The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-10-17
Something More About the Chess.
prakc and Ohio Railroad.

pour into the kanawha have maue neces-
Sarv good deal of masonry, and IL IL very
plain that the comrany's chief engineer,
Major II. D. Whitcomh, has known now 10
select good masons. The high stone arches,
bridges, and culvertS. are admirably solid,
and the sandstone of the country has been
laid in SO workmanlike manner that our
party often stopped In admiration OF II.
do not know Of a road in the country whose
| stonework will compare with that Of the
Chesapcake and Ohio railroad, 50 far as
| have seen It.
To kanawha Falls we had travelled over
very tolcrable roads. When we mounted our
horses the following morning We hade good
| hve 10 roads and entered the New river
country-a howling wilderness. through
which the engineer parties OF the Chesa-
peake and Ohio railroad have constructed
what 1t pleaSes them to call path, by
| which path, if you have a sure-foQted horse
and steadv nerves, you may ride at q slow
and difficult walk, and see how the indus
| try of workmen, moved by the enterprise
Of capitalists and guided by the skill and
| ingenuity of engineers, can blast and dig
and tunnel way along the precipitous
| banks OF raging torrent for the Iron horse.
II you have ridden into the Yosemite Val.
| ley, you will tnd here trail stceper and
more difficult than that curious descent.
and not two miles but eighty long. Ii you
have not ridden into the Yosemite. that
ride will appear Joke to you after doing
the New river.
| When the engineers were making surveys
for the line Of the Chesapeake and Ohio
railroad they had to take their measure
ments and levels. suspended by ropes, and
transported their provisions and tools on
the backs of men from point to point.
such, in brief, is the New river, and by
this time next year you may r'de comt'rt;t-
bly, along The side Of its bluffs, at the rate
OF thirty miles per hour, and langh at the
slow and tiresome progress Of which mean
10 give YOU few incidents. But tlresome
though our ride necessarily was, 1t WAS not
tedious, for grander scenery than the New
river affords, in the part Of its course be-
low the Greenbrier, it would be difficult to
lind in the United States; and certainly
there is nothing to compare with h THIS
side Of the Rocky mountains.
The result Is roadway which passes
through the mountains on an easier grade
by far than any other of the great east and
west lines connecting the Atlantic with the
West. The Erie railway has grades as high
as ei9hty-four feet to the mile the Penn
svlrania has ninety.iive feet TO the mile !; the
New York Central, though in general Ii
has easy grades, runs up to ninety.tlve fee,
|
I'D to 116 feet to the mile the Chesapeake
and Ohio will have no grades over thirty
feet TO the mile facing west, and west o1
Howard's creek it has none over twenty
feet to the mile. 1t will have the lowest
| grades OF all the great east and west lines,
and this, Joined to the fact that 1t taps the
Ohio at point-Huntington low down
that it is always accessible to steamboats,,
and that it will give the Southwest its
shortest connection with the Atlantic,
would make 1t great enterprise, impor.
tant to the country, even II II alu not pass
through region of uneXampleu ricnnese
in coal, iron. and timber, which has here:
Ltofore been shut out from market, and
closed against capital and industry.
The New river and the Greenbrier have,
ir the course of ages, worn their way
through the mass of hills and mountains
which lie between the Falls Of kanawha
and the White Sulphur Springs. In all
this country, go far as could notice, there
are very few signs of the upheayal strata.
iThe rocks lie in their beds rs theylwere de-
posted, and the river seems to have worn
its way down from the tops OF the noun
tains to its present LEVEL. IL was 10 carry
nm easy Grade that the engineers OF the
Chesapeake and Ohio road selected the
course of the New river for their line
There Nature had done, in the course, per-
haps, of millions Of years, work OF eAea
yation for them which gave them Inc
means of laying road-hed 80 nearly
level that Ii presents no obstacles tC
travel or transportation. They, nae
only to take care that the road should rur
above the level Of high water ana as tne
river rises sometimes forty or lty fcet, thls
has placed the line high above the 10" low
water which prevails at this season oil tne
wear. At two great bends which the Ne"
river makes tunnels are building. One o
tbese. G, 400 feet long, will be the longest III
The limited States until the Hoosec tunnel
IS comuleted. 1t saves nearly tive miles OF
difficult road building. In these tunnels
large gangs Of men are employed at several
noints: and the whole line is In good
state of forwardness. With the exception
of some miles OF easy work near the Green.
brer, which can be done so rapidly that II
was not advisable TO put it under con.ract
until next spring, the whole llne OF tne
New river and Greenbrler IS unaer con;
tract, and everywhere the contractors
gangs are busily ut work. A great part
Of the road-bed has already beon
completed, and all is SO planned and
carried on that the whole line shall De aone
simultaneously with the tunnel at Great
Rend. There is no reason to doubt that as
the work is now going on the ROAD can be
opened by or before next October, Wh'cn
believe the engineers expect to accomplish.
| indeed, though there is still some heaVy
work to be done-for 1t Is all, or nearly all,
| heavy Work-it seemed to Inc that the WORST
had been done first, and that what remains
| is neither so difficult nor likely TO Do 80
costly or tedious as what Is finished. Inc
piers of the bridge at the crossing OF the
New river ut Miller's ferry, for Instance,
| the longest bridge on the road, are COM
pleted, and one span Of the bridge will be
| laid this fall This bridge will be 6'0 leet
| long. and the span which was being ralSeu
when | passed. there was 250 feet In length.
| There is very little bridging needed on
| the New river Il believe there Is only one
other bridge besides that mentioned aboyej,
| and there will be no treStle-Work at all Tor
l1O miles of road. Eventually, believe, II
is intended to replace all the trestle.Work
there Is with masonry or with dirt embank-
| ments, I noticed that every bridge, since
we left the Ohio river, is completed Tor
double track; and / am told that all the
tunnels but two on the whole line are maze
| to take double track also. Indeed,
ThOrouqh seems TO be the motto OF the en-
glneers.
About five thousand men are now en-
ployed on the work Of CONSTRUCTION along
The unfinished part of the line. The greater
| part Of these are negroes from Eastern Viz
ginia.
JScEND1ARIEs ON THE RoUNps.-SyrG-
| cuse, N. T., October 15.--Seyen distinct
tires occurred here last night--six being
the work Of incendiaries. No great damage
80, dnpa A biDh wind Sas prP Pyaiinp Mt