Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1857-09-05
From the Carolina Times
Progress of the Blue Ridge Railroad

10 ute IIoitOr of me ItneS: "A recent
visit to several points on the Blue Ridge
Railroad enables me to furnish from la rela-
bic source the information you desired upon
the progress of this work
The track laying is advancing from An
dcrson as fast as the gradual completion of
the unfinished sections permits In De
cembcr, it will reach Pcndleton, whore
building materials have already been order
ed for the depot. The track superstructurc
is of the character used on first class roads
with Il rail of 53 pounds to the yard,
10 pound chair, crossties inches wide and
feet from. centre to centre and with
switches and frogs of improved patterns.
Beyond Pcndleton, the graduation sus.
pended last winter, has been generally re-
sumcd. a considerable force is engaged
upon the bridge masonary-which at scv-
! cral points has progressed well towards
completion; and at the Seneca, % mile
Crock, and Warwoman bridges (among the
| heavier structure Of the line) is rather in
advance of the graduation.
The tunnel work suffered no interruption
during the suspense of the company's af-
fairs; and continues to progress steadily
and vigorously. Five tunnels are under
contract, the Saddle, Middle, and Stump
house, in South Caolin' and the Dicks
Greek and Warwoman tunnels in Georgia.
fthesc the Stumphousc is the largest, and
| controls iii time the completion of the road
As it is also the point to which the public
eye is more particularly directed, a detailed
description may not be unintcrcsting to
! your readers.
The work, as you arc probably aware,
tunnels that spur of the North Carolina
Blue Ridge, which turning TO the South
ward, divides the waters of the Seneca and
Chattooga rivers. And the railroad was
thus located to avoid the great increase of
/ distance encountered in turning the ridge
/ further to the Southwark, From the Sen
cca river eighteen miles westward, the
base of the ridge rises with gentle and
remarkably uniform accliyity; but the next
! six miles are more abrupt and require in
their ascent grade of 60 feet per mile,
and work of corrcspondingly heavy clurac-
ter. The Saddle tunnel, 500 feet in length,
and the Middle, 400 feet, occur OH this
section of the road and are made neccssa-
ry in passing two spurs of the main ridge.
Both of these tunnels will probably be fin
! ishcd by the close of the coming year
The centre line of the Stump House tun-
mel is straight, and is 1862 feet in length
ascending westwardly with the grade
1t is the longest tunnel under construction
in America, One longer has been project
ed through the Hoosac Mountain in Mas
sachusetts, but with very slight prospect of
ever being executed. Next in length to
the Stump House is one of $500 feet on
the Dayton Airline near Cincinnati; and
on the five leading railroads, crossing the
Blue Ridge and Allcghany Mountain, in
North Carolina, Virginia aud Pennsylvania
there arc several tunnels ranging between
5000 and 5000 feet in length.
But while it is thus the leading work of
its class in the country, the magnitude of
the Stump House tunnel should not throw
doubt upon the enterprise Tunnels of
greater Dimensions have been executed in
Europe, and upon works of much less i'm
portancc to their locality than the Blue
Ridge Railroad is to South Carolina In
| England and Ireland according to a recent
official report, there are over so miles of
tunneling in S054 miles of railway. One
of these tunnels, the celebrated Boz
Tunnel on the Great Western Railway is
1881 feet in length and 35 feet in width );
and it is stated that tunnel miles G6
feet in length has been completed on the
| iIudders6eld branch of the Manchester and
| Leeds Railway. In France there is a tun-
mel near Marseillcs, over miles in length.
In Piedmont, a tunnel of 10 miles through
the Alps has been projected, and according
to late accounts, actually commenced by
the Sardinian Government. And it may
interest some who have questioned the
practicability of the Stump House tunnel,
to learn that,a tunnel 5000 feet in length,
| (l38 fectlonger thar theStump House, was
executed 10y the Romans to drain the Al
ban lake-through the hardest lava rock,
and of course without gunpowder. Their
plan Of construction was essentially that of
modern; fifty shafts were used to forward
the excavation
The site of the Stumphouse tunnel is
unusually favorable for the prosecution of
the work. The bridge at the highest point
il but 260 feet above the road bed and per-
mits the excavation of four shafts from the
ground surface to the tunuel-from which,
together with the, portals, the tunnel may
be worked f,um ten points or breasts; and
/ it is nov, with two shafts Finished, worked
ftom six breasts This advantage will be
better appreciated inSstatiiig that at the
Bluc Ridge tunnel of Virginia, q 500 fcot
less in length than the Stunp-house,) no
shaft could be used, and the entire tunnel
was, necessarily driven from the two ends.
Approached from the eastward the por-
t9l Of tho Stump -housc is seen several miles
Oft, apparently near the summit of the