The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1883-12-05
MISCELLANY.
TRANSCoNTINENTAL RAILWAYS.
The Ten Roads That IRE now Completed
or Soon VIII be-

Placed as our continent is, like strip of
land of varying width between the two
great oceans, it furnishes not only local
business to the railroads crossing it, but be-
comes as well highway between the east
ern and western portions of the Old World.
Enthusiasts, spectators, capitalists, long
talked of a Pacific Railway TO extend from
ocean to ocean, but not till 1869 did a
Pacific Railway on United States territory
become an accomplished fact, though at
the narrowest point of our continent the
Panama Railroad had long been in opera
ton. Another was completed last year, n
fourth is now practically complete, while
six more are either nearly finished or far
advnnced--ten transcontinental railroads in
all.
Far to the north, in the Dominion OF
Canada, is the Canadian Pacific Railway, in
active construction and partly completed,
10 extend from the st. Lawrence to Port
Moody in British Columbia
Within the United States are four great
routes, all subsidized by the national
government with grants of land, money, or
both. Commencing at the north, we find
the Northern Pacific. extending from Lake
Superior to Puget Sound and Portland.
Second, the n-Central, from Council
Bluffs, by the basin of the Great Salt Lake,
TO San Francisco. Third the Atlantic and
Pacific, or thirty-ffth parallel route, from
st. Louis through the Indian Territory,
New Mexico, Arizona, and California, to
the Pacific coast, no specific terminus being
there designated. Fourth, and furthest to
the south, on the very borders of Mexico,
Is the Southern Pacific, or thirty-second
parallel route (Which we may consider as
commencing at New Orleans), through
Texas to Ell Paso, thence westward through
Southern New Mexico and Arizona to Fort
Yuma, on the Colorado, and on through
California to San Francisco. 1t must be
remembered that though our Pacific sea-
board extends from north to south for
twelve hundred miles, it has but four har-
bors Of any consequence-Puget Sound,
the Columbia River, San Francisco, and
San Diego hence any transcontinental rail-
way naturally seeks one of these, and the
trade of San Diego being as yet undeyeloped,
the southern routes have aimed at San
Francisco though the more southern port
would seem to be their natural terminus.
In addition to these four routes, the
Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fe Railroad,
whose eastern terminus is at Atchison, on
the Missouri, has extended its lines far to
the southwest, and has acquired by pur-
chase the Sonora Railway, recently built
northeastward from Guaymas, ON the Gulf
of California. toward the Santa Fe lines in
Arizona or New Mexico. The connection
thus made will form another route, whose
western terminus lies within Mexican terri
tory In Mexico itself charters and sub
sides for three transcontinental, or inter-
oceanic lines, as they call them there.
have been obtained by American capitalist
and considerable progress has been made
toward their construction. Of these the
more northerly crosses from Tampico to
San Bias, the second from Vera Cruz, by
the city of Mexico, to Manzanillo. The
third is the Tehauntepec Railroad, across
the isthmus Of that name, toward whose
construction much progress had been made
by American capitalists; but the term Of
their charter having lapsed, the Mexican
government declared it void, contiscatcd
the work already done, and is now con-
structing the road as national enterprise
At the narrowest part of our continent the
Panama Railroad has long been in opera
ton.
Here are ten transcontinental railroads.
three of which are completed, and in the
construction Of the remaining seven such
progress has been made as assures their
early completion. But it is with those
within the United States that we are chiefly
concerned, and it is Of them mainly that we
now propose to treat Comparisons as to
distances are of little value SO many other
considerations, as to grades, fuel, etc.,
affecting the cost Of transportation, and also
because no one corporation yet owns con-
tinuous railroad from the Pacific coast to a
Northern seaport, and the connections east
of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers are
made by 80 many different routes that lines
south Of the Northern Pacific may be con-
sidered as terminating at the Missouri
River, or of the Mississippi below their
junction.--F. E. Prendergast, in Harper's
Magazine.