Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-28
A sHORT-LINE SOUTH.
Contracts Awarded for a Road whiC
will RevoIutionize Southern Travel.

Contracts Awarded for a Road which
will RevoIutionize Southern Travel.
The contract for building the New York,
Norfolk and Charleston Railroad, and for
the entire equipment, including rolling
stock, says a New York special to the
Philadelphia Press, has been let to the
Carolina Construction Company. This
company has sublet the contracts for
building road-bed, grading, bridging sta
tiOns, round houses and workshops to the
American Contracting Company, of New
York, for the sum Of 49, 10l, III in bonds
and stock of the railroad company.
The New York, Norfolk and Charles
ton Railway Company is chartered by the
States Of Virginia, North Carolina and
South Carolina, for building a line COM
mencing at either of the cities of Norfolk
or Portsmouth in Virginia, and extending
southwark through the States Of Virginia,
North Carolina and South Carolina, to
Charleston, distance of $50 miles. The
line will De part Of a through line from
Boston and New York by way of Phila-
delphia, Wilmington and the Delaware
and Peninsula Road. The Delaware Road
is now being extended southwark by the
Pennsylvania Company to a point
opposite the Northern terminus
of the New York. Norfolk and
Nu4A AtHlOA AAACs anu AAG wv " III NOnlAENN
through the waters of Hampton Roads
and Norfolk har5or. The $50 miles of air
line from Norfolk to,,Charleston, by cutting
out the existing triangular and circuitOus
lines, will effect a saving of $50 miles and
seven hours in time between Boston, New
York and Philadelphia, in the North, and
Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans and
Mobile in the South. 1t is claimed for the
new route, therefore, that it will COM
no hrTllr n fhrnrrerh a nd
freight traffic between the North and
South.
Connections at Charleston with the
Charleston and Savannah Railroad give
it the most direct route for all Florida
points. At Yemassee it will have con-
nectiOns with the Georgia Central to
Shreveport, La. and by the Texas Pacific
through to san Francisco. The surveyed
and located line is said to show the low
est maximum grade of any railroad in
the United States. The curves will be
few, and a high rate of speed can there
fore be combined with low cost of rum
ming. Fuel and water abound along the
entire line. In Virginia the line passes
through the rich agricultural country
where market produce is raised, and the
produce for Northern markets delivered
at any station on the line before evening
of one day will reach the markets Of
light of the next day.
In North Carolina the line taps the best
timber lands of the State, and contracts
tor transportation now agreed upOn, it is
claimed, ensure for the next twenty years
earnings sufficient to pay interest on
bonds secured on 800 miles of road and
dividends on stock to same. amount. The
line also runs through the best cotton
producing counties in the State.
The rivers crossed by the line, and
which will prove important feeders, are
the Chowan, Roanoke, Tar, Cape Fear
and Peedee. On these streams large
quantities of cotton, tobacco, lumber and
naval stores are annually shipped. The
railroads already constructed and bisect-
ed by the line of the New York, Norfolk
and Charleston, are the Albemarle and
Raleigh, the Wilmington and Weldon, the
Midland North Carolina, the Wilmington,
Columbia and Augusta running from
Wilmington, n. c., to Columbia, S. c.,
and Augusta, Ga. All of the rivers and
roads crossed drain a large territory, and
must prove important feeders to the di-
rect line crossing them and afford direct
outlet for their freight and passenger
traffic,