The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1870-12-07
A STUPEaDOUS SCHEME.
The Great Highway Of tao Nations Trafde
to be completed in Two Years.

Some three months ago, We were seated At
the dinner table in the Briggs House ChicA.
90, ENJOYING bottle Of the celebrated wine
Of that house, with our fellow citizen james
E. Abbott. Then and there he unfolded to
US the most stupendous railroad scheme
ever conceived in Ameriea-that of an Air
Line road from New Yo,k to Omaha. Then it
existed only in his busy brain, and we read.
lily wsgered basket of the Briggs House
champaign, that it would never be built
If the following be true, which we take
from the Pit,sburg Commercial of the 18th
uls., we shall have to pay that bet. Aad II
we do have it to pay, We viii wager another
that the author of the scheme, Mr.. Aboott'
will be the most successful organizer OF
railroads in the world, and will stand side
by side With that great Prussian organizer
of victory, Won Moltke, as the most success
ful organizer of the century. Here is what
the Commercial says:
For some weeks we have had in our pos
session information that negoticns were III
secret and rapid progress, on the part OF
responsible men nesniug what they say,
looking to the i'm mediate construction of al
entirety new grand trunk railway from New
York city to connect with the Union Pacific
Railroad at Council B!uffs, opposite Omaha
The parties inaugurstIng this project have
ample capital, and represent new combi
nation of railroad interests, that has not
hitherto had hand III the composition from
New York to the West. They have contro
g ~, g u.
reciiy west foam the metropolis through
New York and Pennsylvania to Akron, Ohio
and also have similar rights In western
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The only Ink
needed TO complete the enterprise is from
Akron to Thin, Ohio, and some time since
a proposition was made to the Akron Board
of Trade BY Mr.. Jas. L. Abbott, President
OF the Western Railway Construction Com
pany, by which that gentleman agreed to
enter into 5 200, 900 bonds for the compile
ton, inside of two, years of connecting link
in through railway from New York to
Council Bluffs, through Akron, provided
that section would turn over to that enter
prise the $500 coo stock nominally subscrib-
ed TO the Baltimore and Ohio and Chicago
extension. The Akronites could take no
action, being pledged to the Baltimore ana
Ohio authorities, but decided to leave the
matter an open one until such time as the
route OF the Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Yves
tern railway was decided, when, il that is
not secured to Akron they will then accept
Mr. Abbott's proposition.
This is a straight-Away-route leaving
Chicago Toledo and Cleveland to the one
hand, and Pittsburgh on the other. as
beneath its notice Ii will be the shortest
possible line from the metropolis of the
nation to the Pacific, and will save at least !
Two hundred miles over any other line |
between New York and San Francisco, and |
thus wall become not only the great central |
artery of this nations traffic, bnt highway |
Of the world, main channel of the gigantic
trade between the nations of Asia and |
Europe. For local traffic it would control |
the oil regions OF one State. the coal fields
of three States, and the rich agricultural
regions of four.
This is no csp.trap scheme, but is backed |
by millions of capital, and is of immense
interest to Pittsburgh, for if it shall be put
through, it will drain away from Ms the t-ade
of the great regions which can be made
tributary to Us 1t would be the most direct
line from the oil regions to New York, and |
that trade would go with it. 1t would be |
the most direct line from the Mshoniny and |
Cuysboga coal regions of Ohio to q market. |
and that trade would 90 too. Whatever can
be done, either to head it off or combine |
with it and reap a rich share of its sdvauta |
ges, will be well worth the while of this CITY |
to attempt