St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-25
TWIN CITIES, SEAPORT.
wisconsin CentraPs Terminals 9
ManitOwOc Nearing COMPLETION.

CentraPS Terminals at
ManftOwoc Nearing Completion,
Special to the Globe.
MANlTOWOC, Wis, Jan. 24.-The
connection of the Wisconsin Central
Win TINS point, whose Inauguration and
Importance not only to the Twin Cities,
out 10 the Northwest, l wrote of last
year, has been pushed rapidly forward
since the preliminaries of right of way.
terminal Facilities, organization and
other details were completed. Although
the contracts for grading were not LET
until late In the fall, the greater and
more dlf1cult parts have been pushed
10 point where it will require but
Few weeks to complete the road bed
when the frost is out of the ground in
the spring. The company has acquired
the grounds for the terminals and has
peen adapting them to the very large
business 1T evidently contemplates in
store Tor 1t. The dock lines have been
changed, docking begun, slips dredged
OUT, ground hlled in for warehouses
ana Tor the immense coal sheds which
are to be erected. Manitowoc will be a
stout competitor of Superior for the
coal business of the Northwest when
the appliances for handling are com
pleted. While Superior will have the
shorter rail line, the Manitowoc line
VIII have the advantage of return
AiCiShlSr produce from the
west and coal back
Some conception of what the east
Ward movement of freight is now.
When 1t has to go roundabout wav
may be gathered from the fact that
last week, 425 carloads of flour were re-
ce1Ved for trans-shipment to steamer
Tor carriage to the railway connections
across the lake. This traffic has now
TO be switched to the lake end of the
harhOr 1In1Oadad nd
steamer by hand, involving delay and
expense. This will be obviated when
the new line is built The steel car fer
rles now being built for the company
VIII take the trains, laden with grain
and flour, abroad and carry them
across Lake Michigan to be rolled out
onto the F. & P NJ line and sent thence
directly East. While the present in
tent1on is to make the ferriage one for
freight, the development of a passen-
ger service is contemplated as a posi-
blllty. The break in the long rail ride
made by the lake transit will be an
agreeable one in the hot months of
summer and made at no sacrifice of
time.
The car ferry system is already in use
at ports north of this, but is rendered
ineffective by the lack of suitable har-
bors. There are, in fact, but three
harbors on the western shore of the
lake, that at Chicago, the one at Mil
Waukee and this one at Manitowoc
The course of the river, the project
ing and sheltering point of land to the
north affording safe roadbed it's ac-
feasibility at all seasons, makes this
harbor better one than Chicago has
and one fully equal to Milwaukee's.
Steamers now ply all winter to and fro,
and, as | write, the fog horn out on
the breakwater is sending it's guiding
notes out into the snow storm, that is
filing the air with almost the density
of fog, directing the incoming steam
er to it's course. The new ferries will
be built of steel and especially
strengthened where needed to crush
their way through the ice fields and the
float ice that may lie in their way in
winter. They will be of sufficient ca
pacity to take on an ordinary freight
train and will be driven by a powerful
engine, insuring quick passage.
The material Importance of this new
line to the East, to the cities of st. Paul
and Minneapolis and to the Northwest
lies in the shortening of the route from
the mills and and fields to the seaports
of New York and Boston. A line trac-
ed on the map between ST Paul and
New York will be very nearly parallel
ed by the lines connecting with the
Central, making the route as near
~ ana literally an airline as is posi-
BILE. Shortened distance means lower
freights in and out and extends to the
Northwest the benefit of lake competi-
ton, benefit appreciated by these
lake shore cities. Manitowoc is endeav-
oring to secure an appropriation for
her harbor sufficient to put it down to
the twenty-foot depth contemplated for
the deep-water navigation of the lakes.
The harbor has now an average of
c,ix ta Tba IF no int
dredging is being borne by the city,
and all that is asked Of the general
government is to provide an equal
depth between the harbor piers. The
interests of the Northwest are expected
to insure to Manitowoc the cordial CO.
operation of the senators and repre-
sentatives of the entire region.