New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-08-30
pAuWAYS OF NEW-MEXICO.

yrAR-A PAYING CALMING BUSINESS FOL
us RAPIDLY ON HALLWAY ExTENsroN-RE-
pKARIE ENGINEERING FEATs-THRIE COM
'~,rs THAT TALK OF ENTERING OLD MEXICO
,,r SOUTHERN PACIFIC FNTERs NEw-MExIco
,~p WILL CONNECT WITH THE ATcHIsoN, TOPEKA
Ds,xrA FF ROAD EARLY NEXT YEAR.
STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRIBUNE.l
e,xqA FL, y. NJ. Aug 20.-ln July, 1879 cor
nopaent of TIE TRIBUNE passed through New
49, from Trinidad. Colorado, TO Mesa, in the
s~trame southern part of this Territory, and de-
.rhed the Journey of upward of 600 miles in
sSort series of letters He went all the way by
...ce-coach. and saw the country not yet aroused
Som the Rip Van WinSe sumber of more than two
.sr,urics Thirteen mouths later 1t Is my fortune
), mass over part OF the route. but the slow
- sfaqe-coach toling along at the rate Of five
.Ies an hour. has dsapp AIRED aud ride into the
rorv heart of this ancient capital in n palace car
,hicb LETT the Missouri River less than two days
tetore and brought its passengers with mach
,omfor and far ess fatigue than IS experienced in
,,oti,e the Journey from Ncw-York to Chicago.
The wonderful rapidly with which the great
,,;lroad lines are being extended over these
Western territories Is OF the great maryels of
the century, II used to be supposed that a country
nust be led before u could support railway,
and those who projected new lines followed the
vreat routes which internal commerce had already
established II isefand whose facilities II had out
grown Railway bull, ers of quarter of a century
aro soug 10 10 connect the large and to
strlfc already important and likely to grow. The
railroad IS now the pioneer of civilization. L pushes
nut into countries that almost destitute of pOpu
lstou and which have not felt the stimulating in
fuence Of outside capital following close upon the
heels Of the Government exploring expedition whose
reports AID descriptions of scenery read
eXgUVerafpd ii OF
Jule, Verne The man who invests his
money in Western railway project, to-day, unless
the objrctv We point of the line is phenO menal
mining camp like Leadville. does not because he
believes the trade of tae country through which 1t
Is 10 pass Is sufficient to support the road.
but because he expects the enterprise to stimulate
trade and TO create business for itself
With this object in view these great arteries of
commerce are boldly pushed out into the deserts
md mountains. and constructed over hundreds of
miles % country in which the population if it were
TO abandon every other industry, would not be
sufficient furnish the labor to do the grading. Very
little attention is paid TO the existing towns in the
country If any there are, but the shortest and
most practicable route Is selected. If a
eitv Ike Santa Fe off the main line,
Is of sufficient Importance to warrant the expense,
or is wiling TO lend its credit to the railway com
panv 10 secure special facilities branch hne Is
bnlt to it. but smaller towns left ten fifteen, or
twenty miles on one side of the road are helpless
thew must 20 to the railroad with their business and
they have their choice. either TO move their town
there or pas the expense o. wagon transportation
They generally do the former. The traffic which
warranted the building OF the line that which !
lis construction was expected to create, not that
which was found IN the country when the railroad
engineers came through and staked out the route.
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE IN A YEAR
little more than wear ago, the first mile Of
track Was Land IN w-Mexico. To-day, the Atch-
Bon, Topeka and Santa Fe Company has in regular
operation this side of the Colorado line. 2s3 miles
Of railway. while its sde-tracks from Kansas City
10 Socoro are crowded with freight loaded with
construction material destined for its southern and
western extensions. Its southern terminus is now
within about 175 miles Of FL PasO, at which point
Ii viii cross into Old Mexico If the company Is sue
ressful IN Its negotiatons with the government OF
that country. Between Socoro and FL PasO, the
main line OF the road will be built in a southwest
erly direction toward Guaymas, on the Gulf OF Cali
fornia. passing, south Of the national boundary
through a country of tabled wealth in minerals and
grazing lands Work the western end of this line
has already begun and As am informed, several
miles o. iron have been Land northeast from Quay
mas.
At AibuGuerque about seventy-fve miles south
of here this company has already begun grading on
its western line to sau Diego and San Francisco
Contracts for this work been let for more than
300 miles west. The company having purchased the
charter of the old Atlantic and Pacific Company is
constructing W. road under that name. met in
Santa Fe the other day, Mr.. John W. Young, the
favOrite If the Mormon prophet, who has con-
tract 10 buid section OF this line across the Con
tlnental divide" about 1870 miles west of Albu-
tItao Will ha
running ITS trains to Ell Paso and into Old
Mexico il secures the concessions for which II Is
now an applicant, while IN 1882 the line Will be
open to Guaymas and probably west from Albu- |
Querque TO the Colorado River III Arizona. II Will
cross the Grand Canon at height of l 900 feet |
above the stream on a bridge with single span of
400 feet
The 2s3 miles of railroad already constructed by |
the Atkinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Company, in
New-MexcO has not been built through an easy
country, many may suppose from the rapldlty
with which the work has been pushed forward
From the Colorado line TO the point where the road
enters the Rio Grande Valley at San Do
mngo. and along the whole of. the
Santa Fe Branch, the road has been built
through a mountainous country where the obsta-
ces 10 b. overcome were greater and the engineer
ing skill demanded has been of higher order than IN
The ion of such lines as the Baltimore and
Ohio and the IennsylvanIa Two ranges OF noun
tsns have been crossed. the Ration and the Santa
fe the pass over the former being about 5000 feet
high and that the latter 400. To reach these
attitudes the track has been laid on a grade OF 1s6
feet a mile, the steepcst that has ever been at
tanned by any standard gauge railroad IN the world
The maximum grade on the Pennsylvania Railroad
Of the famous Horseshoe Bend in the Allegheny
NOuntai is only % feet to mile, and that OF the
most d fhcut portions OF the Baltimore and ONO
Road il crossing the range, 116 feet to mile
And these heavy grad es on the Atchison, topeka
and Santa Fe Railroad have not been necessary at
single point only. they had 10 be adopted to reach
The Top Of The Raton MountaIns from the north. and