The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-07-11
Portland ana Ogdensburg Rail-
rOad.

A correspondent of the Springfield Re
publican, from Portland, Maine, makes the
following statement of the Vermont interest
of one of her railroads.
The Portland and Ogdensbure Is Maine
road, though all its building operations are
now going on in New Hampshire and Yer
mont. Its go miles In Maine were opened
almost two years ago-that is, in August
1871, and its lat miles in Vermont (of
which so are now OPEN will be completed
this year, or early in 1874. The 80 miles
through New Hampshire, from North Con-
way to Dalton, are the hardest part of the
line, and will be the last completed, be-
cause they are in the very heart of the
White Mountain region, but ground is
broken there for 10 miles, six miles are
completed, and six more will be open be-
fore withdrawing, at the beginning of
1874, not more than so miles, and perhaps
less than 40 of the 22S miles between Port
land and Lake Champlain, still to be built.
Portland has more at stake and has en-
barked more public money in this road
than in any other, and its completion is of
more consequence to the city than any rail-
road enterprise now going on. 1t is also,
from its location and history, one of the
most interesting of these enterprises
quite as much so as our HoOsac tunnel,
though it will not cost half so much for its
whole 22S miles as our five miles of tunnel,
when completed will have cost the State of
Massachusetts,. But what the Hoosac tun-
mel is to Massachusetts, the Portland and
Ogdensburg line is to Portland, as will APP
pear from the following summary of its
history:
Before the building of the Atlantic and
I all, al, lao,
nected Portland with Montreal, the pro-
ject for a railroad through the White noun
tain notch was advocated, but was deemed
mpracticable by most persons. The sue
cessful working of railroads with steep
crossing mountain ranges, had not been
sufficiently demonstrated 90 years ago the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad was new, the
crossing of the Alleghanies was regarded
as hazardous experiment, and the Rocky
mountains had not been attempted. More
over. Mr.. John A. Poor, the great railroad
satistician of Maine, had a project for a
road to Rutland, south of the mountains,
and another for road to st. John the
Montreal people were for coming down
north and east of the mountains, and so the
Notch route found little favor. But when
the great Importance of the western
| freight business began to be understood
and the position of Ogdensburg and Lake
Champlain with reference to the New
England railroads was seen, and the great
circuit made to get round the White noun
tains annoyed railroad men and kept north
ern Vermont locked up from railroad ia
cilties, the Portland capitalists turned
their eyes once more to the Notch route,
and got charter for the Portland and Og-
densburg road early in 1867. Two years
later they got right of way from New
Hampshire to extend their road through
the Notch, and began to build the Portland
end of the road. In order to do this, the
city of Portland was persuaded to make a
subscription to the capital stock, and is
now by far the largest stakeholder in the
corporation.