The Portland daily press., 1875-03-10
Letter From st. Louis.
From Cairo to Sf. Louis-Kgypt-The
Big Bridge.

ST.. LOUIS, Feb, q, 1875.
Mr.. demonstrating just returned from an
exceedingly interesting trip over the Cairo &
st. Louis marrow gaugeJ r. R., on which the
last iron was laid few days ago, and knowing
the great interest felt by the people Of Maine
in railroads of this character think that poss-
bly, some slight account of the road and its
practical workings may not come amiss to your
leaders Leaving the ticket office corner 4th and
Pine streets, at A. NJ. one pleasant morn
ing of this week, we were carried across
the river in one of the immense transfer
busses which convey passengers from the
city to the railroads terminating in East st.
Louis. Whirling rapidly through the streets
of the city, over the magnificent bridge
spanning the river at this point, and,
along Dyke Avenue in East st. Louis; which,
with its bottomless mud of the blackness OF
ink, its unbroken double line of overloaded
coal teams, drawn by lean, struggling, painting
mules vainly endeavoring to escape the deadly
blows of the blacksDake which in the hands Of
the brutal drivers falls incessantly upon their
steaming fanks with report like pistol shot,
the roar and rattle of trains, the screeching of
whistles, the cursing of teamsters and over all
suphurous canopy of dense black smoke,
presents an epitome of psndemonium seldom
excslled, we finally reached depot, in front of
which stood train of cars so dminutive in
their proportions, that they seemed
as II intended for Tom Thumb and
his prototypes. We were very soon con-
vinced, however, that comfort in railway
coaches is by no means confined to large ones,
for more elegant and comfortable cars than
these of the narrow gauge never rode in.
Exteriorly they are similar to those of the Den
YER g. Rio Grande railroad, of which no doubt
you have read descriptions, being painted and
named after the manner of Pullman palace
cars; but internally there is a slight difference
In the arrangement of the seats which, Instead
of being double on one side of the car and
single on the other, consist of roomy, COM
Portable single chairs on either side of CEN
trail aisle The whole exterior finish of black
walnut, maple, plate and ground glass and
red plush is very tasteful and elegant. These
tiny wheeled palaces are designed and built
by F. e. Canada s. Co., of Chicago, who
probably build more narrow gauge cars
than any other firm in the country. The loco
motives are even more diminutive than the
cars, aud weigh but from fourteen to twenty
tons, yet they have heavily loaded trains with
| ease and swiftness. 1 think the most striking
feature of this little three foot road is the great
| carrying capacity of its freight and coal cars,
the latter of which weighing but four tons,
| carry eight tons of coal, while on an ordinary
| Aft. ST 10. road, car of similar pattern and
| weighing ten tons viii carry but ten tons of
| COAL or pound of freight for pound of car.
The same proportion of two to one on narrow,
and one to one on broad gauge roads, holds
| good for freight cars of all descriptions. The
average cost of building this road through an
unusually rough and broken country is at
least third or 10000 dollars per mile less than
would have been that of building broad
gauge road through the same country.
| The rails of this road weighing but forty
pounds to the yard, rest upon soGnd white oak
| ties of six feet in length, which are placed two
feet apart from center to center, or 264O TO the
| mile.
! After run Of four hours making, includ-
| ing stops, about twenty five miles an hour and
| passing through number OF hourishing towns,
which with the mushroom-like growth of the
| West have already sprung up along the line OF
| the road. we fnally stopped for dinner at Muir
| freesboro, a town in itself totally devoid of
i
| prairie, the black, fathomless mud of which
| is at this season of the year, something fearful
| to contemplate, and having the wooden side
| walks the false two story front and genuine
one story, shanfy like stores, with here and
/ there q more imposing edifice of brick, the
l saloons, farmers teams, pigs and other loafers
| who compose the general make up of all west
| ern towns of limited population. This insg-
| nifcant little town is, however, one OF the
| most important of Egypt, being the center Of
| the immense and immensely valuable Big
| Muddy coal fields the coal from which is per-
| haps more peculiarly adapted TO the smelling
| of ore than that of any other region. This,
therefore, is one of the great objective points
| OF the Cairo s. st Louis railroad, and it is
| mainly for the purpose OF furnishing the nu-
| merous blast furnaces of Carondolet with the
| precious black diamonds of the Big Muddy,
| that the road was built.
| The road from Murphysboro to Cairo passes
| through a region SO diversified and mountain
| Gus that the scenery is unsurpassed for beauty
| and grandeur in this country. This rugged,
| picturesque country is at the same time one Of
the best fruit regions of the United States and
now, opened up by the indefatgable narrow
guage, is destined to become one immense
This little road built amid opposition, sneers
and prophecies of failure, by Chicago energy
and Chicago capital, bids fair to richly reward
the labors of its projectors and to form the
| precedent for many similar undertakings all
over the country. If any of your down-east
friends wish to see . narrow -guage. road in
| operation, and to gain practical Information
| respecting it they had better take short va
| cation, come west and examine into the work.
ings and results achieyed by this model three
foot experiment.
| will It be considered irrelevant if in the
same letter with narrow guage railroads an
dertake some feeble description of the glorious
broad guage bridge with which the Mississippi
is spanned at this place and which is the glory
and pride of the whole west? | trust not, for
| - xx,;n pntT L antt q If
from st. Louis without saying something
about 1t. .a.
This marvellous structure of steel, stone and
iron reared above the swift flowing torrent of
the. mighty river, and connecting Illinois and
Missouri in its firm embrace, is the most noble
work of man that it has ever been my fortune
to behold. Although had been familiar with
tho work from its commencement seven years
ago until within year of its completion, as |
emerged from the train at East st. Louis it
burst upon me like a revelation, and one of my
first undertakings upon reaching the city was
to hunt up my friend Cooper, inspecting en-
glneer Of the bridge, and in his company make
tour of every portion of the bridge, Its APP
| proaches, and the tunnel under the city which
leads from the western terminus to the site of
| the proposed grand union depot.
During this wait aud from the conversation
incident to it CLEANED the following interest
ing details, which may be new to those who are
not familiar with this section of the country
and its dOings.
The st. Louis bridge across the Mississippi is
| the grandest structure of the kind in the world
The first stone of the masonry for it was laid
| February 25th, 1868, and the entire stone work
| to the immense amount OF 1O3,OO cubic yasds
| finished by the close of the year 1877 after hve
| years of hard, incessant labor.
The superstructure of the bridge proper was
built y the Keystone Company of Pttsburg,
Penn, while that of the complicated and in
genious eastern approach was built by the Bal
timore Bridge Company, under the immediate
superintendence of Col. G. Shaler Smith, an
| engineer of national reputation.
The arches of the bridge are three In mum.
| ber The centre one spans distance of SIC
feet from pier to pier. The east and west arches
each span distance Of 500 feet The piers oc-
cupy 11S feet more, making the total distance
from one abutment to another ,128 feet. The
entire distance spanned from Third street ST.
Louis to the end of ithe approach in East ST.
Louis is 4, ,429 feet. Upheld by the great arches
of the bridge is double track railway, above
which is a roadway IS feet in width. On this
are promenades on either side and in the centre
two horse railroad tracks and a double track
for teams, rendering the passage of four teams