The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1871-11-09
WEST VIRGINIA.
Something More About the Chesapeake
and Ohio Railroad.


Charles Nordhotf, Esq, writes to the
New York Tribune from the line Of the
railroad:
The grading is completed, with few
unimpor.aut breaks, To the Falls; the ties
are either laid or at hand. and all is ready
for the iron. The work has not been very
heavy so far, for the country is compare.
lively easy The mountain torrents which
pour into the Kauawha have made neces.
sary good deal Of masonry. and it il very
plain that the companys chief engineer
Major II D. Whitcomb, has known how
to select good masons. the high stone
arches. bridges aud culvcrts arc admirably
solid, and the sandstone Of the country
has been laid 10 so workmanlike manner
that our party often stopped 10 admiration
oft do not know Of q road in the
country whose s'onework will compare
with that Of the Chesapeake 4 Ohio rail
road, so far as have seen it
To Kanauha Falls wo had travelled
over very tolerable roads. When wo
mounted our horses the following morning
We babe good bye to roads and entered the
New river couutry-a bowling wilderness,
through which the engineer parties Of the
Chesapeake and Ohio railroad have con.
structed what it pleases them to call q path.
by which path, il you have sure footed
horse and steady nerves, you may ride at a
slow and difficult walk, and SEQ how the
industry of workmcn, moved by the enter.
prise of capitalists and guided BY the skill
aud ingenuity of engineers can blast and
tunnel and dig way along the preoipitu.
GUS banks ofs raging torrcot for the iron
horse. lfyou have ridden into the 70.
Semitic Valley you will find here trail
\'eapcr and more difficult than tina. curious
dyceut, and not two miles but eighty long.
If you have not ridden into the Semitic,
That ride will appear joke to you after
New river.
When The engineers we're making surveys
for the line Of the Chesapeake and Ohio
railroad they had to take their measure
ments and levels suspended by ropes. and
transport 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 ride comfort.
ably along the side Of its bluffs at the rate
Of thirty miles per hour, and laugh at the
slow and tiresome progress of which mean
to give you few incidents. But tiresome
though our ride necessarily was, it va, not
tedious. for grandor scenery than the New
river affords, in the part Of its course be.
low tue Grceubricr, It would be difficult to
6ud in the United States; and certainly
there is nothing to compare With il this
side Of the Rocky Mountains.
The result is roadAuy which passes
through the. mouutaias on an oa,ivs .atado
BY for than any other Of thu great east and
west lines connecting tho Atlantic with the
West. The Erie railway has grades as
high Us eishty-iour feet to the milo; the
PENNSYLVANIA has ninely.dve feet to the
mile; the New York Central. though in
general it has easy grades, runs up to
ninety i've ieet to the mile; The Baltimore
and Ohio runs up to one hundred and six.
teen feet to the mile; the Chesapeake and
Ohio will have no grades over thirty fee.
to tho milo facing west, and west of How.
ards creek it has none over twenty feet to
the mile. 1t will have the lowest grades
OF all the great east aud west lines, and
this, Joined to the fact that it taps the
Ohio at . pOiut-Hun.iugtou so low
down that it 10 always accessible to steam.
boats, and that it will give the Southwest
its shortest connection with the Atlantic,
would make tia great enterprise, impor.
tant to tho country, even il it did not pass
through region Of uuexampled richness in
coal, iron aud timber. which has heretofore
been shut out from the market and closed
against capital and industry.
The New river aud the Greenbricr have.
in the course Of ages worn their way
through the mass Of hills aud mountains
which lie between tho Falls Of Kauawha
aud the White Sulpher Springs 10 all
this country, 80 far as | could notice there
are very few signs Of the upheavel strata.
The rocks lie in their beds as they we're
deposited, and the river seems to have worn
its way down from the tops Of the noun
tains to its present level. 1t was to carry
an easy grade that the engineers of tho
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, a work of excava-
ton for them which gave them the means
oflying a road bed so ncarley level that it
presents no obstacles to travel or transpor.
ta,iou. They had only to take care that
tho road should run above the level of high
water; and as the river rises sometimes forty
or fifty feet, this has placed the line high
above the low water which prevails at this
season OF the year. At two great bends
tubteh tho N,,v ,,u.. ,..I.- ...I