Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1873-03-20
Let Us BE One of the Great Links.

Let US be one of the great links con-
Meeting the Far West with the Southern
seaboard-the Far West which has be-
come the grand food. producing area of
the world, and must remain so for CEN
turies. Or in other words, let Edgefield
identify itself with the newly chartered
Anderson, Aiken, Port-Royal and Char
lesion Railroad, which IS to run from
Anderson, through Abbeville and Edge
field to Aiken, and thence to Port Royal
mot to POINT on thealready completed
Augusta and Port Royal Railroad, but an
independent Road entirely to Port Royal.
We are unable as yet to inform our
people who thesb parties are ct the back of
this great enterprise, or even the names
of the corporators, but tits said and gen.
orally believed that these parties possess
ample means; and are ready Immediately
to back the people in. building the road.
In absence of fuller information upon
this point we will at present make but
one suggestion. Would it not be wise
for Edgefeld to offer this Road 100000,
provided its projectors will begin the
Road at Aiken first, and come this way,
thus giving US many of its advantages
without waiting erm.of years? We
invite the views OF our citizens upon this
important subject.
And in the meantime we copy from
the N. Y. 'EUening Post, certain remarks
and information german to the matter.
The contest in the past, has been between
railroad and water transportation to N.
Y. In the future, it will be. between trans
portation to Europe via New York or
Port Royal. And mark the fact stated
by the Post that St. Louis is $50 miles
nearer to Port Royal than to New York {:
1t is interesting to know, in view of
| this great food problem, that new line
of railway has just been completed be-
| tween Augusta, Georgia, ard Port Royal;
South Carolina. The last rails were laid
on Saturday, March l, and the opening
OF the road is announced. This gives
what the South has never yet had, deep
water hsrbor OH the Atlantic coast. Port
Royal has long been known as second, in
its favorable topography and the depth ofits
channel, not even tD the harbOr of New
| York: The triangulation by Capt. G. O.
| Boutelle, under the direction of the late
Superintendent of the Coast Survey, A.
| D. Bache, shows a minimum depth OF
twenty-four ieet at low water to the docks
of the port. Capt Boutelle says, in de-
scribing the harbor: 1.-The entrance is
easy, and is now well marked by buoys,
so placed that it is only requisite to sail
from buoy to buoy leaving each on the
side indicated by its color, to enter or
leave the port without a pilot. BY first
class port mean one into which any
vessel yet built can enter"
AS if nature Intended to leave nothing
wanting to renew the fertility of the soil
in the South, it is in the immediate vi
cinity. of Port Royal that inexhaustible
beds of bone phosphate have been re-
Gently discovered. st. Louis may he as
sumcd as the central point from which
this invaluable fertilizer may be most
readily distributed over the Mississippi
valley. 1t is distant from Port Royal
946 miles, shorter distance by $50 miles
than between New York and st. Louis.
With this difference in its favor, there
appears to be no reason why the South
ern roads leading to the Atlantic may
| not carry OH successful competition
with the Northern; and force the latter
to adopt more liberal ideas of business
than they now entertain.