The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1853-06-09

| or6is terraruns The present crossing of the two
new railroads of Pennsy lvania is the one neces-
STATED 6y the nature of things. y crest line of
the summit of the Allegheny mountain has be IN
run northeast to southwest OF this point, near
ly one hundred miles long, in the differe NJ sur
| veys, and the crossing of the Sugar Ran 6 M
| has been discovered by absolute math enaatics to
be the lowest and most desirable crossing. All
| the lines run fc- years for the purpose OF cross
| ing this great natural barrier between the east
and west. without inclined planes, have crossed
| at this gap, as certain venerable tree called
! the sold white oak, with its innu-erabie heu-
ches, testify. B. consulting the different
/ maps of these surveys, this can easily be seen.
The laws of gravitatioR aud mathematics, then
predestine ana foreorlaln this 10 be the crossing
place of the great throughfare Of the continent
Let the west then look to this point especially,
| oh queeny city of Cleveland, look to the Sugar
Run Gap" as your sunrise and golden-orient of
hopes. This is your pass, this the great '.word
pass of the Alleghenies Look to it, then, that
you get this road, the Allegheny Mountain and
Cleveland Railroad at once under way. Let no
time be lost. certain writer says the ''geog-
raphy and rivers of n country write its history
This is obsolete formula now. The railroads
of country will decide and write its history
for the railroad is itself ocean, river and lake.
and better than either or all for, whilst man
holds the railroad in the hollow of his hand, it
is God who holds the waters of the earth in
| HIS.
The next question is the practicabiity of the
project. ANY taking map of Pennsylva-
MIA and Ohio, will that air line from Phil
! adelphia to Cleveland will pass the Allegheny
Tunnel in Cambria county, Pa, and taking the
elevated table land between the head waters of
the Allegheny and Susquehannah rivers and
holding direct line to the city of Cleveland
will pass a region in which there are no noun
tain chains to climb, or large valley of drainage
to pass. The southwest detection descends at
once from the mountain heights to the valley of
the Conemaugh, then crossing number of
SUBMITS, gets into the valley of the Monongahe-
la. This will show the folly Of the recent sug-
gestions to leave the main line at some point
west OF the mountain, as at Johnstown or Blairs-
vile, or even still more absurd, of leaving the
Pennsylvania road at Latrobe or Pittsburg.-
That is, traverse tlco sides of a triangle, plung-
ing into vast valleys Of drainage of large rivers
out of the altogether, when one side of the
same triangle will carry the line over an eleva-
ted region, uncut by single valley of any DEPTH
or unobstructed By a single mountain.
The long talked of Sunbury and Erie seems
still to crawl Nature and science do not seem
here to say ''Go ahead" A doubtful project at
first smother ed and half born, it still struggles
with adverse currents and uncertain forces. Let
the advocates of this line reflect upon these facts
and say, why this eternal drdg7 Many railroad
projects, conceived long since this one, have been
in operation for some time, whilst clouds and
shadows rest upon yet Why? The nature
of things condemns the project. There is no
conspiracy of the earth genii to bring IL about,
as one ofthe ineUita5Les Painfully, like wound
ed snake, it ''drags its slow length along" Pri-
cate enterprise, private speculation and interest,
supply the gas and ''tin thunder" Ruthless
speculators! oppose not grayitation and mathe-
matics. The rational transit of the Allegheny
chain will soon be achieved, and science and
wisdom, after long struggles, will pass this for
midable barrier with the locomotive, without
planes.
viii the human race endorse project so in
sane as tortuous and troublesome line, almost |
parallel with the one it has with such immense
difficulty achieved, having only the disadvantage
of greater length, the most impossible points off
the whole Allegheny lines to overcome, to strike
the worst point on the whole Lake range? Sure |
ly not. Let private enterprise go into this mea-
sure; the universe cannot adopt it. The 'ra-
tional Northwest branch" leaves the Pennsylva-
MIA road where it has consummated its sublmest
triumph-the perforation of the Allegheny |
by tunnel. This magnificent road
a: this point has achieved its most difficult un-
dertaking, having climbed the eastern escarp-
ment of this mountain, by series of heroic eff
forts unprecedented in the annals of railroad ma
king. Almost by the fabled la5ors of the Titans
almost by the masonry of the Cyclops, have its
mountain spurs been cleaved, its chasms filed
The rational Northwest takes this splendid
achievement as a gift of the supernals, filings its
hat on high shouting Excelsior" and strikes
a bee-line for Cleveland and the Pacific Ocean
This is no dream or fable, out one of the abso-
lutes of God what the ages have conspired to
bring about what mathematics, gravitation, and
the eternal geOgraphicalnecessity of things make
inevitable. 1t cannot De said to be paper pro-
ject, for fragments of the line have been made
with the instruments on the surface, snd found
feasible. These experimental lines have been
in the most difficult part of the region to be
versed, and found much better than the Pitts
burg line. Philadelphia and Cleveland, and es-
pecially young growing, progressive, and richly
blessed Western Pennsylvania, look at this pro-
ject Immediately. There is life in it, health in
it, wealth in it. Say the word, and the level
and transit will sing the song of joy of the
rational Northwest Branch of the Pennsylvania
Central Railroad.
In the next chapter on this subject there viii be
a small sprinkling of arithmetic.
Coal BURNER