The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1882-02-22
TAMPICO,
A Great Future Gulf Port and Something
Else.

~ Orcat future Guit Eoft anu So"oo'"k
Else.
To the Editor Of the Herald.
Your paper processes to be alive to the
true meaning of the word progress" q
term too often seized upon by Swimming
scavengers, to effect present. superficial
end. My understanding, from reading
your paper, is, that you are in favor of gem
uine, sound progress, based on the laws of
development, and hence venture the fol
lowing remarks:
The New York, Texas & Mexican rail-
road, now being built from practically
speaking) Galveston and Houston, parallel
10, our coast, which means a grad
nal curve, is to cross the
Rio Grande at Camargo, or some
where between that place and Brownsville
and Matamoros, coterminous cities. Its
main line Is destined for Tampico, with q
branch from Victoria, the capital of Tamau-
lipas, through lula pass, TO San Luis Potosl,
where IL will connect with the now develop
ing system OF Mexican railroads, rospec-
lively represented by General Grant, Palmer
and Sullivan, the Texas international and
the Atchison, Topeka Il Santa Fe. The
Mexican National is building 4 road from
Tampico across the American back. bone,
via San Louis Potosi, to port on
the Pacific ocean. This Texas
Texas Il Mexican, is an entirely different
scheme. by the development of both Tam
pico will become a sea-coast terminus otnot
only The two roads referred to, but of the
entire system of Mexican and southwest
Texas railroads. 1t is therefore question
OF prime importance, where and how is
Tampico situated? aud this is the question
propose to answer from actual personal
knowledge.
Tampico is beautifully situated on
monnd at the junction OF the rivers Pannco
and Tamesf, ten miles from the
gulf From the town to the
gulf the united rivers are
called the Tampico river. From the bar at
the mouth OF the river up to the town there
is fifty or sixty feet of water-the river be-
ing half Q mile wide and capable of holding
thousands of vessels. From Tampico up
the main river to the old town OF Pannco, it
is thirty-three miles, and the depth to that
point is sufficient to float the largest
merchant ship in the world. From this old
town up the river, on two different
navigation for hundred miles further.
Again, from Tampico up the Tamesi,
directly in the direction of Texes,
ninety miles, to the Tancasnequi, there
is also perpetual steamboat navigation.
canal over Hat land or rather the re-
opening of natural canal three miles in |
length, will connect the rivers Pannco, |
Tamesi and Tampico with the magnificent |
lake Tomiagua (sixty miles long and ten to |
fifteen mics wide), which is connected |
by navigable bayou with the Tuxpan |
river ana ITS navigable tributaries of several |
hundred miles Of navigation.
The mort of Tam nico (and this 10 ibo ,,o;,t
wish TO make is easily susceptible OF be-
ing made accessible to the largest ships of
the world. The river, at its mouth, is about |
half mile wide, and, as before said
IS from forty to fifty feet deep The bar at |
the mouth varies in depth from nine to
thirty feet, according to the seasons. I'm |
the rainy seasons II washes out, and as the
floods cease, 1t gradually shoals. But the |
coast there, for many miles, is almost an air |
line, and is washed by the gulf stream.
Hence, if Lilliputian set of jetties were |
fixed, on the same principle as that Mt tho
mouth of the Mississippi by Captain Eads, |
the entrance into the Tampico would afford |
depth of at least thirty feet. The cost of |
such work would be insignificant abso
lutely insignificant.
The importance of railroad conncc |
ton with Texas with such
port fed by local navigation
10 such an extent, bringing sugar, coffee, |
rice, bananas, plantains, dye-woods ma.
hogany,. rosewood sarsaparilla, cocoanuts.
pineapples, and a hundred other growths
now used all over the United States, must |
be apparent to all
But this accomplished, another fact pre-.
SCENTS itself. That is, that railway oftwo
hundred miles, or In lieu thereof a canal of
sixty miles, will connect the Caribbean sea
from Balize, Honduras, with the Laguna
der Terminus, at the bottom of the Mexican
gulf, whence there is fine harbor at the
port OF III Carmen, and cut of twelve hun.
dred miles Of difficult navigation around tho
peninsula of Yucatan, precisely as a canal |
across the heel of Florida-say from Appa- |
lachicola to the northeast angie of that |
pe' insula-would cut of twelve or fifteen
hundred miles of danger, as navigation be. |
tween New Orleans and New York
Ten years ago these thoughts would have
bccn.considered Utopian as were those of |
John w, Dancey, In the Texas congress of |
lSil-2, wherein he advocateda railroad from
the Gulf to California. To-day, men of can. |
ital can look at the suggestion, send agents |
to investigate and determine for themselves. |
IL they will do so, they will find vast and |
rich field for investment and hepe to live |
to see its development, il am
A LoNo-HoRN.