Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-07-31
SATURDAY MORNING, July 81, 1869.
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.

we puDllsned on yesterday report
submitted by General Joseph E. john
son to meeting of citizens Of Savannah,
which substantially claimed for that
city all the benefits of the continental
and direct trade expected to be de-
rived from the construction of the
Southern Pacific Railroad upon the line
recommended by the Memphis Con-
yention which locates the road on the
sd parallel of latitude. This proposed
route, as our readers know, and as thus
stated in the report to which we refer,
"starts from San Diego, on the Pacific
coast, and runs eastward along the
line of the thirty second degree to some
convenient point east of the Brazos
river, in Texas, near Dallas or Marshall,
directly west of and not far removed
from Shreveport, in the State of Louis
lana. From these proposed terminal
points the shortest and most direct line
to the Atlantic coast lies along the
thirty-second parallel of latitude, along
which is already constructed a continu-
GUS and almost unbroken track of railing
from Marshall, Texas, to Savannah,
via Vicksburg, on the Mississippi river,
The line of railroads from Marshall,
Texas, to Savannah lies wholly between
the 32d and SD parallels of latitude,
and is represented to exhibit less devia-
ton from direct, true course, than
the same extent of railroad in this or
any other country"
We have heretofore expressed the
opinion that the route thus selected and
endorsed by the Memphis Convention
was not the one best adapted for the
interest of Norfolk, which has all the
capabilities of great seaport which
Savannah and Charleston both lack.
We might fortify our opinion in va
rious ways; but certainly it could not
be the line contemplated by Prof
Maury, when he said in his Preliminary
Report, page 4:
Naturally and both in a geographic
cal and military point OF view, Norfolk
with Hampton Roads at the mouth of
Chesapeake Bay as its lower harbor, and
San Francisco inside of the Golden Gate
In California, occupy--one on the Paci-
Gc, the other on the Atlantic--the most
important maritime positions that lie
within the domains Of the United
States. They curtain the entire ocean
front of the country East and West"
On the map which accompanies this
Report, the various routes of the Pacific
Railroad are laid down, that completed
and those projected land it will be seen
that the route by the 35th parallel
from Memphis to Little Rock and Full
ton, thence connecting with the pro-
jected and partly constructed Atlantic
and Pacific railroad from St. Louis to
San Francisco, may easily be reached by
an extension road from these two points,
and which will afford the most direct
and shortest line ofrailroads which can be
attained between Norfolk and San Fran
cisco, and thus connect "the two most
im portant maritime positions that liz
within the domains of the United
States" .+... -a
We remark that it would be assum-
ing too much to regard this action of
the Memphis Convention, as binding,
obligatory and irreversible. In further
discussion of this subject, if it should
appear that any mistake has been COM
mitted, different and future action may
correct it, Congress is to be called
upon to act in the interest of Virginia,
as to her own system of improvements,
connected with continental route ; and
further examination of this subject may
enable us to present the claims al /! ad-
vantages of Norfolk in such clear and
convincing light as to over-rule this de-
cision of the Memphis Convention to
our prejudics in favor OF Charleston and
Savannah, and obtain the aid and in
ffuence of Congress for the construction
of the 35th parallel route.