Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-11-06

Canals generally ..............-.-...-.....l 3I
Railways. &C.
From the above data it will appear that
the cost of Transporting merchandise and
produce of all kinds, on the Pacific Rail
way, now in operation, will be so exorbi-
tant as to preclude the idea and to disap-
point the sanguine expectations of those
who have supposed that the whole com
merce of the East, of the Pacific and In
dian Oceans, would be Immediately trans
ferred to this great line of international
traffic. A few figures will disabuse their
minds of this delusive imagination. Take
the article CT tea, for instance, and the
rate five cents per ton, of 1000 TBS, per
mile, for freight and 3, 400 miles the dis
lance. from San Francisco to New York,
and we have $40 for freight alone, or
eight and half cents p fb, to which add
customary charges for forwarding, etc,
and it willnot be less than ten cents % ID
added to the cost of the tea at San Fran
cisco, which cannot be much less than the
present cost at New York, and may, per-
haps, be quite equal now that the Suez
Canal is open to the commerce of the
world. Can the New York merchants
stand this heavy burthen, or will their
customers buy tea that comes fFom the
West, at higher price than that which
comes from the East, in order to sustain
the Pacific Railroad? 1t will probably
need all the aid than can be given it, for
what with its being frozen up One-fOurth
of the year, with its grades of l25 and
$50 feet to the mile and curves with "a
dii of from 600 to 800 feet, the ma
chine will be very difficult to keep in Or
der, and WILDE run at very great expense
The extreme sterility of the soil and
scarcity of timber and other products on
most of the route, create anecessity for de-
| pending, mainly, upon the passenger
| travel and through freights for sustaining
this railway to the Pacific. 1t is idle to
talk of the heavy productions of the Mis-
sissippi Valley as a means of its support.
THE ROUTE ON THE 35TH PARALLEL
Is liable to nearly the same or similar OBJ
| iections, whether commencing at st.
Louis and running through Kansas and
down by Santa Fe to the 35th parallel at
| Albuquerque, thence by the Zani Pass and
the valleys of the Little and Great Colora-
do of the West, to San Diego and to
San Francisco, orstarting at Memphis and
running by Little Rock, Fort Smith, up
l the south fork of the Canadian, across
I the staked plains to Albuquerque and
| thence by the same route to the Pacific.
The length of this line is equally as great,
| to San Francisco, as that of the more
northern route, and to San Diego not
much shorter the same sterility, with the
| exception of few narrow valleys, and
the same scarcity of timber, except on in
accessible mountains, and greater destitu-
ton of potable water, for great part
of the route, are to be encountered on
this line. 1t is true that, on account of
the latitude and the lower altitude of the
profile, which on the northern route rises
to over S, 900 feet at the pass of the Rocky
Mountains, and to over 1000 at the top
of the Sierra Nevada, with 1000 to 5000
feet throughout the Great Basin, the line OF
the 35th parallel is much less liable to be
obstructed by snow and ice, and is there
fore decidedly preferable A railroad on
this line can also be constructed at much
less cost and with fewer high grades and
short curves. These considerations also
enhance its superiority over the more
| northern route, DuI lllt ICSiph thAOu5A
which it passes can furnish no greater
amount of way freights to sustain the rail
way than its competitor; and is therefore
inadequate to the purposes and objects OF
a great international highway.
THE ROUTE ON THE SD PARALLEL
Encounters many of the same difficulties as
the two former, but not in as great degree,
and is, therefore, decidedly preferable to
either of them. 1t is entirely free from
snow and ice; is somewhat shorter, espe,
cially as connecting the two oceans on the
the Southern lines, from the Atlantic cite;
and seaport at San Diego, whose harboI
is said to be filling with sand, but not al
San Francisco. A railroad can be con
structed on this route more cheaply, ant
would subserve the interests of the South
ern country better than either Of thos'
north of it, Fewer engineering Difficult
ties would be met with, and road Of
higher character can be built with less eX
pense. Yet it lies in a great part in
sterile region, offering nothing to a civil
lied population but its mineral wealth
Beyond the Rio Grande it runs over al
arid plain of several hundred miles in eX
tent, almost entirely destitute of water,
and the valley of the ella presents bu
few inducements to agricultural industry