El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-04
LINK AND PIN.
ADDITIONAL MILEAGE.
New Railroad Building In the United
States, Canada and Mexico.


Railroad Gazette.
Ifnew railroad building is an index
of improving Industrial conditions,
then the year 1898 will stand rs the
most prosperous since the panic OF
1898. Preliminary reports show
that the railroad building OF this
country for the past twelve months
is not less than 1851 miles. 1t Is prob
able, however, that later reports will
somewhat enlarge this mileage, but as
it stands it shows the largest increase
of new railroads sin ce 1892, when the
nations roads were increased by 4419
miles. Last year we added by Zoo
miles, and in 1898, PIP miles. The low
est mileage Of recent years was in 1893,
when we added only 1903 miles.
OF this 1867 miles OF Increase this
BY nine roads. The company which
stands first is the Great Northern, with
1865 miles, most of which was built be-
tween Duluth and Fosstown, MINI.
The ST. Louis and San Francisco stands
next with l42 miles, of which 1O5 miles
forms connecting link between Sa-
Pulpa, /; T., and Oklahoma City, .:
has built 12S miles,, complet-
ing it's extension to Montgomery,
Ala, and building several branches.
The Washineto ton County road comes
next with 118 miles, all in Maine and
along the coast Then follows the
Pecos Valley and Northwestern with
LOG miles. which is about one-half the
length of this proposed connecting line
between Roswell, N. M and Amarillo
Texas. The Ell Paso and Northeastern
has built 100 miles of track. Other
roads which have added mills OF i'm
portancs are the Minneapolis,
St. Paul and Ste. Marie,
70 miles: the Southern
Pacific, several branches aggregatlng
s73 miles; the Shreveport and Red
River Valley, SO miles; San Francisco
and San Joaquin Valley, go; Kansas
City, Pitisburg and Gulf, and the Gila
Valley. Globe and Northen, each 81;
the. Northern Pacific, four branches
aggregatiug Sc miles; the Choctaw,
Oklahoma and Gulf, SO and the Kansas.
Oklahoma Central and Southwestern,
81 miles.
In the distribution of mileage by
States Minnesota takes the lead with
253 miles; then follows Texas with 10o
miles, Louisiana III, Alabama 16l,
Oklahoma 49, Arkansas lao, Maine
l23, sCalifornia lis. Missouri III,
Michigan and Georgia, each 1O4. 1t Is
an interesting fact that four OF the
States have more than one-fourth OF
the new mileage, while it required 81
other fourth of the increase. One-Eal1
of the 1861 miles was in nine states
and territories.
A characteristic of the railroad
building of 1898 ia that 1t has not been
confined to any one section OF the coun-
try Ga the whole the South and West
have built the largest mileage, and yet
the old State of Maine has added 123
miles to 8 railroads, and New York
C..xo "a r,;loe Tho MicSiasipni VallaV
although already apparently wei! sup
piled with roads, has received large
ipcrements in nearly every section
Marked as has been the Improvement
in new mileage during the past year. II
present indica' ions count for anything
the aggregates for the coming year
may be expected to be even larger.
For, with the roads already under con-
struction, and with the new projects
arising 60 rapidly that it is almost i'm
possible to chronicle them, the year
1899 opens more promising in the field
of new railroad building than any year
of rece Mt times.
The figures so far received for
Canada and Mexico indicate similar
prosperity. Ten roads in Canada have
built 44S miles, which is more by some
So miles than that reported last year.
OF this mileage more than one-half,
262 miles, is credited to the
Canadian Pacific, whose Crows Nest
Pass extension alone added III miles
to it's totals. len roads in Mexico
have built Alp miles, which is nearly
100 more than the totals of last year.
Below are given figures in detail for
the United States, Canada and Mexico
by states and territories:
NEW RAILROADS BUILDING IN 1898
Lines. Mileage
161 %