Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1859-06-25
The Blue Ridge Railroad.

We are Informed by good authority that
the progress OF the work on the Blue Ridge
Road is very satisfactory. In consequence
of the limited amount Of funds mt the tlspo-
sal of the Company, after the aliournmcnt
of the last session of the Legislature the
grading of the road in South Carolina and
Tennessee was suspended. except only on thu
eInbankments Mt Seneca River and the Whit
mirc fill, and in two worry deep cuts between
Wallnlla and the Stump House Tunnel. Ii
was very important that the work on thcso
embankmcnts and cuts should be continued
80 as to give time for the banks to settle. and
tor the cuts to be exposed, in order that if
there should bc any cavng of the slopes Of
the cuts it might occur, and the road bod be
cleared before the time for laying the track
Tlic contractors for the bridge masonry,
over Scnacn River, and Twen,y-sx Milo
Greek were not required to suspend work,
but the work ut Seneca was restricted within
the means of tho Company. The bridge or
yinduct, across tho valley of Twenty-Six
Mile Crock is the heaviest and most costly
structure on the road. OF fieo piers which
arc required, three arc finished the fourth il
partly done, and the foundations of tho fiftl,
arc nearly completed. The contractor has .
large quantity of rock dressed and prepared
to work into these piers rs soon ~ the fonnd.
| alton of the fifth is completed Two abut-
mcnts and five piers are required for the Sen
cca Drdge--Ono abutmcnt, Ia very heavy
work. and two piers arc iinishcd--thc other
three piers nre partly constructed. The pro-
gross of the work will appear from the state
nicnt that of tho masonry required moro
than three thousand Elk hundred cubic yards
are finished, and only about nine hundrel
cubic yards remain to bo done.
The failure of tho LEGISLATURE, Mt its last
session, togive additional aid to the Company,
madcit necessary Also to suspend work on
all the tunnos except the Stump House TIM
mel. This is by far the grcntcst and most
| expensive work to be dcnc in the construt-
tion Of tho rond. 1t has been the 9 lion i'm
the path" the bugbear with which the adj
yersarics of the road havo sought to avert
the sympathies of the people of tho State
from the enterprise. 1t wns constantly OBJ
jcctcdthat the excavation of this tunnel was
physically iinpracticnblc, or ut least that it
could only bo flushed at enormously indcR-
mite cost and time. The progressed the work
hns triunphantlY ropclled this objection
During themonth of May, two hundred and
thirty.firc feet Of heaiing was driven iR t.lo
tunnel. by tho requirement. of the Compa-
NY, the force Of tho contractors was then re-
duccd by tho dismission ofncarly two-ifth of
tho fsorkmen. I've hundred and seventeen
foot wero driven in tho month of April. If
Messrs. Iiumbird, Hitchcock & Co., the con
tractors, had boon permitted to work n full
| fnrcc. they would have made good their con
i'dent assertion to the Committee Of the Leg
islature at the last session, that i'm sixteen
| months from that time they could compieto
tho Stump House Tunnel. On the fir,t of
this month, three thousand seven hundred
| foctiof leading had boon cxcayatcd, lea
q