The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-06-17
The 3. & o. Improvement.


Almost anything would be an i'm
provement that would get the B. & o.
tricks OF. Sixteenth street. They not
only disfgure and cucumber street
that is naturally one of WheelinS's
main highways, but, crossing Main and
Market and Chapline streets at grade,
they prove constant obstruction to
travel that cannot afford to be i'm
peeled.
Street cars must wait on Main and
Market streets, and every soul in them,
no matter how urgent his business,
must wait till the trains and the clouds
OF smoke roll by. In consequence OF a
heavy grade and the curve at Chapline
street the trains ana the smoke do not
always pass quickly. Notwithstanding
all the black smoke that two locomotives
can puff the work of getting heavy
freight train up the grade is often much
too deliberate for the comfort and the
business of Wheeling.
The misfortune OF the situation is
that the railroad company is there and
may, ii it please, remain there till the
crack OF doom. The company has pro-
fessed to be willing to adopt any practi-
cal plan OF relief to the city, 1t hap
pens that the problem is not easily
solved. In an interview published in
to.day's INrEL1IeENcER Col. Robinson,
OF the B. 60, outlines plan which the
company has in mind as the best solu.
ton that con be reached. The company
will give up sixtel nth street and sell to
the city at reasonable price the square
now used for yard between Sixteenth
and Seventeenth and Chapline and Eoff,
provided the city will secure for the
company right Of way from the creek
east on Seventeenth. On Seventeenth
street the railroad company agrees to
build ayiaduct that will cross all the
streets to Eotf at twelve feet in the clear
above grade.
It is obvious that this would be an
immense gain to the city from whatever
point Of view considered. There are
not many valuable buildings in the way,
but such as there are the city would
have to buy, The question is whether
the people would rather let the tracks
remain where they are or pay the cost
OF the proposed right OF way.
The company's plan contemplates
straight line after crossing Market
street, cutting through the property on
the south side Of Seventeenth. A
straight road counts for something with
a railroad company, but if the city is
unwilling to be at the cost of buying
the property that would have to be
used, and would prefer to permit the
use Of Seventeenth street running along
that property, it might be that the COM
pany would forego the advantage of a
straight line and consent to this modi.
i,cation OF its plan.
Seventeenth street from Market to
Chapline is little more than an alley,
in no way to be compared, OF course,
with Sixteenth street within the same
boundaries. A structure similar to that
OF the elevated railroads could be built
that would permit surface traffic of all
kinds just before. The railroad would
have the use of the street, but the
street would nss b. clp..d.
This secua to >. til lasS chance to do
something, and Wheeling cannot afford
to lose it. The plan now proposed, sub
ject to such notifications as may be de-
sirable and practicable, offers basis of
negotiation. If the city and the COM
pany are both in earnest, solution
will be reached somewhere along the
proposed line.