The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1876-06-14
ION TO MORRISTOWN."
THE sTRAEGE POSITION or d

ing editorial in late Knoxville Age.
In giving an account Of the proceed
ings of the Blue Ridge Railroad Con-
vention, recently held at Charleston.
S. c., at which the writer was pres
ent, the editor says:
$50 far as the Blue Ridge Railroad
project is concerned, we found Charles
ton, on the opening of the Convention,
decidedly apathetic on the subject, grow
ing out of two or three causes, which we
viii call attention to. In the
third place, their attention had been di-
verted from this route by the Spartan
burg line, by way of AsheVille, N C.,
on to MorristoWn, Tenn. True
they had taken but little or no stock in
this road, and really seemed to care but
little about it, but the noise raised over it
by interested parties had caused them to
lose sight of the other undertaking for
tie time being"
The singular part of this thing is,
that a Knoxville editor should so far
forget himself as to mention in his
columns, the fact that there is such
Zine" ass the line from Charles
ton via Spartanburg and Asheyille
and on TO MoRRIsTowN. Tenn We
are told by a gentleman who has
been familiar with this : on to Nor
ristown enterprise, that this is per-
haps the first mention of it that has
been made in a Knoxville paper
since the close of the war. And in
this connection our contemporary of
the Age must permit us to tellit two
or three secrets in regard to the mat
ter it is high time it should know.
They are these:
/. If both the Blue Ridge route
and the con to Morristown route
were completed, the traveller start
ing from Knoxville to Charleston, s.
c., could reach his destination just
"a miles nearer by getting on the
eastern bound train and coming up
to Morristown and taking the French
Broad route. than by taking the Blue
Ridge route direct from Knoxville.
2. If both routes were untouched
and now to be built, the one from
Charleston to Knoxville, and the 9TH
er from Charleston to Morristown,
the cost of the Blue Ridge route
would exceed that of the French
Broad route by little over four mil
lions of dollars.
3. The cost Of the Blue Ridge
route and its necessarily steep gra-
dients are such, when compared with
the French Broad route, that engin-
GERS estimate that tonnage could be
carried over the latter at but little
over half what it would cost over the
other route.
4. There is now only about 150or
100 miles, we believe, of road to
build to make through connection
between Cincinnati and Charleston,
via the ION to Morristown" route,
only about half of this will bring
Charleston ION to Morristown," and
work actually going on in two places,
while it will take -. well, we dom
care to state how many miles of ter
rible cutting, filling, tunneling and i
bridging to complete the Blue Ridge
route,
Perhaps these Charleston men had
learned some of these secrets from
those interested parties who had
been making so much noise!
Since writing the above. we find
the following editorial on the subject
Of the ION to Morristown route in
the Knoxville Tribune. We hail it
as an augury that the French Broad
route has at least one friend among
the Knoxville papers:
Now that the connection of Knoxville
with Charleston, by way of the Rabun
Gap route, seems to have gone into tenn
porary allegiance, since the rather unsat-
isfactory convention of last month, it
will not be out of place to take a glance
once more at the French Broad route,
which, by reason of it's advanced con-
and the energy with which |
the work on the most important link in
the line is being pushed forward, is en-
titled to present consideration. In anoth- |
er column will be found a very interest |
ing article from the Columbia IS c. |
Register, which affords very encOurag- |
ing statement in regard to the progress |
of this road. In addition to this, we are |
in RECEIPT of private letter, of June LIST, |
from Col. Duncan, President of the road |
in which he says: "There are two things |
we do know, about which there can be |
no question, III regard to the route Ella |
The French Broad valley: First. 1t is the |
shortest route from your city to the sea-
board charleston. Second. 1t can be /
built for one fourth of what it will cost |
20 give you direct communication with
Charleston by any other route. l hope
10 be in your city some time during the
present month, in the interest of our en-
.erprise. give you the following state
nent of distances:
from Charleston to Columbia. 100
" Columbia to Spartanburg. .... .93
" SpaTtanburg to Asheville. ......67
-" Asheville to Morristown ... 81
" Morristown to Knoxville. AZ
Charleston to Knoxville (totaD. ..... .419
The amount necessary to grade our
Dad to Asheville is $40, 200. The COM
amy has $3.50, 900 in county bonds of
and Union counties, S. @. land
3uncombe and Henderson counties, n.
J. The East Tennessee, Virginia and
7 forth Carolina Company are pledged, 1
to see to it that the connec-
ion is made between Ashville and Wolf
jreek. Here is something practicable