The Evansville daily journal., 1861-02-04

those distant points, over stupendous OBJ
stacles of mountain and river that have re-
quired for their conquest the highest and
most unusual scientific genius. Our esti-
mate of this work will be increased when
we consider that it was begun by the city of
Baltimore when her entire real and personal
property was worth but $29, 900, 900, and,
with long deferred and inadequate aid from
| the small State of Maryland, was finished
at cost of S3l, 900, 900. The traveller
who observes the careful attention of the
conductors, engine-men and roadmen on the
line, the system of night and day watching,
the regular movement of the trains, and the
ope ration of the telegraph line, co-exten-
siVe with the road, and built and used only
! by the railroad company, can understand
how it is that since the opening of the road
| to the Ohio in 1853, no accident TO the
trains has occurred by which q passenger
has been killed or seriously injured. Pass
ing over or near the route of the old ma
tional road, begun by jefferson and finished
chiefly by the efforts of Clay, it connects at
the Ohio by ferry, with the Ohio Central
railroad, which also runs nearly on the line
of the national road beyond the Ohio, and
thus unites Wheeling with the West. II
forms another connection with Cincinnati
by means of the Northwestern Virginia
road, which, leaving the main stem at
Grafton, connects at Parkersburg with the
Marietta and Cincinnati road.
Apart from the great usefulness, an | in
deed the necessity of the Baltimore and
Ohio road, as a means of communication
with the Ohio, and with the rich country
beyond, it presents unequaled attractions to
the tourist in the remarkable beauty and
sublimity of the scenery along its route
G.,k h., g. i.
said in a sort of scientific chase after the
head-waters of the Potomac, it passes
through the historically interesting country
bordering on that river, glides between the
towering cliffs at Harper's Ferry, where
spreads out before the admiring eye a view
that Jefferson thought it worth a voyage
across the Atlantic to see, and hurries on
ward past Cumberland, to encounter the
difficulties presented by the rising country
that lies beyond. At Savage river the road
is carried more than fourteen miles up a
continuous grade of one hundred and six
teen feet to the mile. A few miles further
between Altamont and Oakland, is the spot
where the mountain streams divide, how-
ing on one side to the Atlantic, and on the
other to the Gulf of Mexico. The solitude
of this region, beautiful as it is with rich
hemlocks and frs and thick-leaved laurel /
and grand with its roar of torrents, rushing
over rocky beds, and with the sombre,
gloomy mountain wall, is most impressive.
At Rowlesburg begIns the celebrated Cheat {
River region, which rivals the mountains, !
lakes, and glens of Scotland and Switzer-
land. For miles the train runs along the
steep mountain side, gliding over and under !
the projecting clifS-now hemmed in on all /
sides, with no visible or apparently posi- |
ble outlet and now, at a turn of the road, |
presenting view of an extended valley, |
lying hundreds of feet below, traversed by
a dark river, beside which magnificent for
est-covered slopes rise from the waters
edge to the high, preeipitouS peaks above.
And thus, for many miles, the eye is de- |
lighted with glorious scenes that are rem /
dered the more attractive by the vast efforts |
of human energy and skill by which they are
reached. Gliding swiftly over bridges and |
viaducts crossing streams and ravines at a |
fearful height, the travellers enjoyment is |
heightened by the pleasurable excitement
springing from consciousness Of security !
even amid terrific dangers, amid which he
would seem to be wholly "out of humani- /
ty's reach" The beauty and magnifcence /
of the road seem to be in proportion to its /
difficulties, which are the greatest beween |
Piedmont and the Kingwood Tunnel, where,
through subterranean pass of four thousand
one hundred feet, the road finally leaves /
the mountains.
The Baltimore and Ohio road stands as a /
noble monument of the enterprise of Balti-
more, and the skill of the great engineer, I
Latrobe. May it long remain as a firm /
bond of commercial, social and political I