The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-11-19
From Scranton to Paris
All the Way by Rail.
Governor Gilpin's Dream of the Abandon
ment of the Atlantic for Commerce Is
Near Realization.

william Gilpins dream of the aban-
donment of the Atlantic ocean for pur-
poses of commerce, is fast coming out
of the mists OF the visionary into the
realm of the possible. William Gilpin
was an ante-bellum governor of COL
orado. Many years Of his life he de-
voted to the perfection of a plan for
the construction Of a railroad when
should extend from the Atlantic ocean
off the west coast of Europe to the At
lantic ocean off the east coast of the
United States by way Of Bering strait,
thereby making it possible to abandon
the big pond" as a necessary highway
of the worlds commerce
The line his imagination wrought
and which he described with great de-
tail in his book, "The International
Railroad" is fast becoming a reality,
and, strange as it may seem, it is fol-
lowing almost the exact route mapped
out by the ante-war governor of Col
orado years before even th'
States was crossed by lii
Russa's great TranS-Sih"rl
is more than half comr'
flnanciers in Europe ar,
considering plans for tn
of a line from Vancouver
Bering strait to connie
Trans-Siberian road, with "rc"T .os-
pect of approval. When these works are
completed and perhaps both may be
IN 1905. New York and Liverpool will
he jointed by a tie of shining steel,
and governor Gilpin's dream, visionary
and impossible of realization as it must
have seemed thirty years ago, will
have become fact.
RAILWAY TO ALASKA.
Behind this vision which carries a
Chicago man to Liverpool over a route
that includes only about three miles
of open water, is foundation of fact
that can not be ignored. 1t is report
ed in London that application had been
made to the British Parliament by cer-
tain parties believed To he in the in
terest of three connecting trunk lines
forming a transContinental route from
New York city via Chicago, Mlwau-
kee, st. Paul. Helena and Portland
to Vancouver for concession. or priv
ilege. to construct line of railroad
from the northwestern boundary of the
United States through the British pos
sessions bordering the Pacific ocean
to the southern boundary of Alaska.
British consent to this scheme, it is re-
ported, bonds will be put upon the mar
ket for the construction of the inter
national line through Alaska to Bering
sea, when, by joint arrangement with
the Russian government, by the use
of bridges and a ferry line, connec-
tion will be made with the Siberian
railroad through Russian territory.
Ilnxx t,I, !, h., -,
report may be judged from the fact
that one of the railroads mentioned as
an interested party is already prepar-
ing maps and advertising matter for
distribution, advertising the new all
around -the-world route 1t is one Of
the lines which will be obliged to help
produce funds for floating the gigantic
scheme, and it apparently has faith
enough in the outcome to prepare for
it at least eight years in advance of its
Inauguration as a completed fact.
MUCH OF 1T BUILT.
Work remaining as a necessity for
the Inauguration Of this fact is not,
however, so gigantic and improbable
as may a first seem. Liverpool and
Paris, Paris and St Petersburg, st.
Petersburg and KrasnOyarsk, 5000
miles east of the Russian capital, al
ready are tied by lines of continuous
steel, except for the small gap between
England and France New York and
San Francisco, San Francisco and an
cOuver (Via Portland, Ore), the pro-
posed southern terminus of the Brit
ish-American line, are already connect
ed. Russia's railroad in 1900 will be
completed to VladivostOk. Sixty thou
sand people, not including experts and
officials, are laboring on it daily. Not
to exceed 1,5O0 miles from Rering Strait
on the Siberian railroad will be KOt-
tomangoo, a city probably 500 miles
east of NladivOStOk. From BerinC
Strait to Vancouver is about 1000
miles. Thrty-flve hundred miles Of
railroad construction, now already an
assured fact of the future, will fill in
the gap Of Governor Gilpn's "interna-
tional" railroad.
To the student of geography the
crossing of Bcring Strait presents no
great difficulties. To railroad engineers
II is not serious problem. This strait
is filled with islands so close together
that no difficulty will be encountered
in connecting them with bridges which
will not be expensive of construction.
Three miles Of open water will then
divide Russia and Alaska A three
mile car ferry line today, when boats
carrying loaded cars are sent from
South Chicago to Peshtigo, from Lud-
ington and Benton HarbOr, Mich, to
Manitowoc Wis" presents no difficult
ties.
AROUND THE WORLD IN THIRTY
THREE DAYS.
Already students of railroad prob
lens have given to the subject suf-
f?Cient consideration to reali2a that the
inauguration Of the year 1905 will make
possible of realization jules Verne's
dream Of around the World in Eighty
Days" with discount of over 50 per
cent, Leaving out the proposed British
American road they have ncurcd that
a triD around the world may then be
made in thirty days. At present the
shortest route, in point Of time, is as
follows:
I'D - M ~