The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-02-03
Railroad Connection With North Cs.rolina,
Tenncssee, Kentucky and Ohio.

Railroad Connection With North Cs.rolina.
Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio.
Mr.. EDITOR: We see that q bill has been
introduced in the Legislature of this State
to aid in the extension of the Spartanburg
and Union Railroad. South Carolina would
soon be in very prosperous condition, if
her sea-ports were connected by central,
airline road, with the States of North Caro-
lima, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio.
Freight will necessarily find transit over
the shortest and most direct route to the
ocean, and from such, when established,
there will be no diversion. Take thread
and stretch it from Charleston to Cumber-
land Gap, on the map, and see how closely
it approximates Columbia, Alston, Union,
Spartanburg, Butt Mountain Gap, Flat
Rock, Henderson, AshevilIe, Paint Rock
and Morristown. The road from Mo iris.
town, Tennessee, to Paint Rock, is finished
and now in operation, except mile or So,
and from Paint Rock to Asheville, N. c.. is
being constructed, and is amply provided
for Last week, the North Carolina Leg:s-
tension of the Wilmington and Rutherford
Railroad to Asheville, N. G. This road will
certainly pass through the Butt Mountain
Gap oia Hendersonville, to Asheville, N. @.
The North Carolina Central Road, from
Salisbury ola Morganton, to Asheville, N.
O., is finished for the greater part of the
way, and is expected to be completed in two
years. Thus it will be seen that Whining
ton and Beaufort, N. c., are extending their
arms to grasp the rich stores OF the West,
and surrounding this State with channels of
trade intended to draw off the freight,
which of right should come to our own sea-
ports. They propose to profit by the exam
pie of Baltimore, in building the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad, which has proved of in
calculable advantage to that city.
Now, let us see how the case stands; the
roads from Asheville, N. c., to Louisville,
KY, are either finished or in course of con-
struction. From Spartanburg to Charles
ton, =. O., the road is in operation, leaving
a gap of seventy four miles to build
between Spartanburg, S. c., and Ashe-
vile, North Carolina. This route has been
surveyed by one of the best engineers of the
country, and estimated to cost, when
finished, 81, $4,000 But if the Wilmington
and Rutherford Road is finished, which now
seems certainty, there will then remain
only thirty-tive miles of road, easy of con-
struction, to be built in order to make the
connection with tho North west. The diff
.SASoNO VI NAoeuhSC, III IufOf vi lulS route,
between Louisville, Ky, and Charleston, S.
c., over that oia Nashville, Chattanooga,
and Atlanta, is 159 miles AS between
Louisville and Savannah, Nashville, Chat
tanooga, and Atlanta, the difference of dis
tance in favor of the Spartanburg route is
LAB miles. Asheville is nearer to Charleston
by this route than to Beaufort, N. c., by 119
miles, and nearer to Charleston than to Will
mington, N. c., by about thirty three miles.
Besides, Wilmington is some distance from
the ocean.
But the State is not asked to appropriate
dollar, only to lend her credit to road as
it advances, and is built ready for use. That
such road. passing through the centre of
the State, by the capitol, to the sea-ports-
with its various connections at Asheville,
the immense freights in store for it in the
West-.may not be able to pay the interest
on its bonds, we think too absurd to attempt
to refute. COLUMBIA