Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-08
A PRETTY RAILROAD RUMOR.
The Norfolk and Westerns Possible ShorI
Cut to Washington.
A Fight for Territory and Tramc-
Beauty of the Blue Ridxe-PeOp1e
Who Summer There.

people. The Norfolk and Western now
reaches Washington by going over Its own
tracks down the Shenandoah valley to
Charlestown. in West Virginia, thence over
the Baltimore and Ohio through Harper's
Ferry and down the Potomac valley over
the Metropolitan branch. By building
line eleven miles long through Smokers
Gap. in the Blue Ridge. from Berryville on
the Shenandoah Valley line to Round Hill.
the terminus of the Washington and Ohio
branch. the Norfolk and Western would
save twenty-eight miles travel A part of
the plan, and a very essential part it GER
tainly is Is to build a cross-cut from Falls
Church to Georgetown, by which a dis
lance Of five miles is saved between WASH
ington and the Shenandoah valley at Berry
willie. making the total distance that the
Norfolk and Western would gain by lease
of the Washington and Ohio branch. and
the construction of the line through Snick-
ers' Gap. thirty miles
Graded Years Ago.
The old Hampshire and Loudoun Com
pany that built what is now known as the
Washington and Ohio road. graded the line
to within mile of Smokers Gap. so there
would be but little grading to do on the
proposed line from Berryville to Round Hill.
except in the gap itself. The highest level
above the sea On the Winchester pike, which
runs through the gap. Is 1,O5O feet This
pass through the Blue Ridge, according to
early traditions. was surveyed by George
Washington when a colonel of volunteers
under Braddock, and it was through this
gap that the greater part of Braddock's
men marched to the fatal finale in which
the English general lost his life. The ele-
walton of Berryville is 571 feet That of
Castlemans Ferry, where the new road
would cross the Shenandoah, Is 5OO feet.
The road would have two miles and half
in an air line to travel from the river to
the highest point in the gap, and would
rise in that distance $50 feet. So important
to the valley is this cutoff through the gap
that the citizens of Clarke county four
toward its construction. The time in which
this aid was to be available has now pass
ed, owing to delay in securing legislation
from Congress for the entrance of the Nor
folk and Western into Georgetown.
This proposed new entrance of the Nor
folk and Western opens up to Washington
people a land almost unknown hitherto.
Thousands of people from the capital have
for several years been in the habit
of spending the summer in the beautiful
farming region of Loudoun county. In this
picturesque mountain country on the sum-
mits and slopes of the katoctin range.
within the soft, amethystine sky line of
the Blue Ridge bounding the horizon. hun
dreds of good. o.d-fashioned Virginia house
overflow from Washington. The Blue Ridge
has, however been invaded by. few of this
host of summer boarders until the past
season. The mountain people are a class
peculiar to their situation, and among them
il has not been an easy matter to find
agreeable summer homes. Their houses are
after the primitive log cabin. and the Gus
toms of many are those of the last CEN
fury. Few read, fewer write. Hog and
hominy is their leading bill of fare. They
boil their strawberries and lettuce, and
call corn cakes bread the year round.
Getting living is such an easy matter for
them that they work as little as possible,
and in times not so very far back moon
shine refreshments were so commonly pro-
duced and partaken of that the commonest
recreation involved the use of the bowie
knife and revolver. Times have changed,
however, and last year a pretty little hotel
was opened in Smokers Gap by Mr.. Jules
Demonet of Washington, under the manage
ment of Col. Dan Grosvenor, long and we'll
known as treasury official Two or three
mountain farmers stirred themselves and
also accommodated summer sojourners
from Washington, and the old mountains
were gay till October with pretty girls and
gallant young men.
Extended Views
From the gap a view is had OF both val
leys-the Shenandoah to the west and Lou
doun to the east. From the summit or the
mountain half mile out of the gap to the
south there is probably the finest panorama
of mountain and valley scenery to be found
anywhere. Travellers who have seen all
parts of the world have said 1t was the
finest view they had ever Seen The whole
horizon is lined with mountains in success
sive ranges, single peaks and groups. To
the southwest the bold, ragged nose of Mas
sanutten mountain. in Page and Shenando-
an counties. rises high against the blue sky
Then running northward hundred miles
in one long mass is Great North mountain
and the Cacapon mountains. Bolivar heights
at Harper's Ferry may be seen, and then to
the north and east are the Short mountains
Sugar Loaf and the katoctins, and tnally
in the southeast, the Bull Run mountains
From this point the Washington monument
is seen over fifty miles away. and it seems
as II one could throw a stone down on the
field in Chariestown. where John Brown was
hung.
The Potomac glistening in the sunlight
is visible at several points So. too. are the !
Rappahannock and the Shenandoah rivers |
At night the twinkling electric lights of
Winchester, always twenty miles away"
are sure to catch the eye.
In the spring Mr.. Demonet will begin |
work on large addition to the hotel !
which will double its capacity.
Some Summer Homes. |
About a mile from the hotel Mr. Chas |
G. Smith of Washington has built a fine
large mansion. where he spends the sum-
mers with his family. Adjoining his farm |
Prof. Kaspar the popular conductor of
the Washington Choral Society," has a pref
ty place, where he spends his summer va
cation. A few months ago Mr.. l.. p.
Shoemaker bought a place near Mr. |
Smiths, where he will build a cottage an |
other season. 1t has been proposed and |
the suggestion will probably be carried |
out in the near future, to establish sig |
nal station on the heights up out of |
Smokers Gap, where communication |
might be easily established by means Of |
signals in the top of the Washington mon |
ument With powerful glasses 1t is said |
faces of persons on the monument may |
be distinguished from the Blue Ridge. One |
of the grandest sights from the mountain |
is to observe the passage of a thunder |
storm from the mountains across the Loun- |
doun and Potomac valleys to Washington |
For a practical training school in signaling !
no better situation could b found than |
this point.
New Railroad Desired.
All considerations together give ground |
for belief that the rumored effort of the !
Norfolk and Western to acquire the Wash |
ington and Ohio branch has foundation in |
fact. There lies between the Washington |
and Ohio line and the Manassas branch of |
the Richmond and Danvile a rich farming /
region twenty-five or thirty miles wide |