The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1881-05-25
YHR NORRBTOFN GAZETTE
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 1881.
The Best and N8St Direct Route
PROM
The Waters of the Ohio
TO THE
SOUTHEASTERN ATLANTIC STATES
AND THEIR PORTS.

In the year 1886, great railroad
convention, composed of delegates
representing tho cities Of Cincinnati
aud Charleston, and the entire in
termediate territory, was convened
1T Knoxville, Tennessee, to consider
the question of railroad communiea-
ton between the waters OF the ONO
and tho Southeastern Atlantic States
and their ports.
Both general and local interests
then imperativoly demanded, and
now demand, that the line Of COM
munication should be made as direct
and as short as practicable, with due
regard to the cost Of construction.
And entertaining these unques-
tiOnably sound views, the truth OF
the proposition involved being self
evident, it was the almost undivid-
ed sense Of the members of the
convention, who were mon of the
broadcast information and most cor
rect Judgment of their day, repre-
senting every diversity of interest,
but actuated by the most patriotic
and enlarged considerations, that the
road should enter East Tennessee
at Cumberland Gap and depart
Southwark along the course Of the
waters of the French Broad river.
The mountain ranges of East
Tennessee, uniformly running from
the northeast to the southwest have
always been regarded as being, and
in fact are, the most formidable and
the most difficult impediments to
be overcome and surmOunted in the
construction of tho road. But from
the first conception of the idea Of
this great national railway it has
been manifest to all persons having
a competent knowledge of the phys
ical conformation of the country,
that Nature herself benefcently re-
garding and providing for the mu-
tual wants and dependencies Of the
two great countries, lying one on
the North and the other on the
South of those mountains, opened
a way for comparatively easy COM
munication between them. This
great natural highway enters East
Tennessee from the South with the
waters of the French Broad river,
near the Paint Rock, departing on
the North through the Cumberland
Gap, and it is remarkable that these
points of easy ingress and egress
are both nearly on the direct line
from Cincinnati and Louisville. to
Charleston. The soundness of the
opinion of 1886, entertained and
expressed by the Knoxville conven-
ton, has never beeu questioned in
any enlarged and catholic consider
alton of the question. The General
Assembly of the State of Tennessee,
at an early day in the epoch. of rail
road construction, which is now
opening to the world the vast inte-
rior resources of the American con-
tinent, recognized the importance of |
this line of communication, and en-
PERTAINING the same opinion as to its
proper location, chartered the Gin
cinnati, Cumberland Gap and
Charleston railroad company, the
object and scheme of which we shall |
directly more fully state. The road |
was soon afterwards surveyed and !
located by q corps OF engineers,
whose skill and fidelity were inferior |
to none, as is now attested by their !
continued employment on the great |
works of the day, and found to be, |
for reasons which we have briefly |
stated, and which we shall more full
ly state and explain, not only prac-
but, notwithstanding the |
character of the coun-
try, of easy and economical construc-
ton. The termini of the survey
were the Paint Rock on the South |
and the Cumberland Gap on the
North. and the principal intermedi-
ate points were Tazewell Beams
Station and Morristown, at tho latter
Of which places it bisected and OBJ
tanned direct and immediate com
with the East Tennessee
and Virginia railroad, now enlarged
INTO the Rast Tennessee, Virginia
md Georgia railroad company. Com
at Morristown, some prog
-ess In the work of construction was
made northward in tho direction of
Gap, but much more
iOuthward in the direction of Paint
Rock. For many years the cars
AVE been running from MOrristOwn
learly to the line of North Carolina,
t, or in the vicinity of Paint Rock,
nd the unfinished part of the road,
ONE miles, is now being rapidly
ompleted The speedy completion
f the Moth Carolina road, and its
with the Tennessee road,
re now assured, so that in a short
ime there will be continuous, I'M :
'roken, uninterrupted railroad COM
between MoFristown and J
II the South Atlantic States and
heir ports, and thus by wisely util- t
ling the great route and passway, C
ough- hewn by Nature, One-half of 7
be mountain distractions in the di- ?
ect line from the Ohio to the shores a
the Carolinas will have been hap t
lily and cheaply surmounted and t
o
Now, the question is simply this o
laIl a road be continued on the di-
,ct, short, natural line to Cumber- n