Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1854-01-05
yrReINrA RA1LRoAD ExrENsIoN.--

VIRGINIA RAILROAD EXTENSION
We learn that bill has been introduced
by Mr.. Hall, the Senator from Mason,
into the Virginia Senate, authorizing an
extension of the Virginia Central rail-
road from Scary to the Ohio at Point
Pleasant. We are rejoiced at this move
because we believe it move in the right
direction; a move mutually beneficial to
Ohio and Virginia. This extension and
the Gallipolis road completed and a
railroad connexion viii be secured for
Virginia into the heart of Ohio at Chill
iicothe, and from thence with Cinclnna-
ii, Columbus and Dayton and the entire
northwest. There is no piece of rail-
road now SO important. and which pro-
mises such rich return, as the seventy
miles, lying between Hamden, Vinton
county, Ohio, and Scarry, the point
where the Virginia Central road now
leaves the Valley of the Kanawha. At
Hamden is the point where the Marietta
d Cincinnati, and the Scioto & Hooking
Valley railroad meet and cross. From
this point the latter road furnishes a
communication with the centre of Ohio
at Newark and with the lake at Sandus-
XIV and Cleveland, and with Detroit by
the Lake Shore road; the former pas
sing to Chillicothe, viii, by means Of
the roads to Columbus and Dayton, fur
nish connexion with Cincinnati, and
the whole northwest of Ohio; and from
Dayton railroads will be found leading
to St. Louis, Chicago, and Galena.-
Now such vast railroad connexion can
not be a matter of independence to Vir-
ginia. Her Interests are deeply to be
affected by it. We hesitate not to say
that this connexion will supply a travel
to the Central road double of that which
the Sandy branch will. And we are
willing to submit this question on the
facts to any intelligent committee of the
Virginia Legislature.
We know that the friends of an ex-
elusive Sandy termination talk about an
Ohio connexion, by means of a road up
the valley of Symms creek to this same
town of Hamden. To show the absur-
dity of any such notion, it is only ne
cessary to state one fact, and that is that
at Sandy, you are as far from Hamden
as when at Scarry on the Kanawha.-
Now is it to be supposed that Ohio ira
velwill run seventy miles directly south
in order to get on to the Virginia road.
when by going that far East, it will find
itself on the Baltimore road at Parkers-
burg. 1t is, therefore, utterly absurd
to imagine that any travel will ever go
East from Ohio by the Virginia Central
road, unless this connexion through
Poiat Pleasant and Gallipolis to Ham
den is secured. And we cannot believe
that the Virginia Legislature will be SO
blind toits own interest as not to secure
it, when it can be done by the short ex-
tension from Scarry to Point Pleasant.
The road from that point to Hamden
Is bound to be made in the course of two
years at the farthest. And if the Vir-
ginia connexion is authorized, this part
of the road can be completed as soon
as that to Point Pleasant. Our citizens
will give pledge on that subject. In
deed the character and prospects of the
road itself viii secure its completion; as
this seventy miles of road will be as
profitable as any seventy miles of road
in Ohio or Virginia, excepting possibly
those leading into Cincinnati, and to
which all the others are mere feeders.
We have no time at present to go far
ther into this matter; but we do hope
that the Virginia Legislature will not
cut themselves off from all direct COM
munication with the great free States
northwest of the Ohio river, as she will
do BY refusing to pass this project, a
vast country, filing up with vast pop
ulation, once claimed as part of Vir-
ginia, and made free by her own mag
unanimous grant to the United States
Will the Old Dominion refuse her friend
iy hand to these great and growing sons
of her own begetting? We hope for
better .counsels to prevail.