Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1870-03-25
Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad.

Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad.
We clip the following from the financial
column of the "New York Eoening Erpress7
of the 18th inst
The directors Of the Chesapeake and Ohio
Railroad Company have been in session in
this city for two days past, and have award
ed contracts to the extent of about So, 0OO,-
900. These contracts cover the construction
of the of the heavy and difficult portions of
the road. The accepted contractors are men
of wide experience in railroad building and
within thirty days they will have from 5000
to 5000 men at work along the line. The
bids for constructing the road were lower
than generally expected, being from 20 to
30 per cent below the Chief Engineers esti-
mate. The bonds of the company are being
steadily absorbed by investors and its fnan-
ces are in good condition, which permits of
rapid construction of the road Virginia
possesses a rich soil for raising produce, and
her wealth of coal and iron bids fair to be
developed to a large extent by Northern en-
terprise and capital, which will follow the
building of this road. The Chesapeake and
Ohio Railroad is destined to add largely to
the prosperity of Virginia, and raise the Old
Dominion to that high position she occupied
in the past, when known by the proud title
Of the Mother of Presidents and Statesmen.
The New York Post says:
"Since New York capitalists became in
terested in the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail
road, in Virginia, all the floating debt of
the company-ovcr one million otdollars-
has been paid off, and a sufficient amount of
State bonds (about 5000, 000) to cancel the
States interest in the Blue Ridge division
have been purchased. Alta meeting Of the
board of directors, held in New York last
week, contracts we're awarded for all the
principal work on the extension to the Ohio
river at rates more favorable by twenty to
twenty-five per cent than the engineers pre-
vious estimates. All this gives evidence of
the energy with which this enterprise is to
be pushed, and the success which is attend
ing it."
All of this is very gratifying to every one
interested in the welfare of Virginia, and in
the general progress Of the whole country.
We assure our New York friends, howev-
er, chat they have, as yet, but an imperfect
conception of the wonderful resources of the
region to be traversed by this same Chesa.
peake and Ohio Railroad, for which we con-
fdently predict a most magnificent future.
We have no connection, in any shape, with
the enterprise, not even as an advertising
medium, and what we say is only prompted
by our personal and intimate acquaintance
with the whole region, from this point, in
the great Shenandoah Valley, to the termi-
nus of the road on the Ohio River, and by
our desire. as a patriotic citizen, to see the
greatness of the whole country advanced
The country from the "Blue Ridge to
Greebrier River, just along the line Of this
road, a distance Of one hundred miles, is the
richest in iron ores to be found, for the same
extent, in the Union. 1t is SO pronounced
by the most e~nterprisiug and intelligent iron
manufacturers of Pennsylvania and New
York, who have, for the last two or three
months, since the completion of the road
became a fixed fact, been showing their faith
by their works, in purchasing iron property
and erecting blast furnaces. By the time
that the road strikes the Ohio River, cur
valleys and mountain sides will all be lit up
by these furnace fires. and the echoes will
be awakened by the thunder Of rolling mills.
Already have furnaces, superior to anything
heretofore known in this region, been put
into operation, and others are under way.
and large numbers in contemplation. Then
we come to the immense forests of pine and
poplar and walnut along the Greenbrier and
New Rivers, awaiting the energy of the
lumber men.
Next in order, commencing on New Riv-
err, and extending for fifty miles in length
and twenty or thirty in breadth, comes the
great '.Splint" and "Cannel" coal field.
which Of itself will give employment to any
first class Railroad to it utmost capacity
Then going down the Kanawha, we enter
and pass through the celebrated salt depos-
ite: of that valley, which have, with the poor
means Of transportation heretofore enjoyed,
supplied to SO large an extent the markets
Of the country and enriched the country ad-
%iacent.
These things combined would seem to give
sufficient assurance Of the future success and
proftableness Of the road, but these are not
all. When the road taps the Ohio, at a
point where the navigation Of that river is
always certain, at a point one hundred and
fifty miles lower than where it is tapped by
any other line uniting the Eastern with the
Western waters, who can estimate the I'M
aaense tonnage thrown upon it from the
River. and from its direct connection with
Cincinnati, Louisville, and Lexington, which
are egen now being prepared for union with
it? wal a double tract be sufficient for all
this through and local trade and travel
This is the only question which cepfnses us
at this time.
10 the subject of this road we propose to
return again and again, for in it the people
of this great county and State. and of this
great Union are deeply interested. For the
present we can only say, God apeed to Hunt
ington, oae of the Railroad kings of the
country. and TO Fisk l. Hatch, the distin-
guishcd Financiers, whose clear judgments
have directed them to this great enterprise,