of railroads in this rapidly ad
vnncing commonwealth. One of the chief. and a
very important one, is the very favorable nature of
the country for improvements of this sort. The
surface approaches nearly to a level that the
grading of the road is a mere trifle, as compared
with our more rugged Pennsylvania. and this, with
other local causes. brings the average cost of roads
here no less than one half that of more eastern
roads. ....
Another cause is the temperament of the popu-
latlon. The Ohioans are emphatcally fast peo-
pie. With them turnpikes and canals explo-
ded ideas. Whether for business or pleasure,
these old time oonveyances entirely too slow
for them. They are too industrious and too busy
to consume a day in a stage coach in performing
the distance that iron track will accomplish in
an hour. They feel that, to them, at least, time
is money, and at all hazards and cost the slow
lines must be superseded by the locomotive. In
some branch or other, all their towns are manu-
factories, and there is constant interchange Of
rapid manner, both on the score of convenience
and economy. Hence it is that towns of twenty,
ten, or five thousand inhabitants, are contin-
ually pressing forward for this kind of connsxion
with each other, and are ever on the alert with
their money TO induce any continuous line to take
them in its course.
The peculiar geographical position and features
of the State tend strongly to develope this dispos-
ton Bounded On the whole southern line by the
Ohio river, and its northern by the lake, the
State has no interior streams of any other navga-
senting any serious obstacles the construction Of
railways. Her immense productions must seek
either or both of these conveyances for an At
| lantic market, and for the greater portion of heI
surplus the iron track has the advantage over all
| other modes. We must take in this connexon, al
| so the fnct that this surplus production is yeI
scarcely developed. Every year briggs an in
crease, and this condition must long continue. The
productiveness of the west has scarcely begun;ane
Ohio must not only provide the means for her OWL
access TO market but furnish a transit for heav,
portion of the region still farther west. She is fas
becoming the Central State of the Union, AM
while advancing in this direction, the claims upol
her means of fintercommunication must daily be
come greater and greater.
| The shrewd and well informed editor of tn,
Railroad Record, published at Cincinnati, lays dowr
the position that belt of country such as that o
Ohio. of three miles in width. will become advau
ced in value to sufficient degree to defray the
cost of making railroad through t aud the fur
ther calculation that belt of seven miles will. by
| its local trade, sustain railroad running through
its midst. If these data may be relied on and hi.
statistics show careful examination. we will per
ceive that this State far from having exceeded
her proper bounds in projected roads. yet behind
the requirements of her population. and we may
cease to wonder at the pertinacity and zeal with
which additional enterprises are insisted upon.
One of the most recent and important of these
and received with high favor by the population al
large. and with the most peculiar zeal and patron
age by the towns and counties on the line of its
route, is that famary known as the "Broad
Guage," being an extension of that which was
chartered as the Franklin and Warren Railroad
some years since. There are some advantages in
its act of incorporation which renders the stock
favorite one for permanent investment. and the To-
cation of the line is of the happiast yet proiec
ted in the State. Taking this city Us a starting
point, the road runs up tho Mad River Valley by
an easy and nearly direct line to Urbana, the
county seat of Champaign, of the richest in the
State, and fully enterprsing After going through
slightly broken country for some twenty miles t,
the crossing of Darby creek, it takes an air line,
perfect unbroken stretch Of sirtymles to Crestline
which is itself the centre of number of railroad
routes, and already busy mart of passengers ant
freight. At this point it meets the Cleveland an,
Columbus road, the Ohio and Pennsylvania. III,
Fort Wayne and others, rendering now the scen'
one of the most spirit stirring of this nctiv
age. Leaving Crestline the route tends northeus
through some of the best agricultural pastoral ant
wool producing counties of this State to tho Penn
sylvana line, which it crosses near the head wa
ters of Shenango creek; thence stretching ava.
in the same direction through some of the mos
richly timbered and fertile counties of the Key
stone State. crossing your Sunbury and Erie roat
at the head of the Allegheny river.
A glance Mt the map will show you that the rout'
through Ohio into your State, is a slightly curvec
line from the southwest to northeast, thus inter-
secting large portion of the roads now in progress
from north to south, and from east to west. 1t is
unnecessary enlarge on this fenture; but 1t may