The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1881-08-16

The EHoRaAa and Alabama "
orn Railway CompaH'

The EnoRAAa and Alabama
ern halfway Compar,
| As noted in our issue of y
declaration for incorporation died a in the
Office of the Secretary Of eAse on MONDAY
last. The movement, <e mos. OF .ne
railway enterprises oene slmes' axe. '.e
public by surprise. out LOT al that II Is
. genuine move.snt, full OF life. strong
and annie i Sources, and firmly and
wisely settle; in its purpose to achieve
the great v>rk it has in hand.
IT, -oern terminus is on the Tennes-
sae ,;ur. at or near Guntersville; its
so,.hsrn terminus on the line between
Floida and Alabama, in the direction of
CAattahcochee.
TVS great enterprise, as we are credi-
sly informed, was projected and inaugu-
rated by Major Walter s. Gordon, of
Jackson county, in this State, and, as al
ready intimated, is in the hands of men
who mean business, and who are entirely
competent to accomplish that whereunto
they have set their heads and hearts.
It is expected that the Muscle Shoals
Canal will be completed in about eighteen
months or two years. Its completion
will give ample transportation by water
from the Northwest to Guntersville, the
most southerly point on the Tennessee
river. After leaving Guntersville the pro
posed railway will cross the Alabama
Great Southern, the Georgia Pacific
(which will be completed from Atlanta to
Birmingham as soon as the work can be
done), and the Selma, Rome & Dalton
railroads. These connections will give
to this new road a very commanding po-
sition; it will enable it to transport
freight and passengers to Southeast Ala
bama and Florida on terms which cannot
be controlled by any one of the great
railroad syndicates whose lines now pen
citrate this State.
The line of the proposed railway, to
make the shortest route from Chattahoo-
chez to Guntersville, would run by Troy,
crossing the Montgomery & Eufaula Rail
road between Montgomery and Union
Springs, and the Western Railroad about
Chehaw; thence it would run by Dade-
vile, Oxford and Gadsden to Guntersville
A DETECTION of less than forty miles would
bring it by Montgomery.
The advantages to this city of opening
direct communication with the roads of
the Erlanger syndicate, by tapping the
Alabama Great Southern; with the Cole
syndicate, by tapping the Selma, Rome &
Dalton; with the Clyde syndicate, by
tapping the Georgia Pacific, and with the
new Tennessee river system, which will
be opened by the Muscle Shoal Canal,
are really too great to be enumerated.
The Southern extension of this new giant,
if it comes by Montgomery, may over
shadow the Montgomery Southern, or
it may absorb it; but the benefits to the
city of route direct to Chattahoochee,
are not to be ignored; they cannot be
overestimated. Cannot something be
done to bring this new through line by
Montgomery is the momentous question
that confronts her now.
We learn that there ia no doubt at all
about the building of the road. Some of
the men who filed the application for in
corporation have all the means required
and much more. Others of them, includ-
ing Major Walter S. Gordon, and his
brother, General John B. Gordon, have
all the energy necessary to push it to a
speedy completion. To an outsider it
looks as though self-interest would induce
the projectors of this enterprise to build
it by Montgomery, but the cost Of the
additional thirty or forty miles to bring
it by this city is small sum compared
to its advantages to US, and it behooves
our business men and real estate owners
to wake up to what is going on, and to
realize the near possibilities of the situa-
ton. We learn that the road will be a
narrow guage, and that the estimated
cost will be about $1,000 per mile for the
whole route.