El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-22
TWO NEW ROADS.
The Lower Rio 6rande Country
Will Be Opened Up.

A special from Mexico City contains
the following inform alton:
Don Francisco ArmeudariZ OF Mon
terey, one of the Spanish capitalists OF
Mexico, is in the city to make arrange
ments for the building of a long pro-
jected railroad which will connect Ma
tamoros with both Monterey and Lare-
do. The project is one of great i'm
portance, as 1t will result in the estab-
iishment at Brszos de Santiago, in
Texas, OF a gulf port which will be q
rival to Tam pico, and in the opening
up of the Cerralvo mines about seventy
miles from Monterey.
1t ia proposed to begin the new road
at the end of the track OF the
old Matamoros and Monterey road,
which runs north west from Matsmoros
for distance of about seventy miles.
This road, the charter for which was
one of the first granted in Mexico, Is
now being operated at q considerable
loss by the Mexican National company,
and arrangements are understood have
already been made for it's purchase.
The new road will be built forward to
Meir, near the Rio Grande, and from
there two lines will be built, one to
Laredo and the other southwest to
Monterey, passing through the Corral
vo country, which produces immense
-quautities af silver ore. It is of low
grade quality and when carried over
land to Monterey to be smelted does
not yield q sufficient profit. With
railroad facilities for its shipment to
the smelters, however, the mines will
pay we'll.
The road will be connected With
Brazos de Santiago py the Point Isabel
railroad, which now extends from
Brownsville, across the river from Ma
tamoros, to the mouth of the great La
euns Madre, q distance of some twen-
ty-twO miles. The terminus of the
rosd lie now Point Isabel
The LsRuns Msdre extends for 12o
miles between the Texas coast line and
Padre island. One of the most i'm
the building of a dixie or breakwater
three miles long across the mouth of
the laguna from Point Isabel to the
site of the destroyed town of Brazos de
Santiago, on Brazos island. This
will contine the waters of the laguna,
which have hitherto drifted into a
series of smaller lagunas, and it is
thought,thst the strong, northers which
blow done,it in winter will soon scour
out it's channels sufficiently to give q
depsh OF twenty or twenty-five feet
along the dixie and ON the bar of Bra
EOS de Santiago. The track of the
Point Isabel railroad will be built over
the dixie to Brazos de Santiago and
wharves will be built alongside it.
Ocean steamers of large capacity will
be able to lie up to the dixie, and their
cargoes can be- removed by derricks
directly from the ships to the care.
The Point Isabel is now an irregular
gauge road, its track being three feet
six inches wide, but it will be enlarged
to standard guage. The connection
between this and the new road will be
completed by the building of draw
bridge .over the Rio Grande from
Brownsville to Matamoros. Brazos de
Santiago will thus become the port of
entry for all porthern Mexico, and over
the new railroad mere handise landed
there from the United States and Eu-
rope will be ed:throughout that
section of the country. Tampico and
Vera Cruz are now MeXico's two larg-
est porte, and the new one promises to
be as important in many respec to as
either of them,