Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-12-18
The HOOsac Bore.

The Hoosac Mountain has been per-
forated. Light has been let through this
mountain of rock. The completion of
the tunnel is thing of days. Massachu-
sets has the honor of building the Mont
Gents of America. Her enterprise and
sagacity and perseverance deserve recog-
milton and praise. She has done a work
of which the nation may we'll be proud.
The HoOsac Mountains divide the val
legs of the Hudson and Connecticut from
each other. They rise to a height of
three thousand feet in some places, and
form solid barrier between Massachu-
sets and the West. They turned the
great currents of Western traffic from
| their eastern course and built up New
York at the expense Of Boston. The
Boston & Albany Railroad climbed over
the range by picking its way through de-
pressed and favoring localities, but the
great bulk of Western freightage refused
to make the ascent. That line of rugged,
romantic hills stood directly between
Boston and the great harvest fields and
internal markets of the nation, and
dwarfed the city that has always had
giants ambition. The hope of Boston
and Eastern Massachusetts lay in remov-
ing that massive obstruction. This was
of tunneling this mountain was discussed
year after year, the converts to the
scheme steadily increasing meanwhile.
Finally, in 1848, the Troy & Greenfield
Railroad undertook the job, but without
counting the cost. In 1859 the Legisla-
ture of the State loaned two millions to
the Company towards completing the
work. But the enterprise met with vari-
GUS unloOked-for distractions. 1t was
found to be heavier load than any cor
poration could cary. Then the State,
which had become committed to the un-
dertaking, took it up in earnest, and for a
dozen years she has struck the
blows and fired the trains, until
at last yesterday afternoon she let streak
of daylight through the mountains heart.
The aperture is four miles and three-quar-
tiers long through solid rock, which is
twO-thirds the length Of the Mont Gents
tunnel. The roadway will be twenty-four
feet wide and twenty-six feet high, and
the completed work will cost about twelve
million dollars. So much Massachusetts,
foresight, persistency, and grit have done
to overcome one formidable obstacle
to the success of her capital. The com
pletion of this enterprise opens Boston to
the trade of the West, and makes her
exporting capital. With her fine facili- |
ties for loading and unloading cars at the |
wharves, with none of the expensive hand |
ling and trucking to which all our freights |
are subjected, and her admirable location |
in other respects for foreign commerce,
and the extensive manufactures of all |
kinds at her very doors, she certainly has
advantages of no mean order. The sagac-
ity and enterprise her merchants and lead
ing men have shown in planning and car
rying through this mighty work in the
face of great difficulties, no less than in
rebuilding their city after most destruc-
tive confiagration, and enlarging its lines
to take in the territory of population that
really belongs to it, are the best possible
pledges of her renewed growth and pros
perity and increased infuence.--Neo
Y0rk Daily Graphic.