Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-05-22
WHEELING & LAKE ERIE.
Commodore Garrison's Future. In
tentions.
As Given to the Press BY Contractor
Griggs-Ths Wheeling Bridge and
Wheeling End Of the Road
All Right.

Considerable interest has been manifested
here in regard to the matter Of the Wheel
ing & Lake Erie road, and since the aequi-
sition of the Marietta & Cleveland road by
the Lake Erie company, the folks aeroeSthe
river have been feeling very anxious con-
corning the fate Of their end of the concern,
but the following from the Cleveland Leader
of Saturday is calculated to soothe their
fears and give them hopes for the future:
Commodore c. h. Garrison, principal pro-
prietor, C. Robinson Griggs, general con-
tractor and lessee, }. T. Kennedy, president,
and Hon. Noah H. Swayne, Jr., Vice Presi-
dent of the Wheeling & Lake Erie railroad,
were in the city yesterday, accompanied by
Mr.. Warwick, of Massillon, r. c. Living
ston, William K Garrison, and R. B. Min
turn, of New York, and A. Garrison, OF
Pittsburgh. The Commodore and distin-
guished party are out on a tour OF inspec-
ton, and the object of the visit to Cleve-
land was to take q view of eur rapidly
growing city and inspect the Valley railway
with which the Wheeling & Lake Erie has
effected close alliances, which cannot result
otherwise than to the advantage of both
roads.
On October /, 1880, Contractor Griggs
threw the first shovelful of earth in the
construction of the Wheeling & Lake Erie,
at a point near Norwalk, and there will be
completed by the first day of July, l75
miles of first.class road. From the day that
work was commenced Mr.. Griggs has
pushed the road as fast as men and money
could push it, without sacrificing any point
in its superior construction, and to-day
railroad men who have casually inspected
it, pronounce il one of the best constructed
roads in Ohio. Taking this fact into con-
sideration the progress of the road has been
quite remarkable.
PROGRESS OF CONSTRUCTION.
Desiring to learn something of the de-
tails of its rapid naturalization, the Leader
called upon Mr.. Griggs at the kennard
House last evening. In answer to interro-
cations, he said:
I'VE are now with our track near Oak
Harbor, and will be into Toledo on the lst
of July. The track will be down TO the
bridge over Maumee, at Manhattan. on the
10th or 18th of June, and the bridge will
soon be ready for us. The construction OF
the connecting line from Massillon TO
Zoar has been commenced and will be COM
pleted before July 1st, and We will be ready
10 put trains on from Toledo 10 Marietta
and from Marietta to Cleveland, July 4.
Our contracts all expire June 20, and every
thing indicates that the contractors will be
on time.
Regarding the alliance with the Valley
road, Mr.. GriggS said: Arrangements have
been made with Messrs. Wade and Everett
for close business connections will Cleve-
land, both for the Marietta and the Wheel
ing
THE WHEELING EXTENSION To WHEELING NOT
ABANDONED.
Then you have not abandoned the
Wheeling extension as some seem wont to
believe?'
NO, indeed. The road to Wheeling will
be pushed forward aS fast as men and
money can push it. The bridge over the
Ohio river will be completed by July l.
1883, when the Wheeling and Lake Erie
will have direct connection with the vast
McCOnnellsville coal and coke regions"
will your line be extended beyond
Wheeling"
"Our own line will terminate at Wheel
ing, but close connections, which will I'M
questionably be made, will give Cleveland,
Huron, Toledo and Sandusky. if we extend
the line to that city, a shorter line to the
seaboard and facilities on as grand a scale
as any line now in existence or to he con
StruCted.'
For reasons of easy contemplation by
railroad men, Mr.. Griggs declined to speak
in detail of any plans for the new trunk
line, and returning TO the Wheeling and
Lake Erie proper, and its connections, he
said:
THE road will be speedily completed
from Zoar to BOwerstown, where we inter
sect and cross the Panhandle, on the line
to Wheeling, and that will open the Con-
notion Valley coal fields for the Wheeling
and Lake Erie to Toledo, and over the Val
ley to Cleveland, as well as the Cambridge
coal fields for Cleveland and Toledo"
Mr.. Griggs spoke of the rich coal fields
and valuable black hand and hcmatite iron
ore deposits on the Wheeling Il Lake Erie, !
and of the volume of business which they
will naturally make for the line, which is
the shortest between these valuable deposits
and Lake Erie. When asked what facilities
he is preparing for the handling of the
traffic, he said: I'VE now have docks at
Huron far advanced and one will be com
pleted by the LIST of July and the other will
be completed by the lst of August, when
we will be able to handle two thousand
tons of coal per day, and all the ore, salt,
lumber, etc, that We can handle. At
Toledo the most extensive docks will be
built and $4,000 is the estimated cost.
This will accommodate four thousand tons
of coal and ore per day. That is two hundred
car loads, and il we can get business for
that amount we ought to pay interest on
our bonds"
THE FEATURE OF CONSTRUCTGoS-A REMARKA-
a BILE BRIDGE.
"How does the construction of the Wheel
ing and Lake Erie compare with the Nickel
Plate?'
The road is construed and will be
equipped in the most substantial manner
The physical features OF the road are it
light grades, the maximum being twenty.
six feet per mile; its broad embankmentS
and wide cuts and deep and abundant
bitches, and its steel rails, which are laid
on three thousand ties to the mile. An
idea of the construction OF the road can be
had from the bridge over Maumee
river at Toledo. There is no better
masonry in the world, and you
never saw a more accurate piece of en-
cheering. There are twelve piers, two OF
which are in twenty-five feet of water and
all were sunk in c~aisson, onto pile founda,
tions. These piers were Junk last October,
and last week, when we took the levels it
was found that, taken altogether or separ-
ately, they do not vary one-fourth of an
inch from center to center. That" said
Mr. Griggs, evidently with much S~atisfac-
ton, lis about the way the whole road is
built"
"Who was the engineer of this remarka.
BILE structure
"Mr. J.. G. Nancy, of Toledo, and by the
way, he is not only accurate, but is one OF
the most faithful men | ever met. He is
one of the few engineers who never knows
when noon ONE or when the sun goes
down.