The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-03-21
IS BACKED BY
The SEAbOARD
The Road From Cranberry to
LincoInton.
WILL BUILD OR LEASE
WILL INCREASE VALUE OF THE
CAROLINA CENTRAL.
A GREAT THROUGH COALlNG LINE
A Short Link Of New Road viii Connect Will.
mingon With the Cumberland Coal
Fields. Big Thing for
the State.

1t is learned from an official source
that the Seaboard Air Line is interested
in the construction of the proposed East
Tennessee and Western North Carolina
Railroad-from Cranberry to Linco!nton.
A charter for it, you will remember.
was secured from the last Legislature
by Gen. Hoke. This charter, | am told
will be used in one of two ways: Either
Gen. Hoke will build the road and lease
TO the Seaboard Air Line, or the Sea-
board will take the charter and build the
road. In any event the road will be
controlled and operated by the Sch
board
This will convert the Carolina Central
from Hamlet to I.inconton-into IA
main line, and the branch line from Ham
let to Wilmington will at once become Il
paying piece of coal-carrying road.
The South Atlantic and Ohio Railroad
extends from Big Stone Gap to Bristol,
forms the nucleus of the great new trunk
line. At Bristol it is to be linked with 4
road already in Notwithstanding from
Bristol to Elizabethtown. now owned Ivy
the Pennsylvania Steel Company. At
Illizabethtown. Tenn, it is to be linked
into the road owned by the Cranberry
Iron and Coal Company. and extending
from johnson City via EliZabethtown 10
Cranberry. n. G.. Here it is to hook or to
a new road already graded and to be inn
mediately equipped, extended to Einala.
From Pinola a new link is to be built
crossing the Blue Ridge ut Lost Hol-
low Gap and extending down the eastern
slope of the Ridge TO Collettsville in
Caldwell county, where it is to be link
ed with the Lenoir and Collettsvli!e
road, now owned by Wanamaker and
associates, of Philadelphia. At s4enoir
it will tap and perhaps link itself with
the Carolina and Northwestern. which
will bring it to Lincolnton, where it viii
weld itself to the Carolina Central the
Seaboard Air Line) and make a
straight shoot for Wilmington.
This new line will connect at Big Stone
Gap with the great Louisville and Nash
vile system. 1t taps the Norfolk and
Western at Bristol 1t cuts across the
Southern system at Hickory and Char
lotte 1t grasps the two hands of the
Seaboard at Monroe and Hamlet. 1t
crosses the Coast Line at Pembroke and
again at Wilmington. and it plunges
into the commerce of the outside world
ut Wilmington and perhaps at Southport.
For a road from Wilmington to South
port has already been chartered, and, it
is said. will be built.
1t will thus be seen that to complete
great through line from the West and
Northwest to Norfolk-a distance of
some FIVE hundred miles it is necessary
to build only ffteen-mile link between
pinola and Collettsyille via Linville. Add
to this the forty miles lini,
between Wilmington and Southport. ana
:. YOU have another deep water port and
a coaling station without passing Hat
teras A glance at the map shows tina.
this is one of the most feasible and prac-
ticable railroad schemes in the South
and the wonder is that the scheme has
not been promoted before.
The new line means much for North
Carolina. 1T means much for its manu-
featuring interest especially, as it will
put all the piedmont and central sections
Of the State in direct. quick and econom-
ic;.I connection with an inexhaustible
supply of coal equal to Pocohontas or
any other coal on the market. 1t turns
the coke oven Of the great Cumberland
range into Cranberry and our other iron
Gre beds, the richest in the world. 1t
cuts the Blue Ridge at Lost Hollow
Gap, passing in the shadow of Roam
Mountain. on down by Iinyille, skirts
around old Grandfather one of the
grandest mountain routes in the world:
crosses the famous Johns River Valley
and blazes Il great industrial highway
through the counties of Mitchell, Cald-
well, Catawha. Lincoln, Castor, Neck
lenburg and on to the sea.
The fact that the Seaboard Air Lin
is behind the proposed road insures its
early construction.