The Anaconda standard., 1899-08-09
The Magnitude of the Siberian Railway

The Siberian railway has justly been
called a genuine Russian undertaking,
inasmuch as everything in connection
with 1t is of immense, not to say un-
precedented, dimensions. This does
not only apply to the mere figures al
though they are telling enough, but
the magnitude of the railway is far
more comprehensive and widespread
than one is apt first inclined to imag-
inc.
Beginning with a few figures, not
less than 19,000,0 900 working days have
been required for the earthWork alone
The length of the railway, apart from
European connections and the Man
churian railway from Tschieltabinsk
(Which is 2,160 kilometers distant from
st. Petersburg), amounts to 6,053. 50
kilometers; the aggregate length of
the bridges is 4S5 kilometers: snow
screens are required over a distance
of 909 kilometers. The rolling stock
necessary for the traffic at the outset
has an aggregate length of S65 kilo-
meters and the telegraph wires have
an aggregate length of l1.00O kilome-
ters. The cost Cf the railway was or
iginally calculated at a comparatively
low figure, but there was not taken
into consideration the innumerable
undertakings which are more or less
inseparable from the building of and
the future satisfactory and adequate
working Of this immense line, and
which entail vast and additional eX-
penditure.
And these subsequent expenses are, of
course, not by any means limited to the
mere connection Of various localities.
by means Of additional railways, with
the trunk line or with each other. There
are considerations of industrial. COM
merCial, ciVilizing and scientific nature
\ pure and simple connection by means
of railway between the Pacific ocean
and European Russia would mainly
serve military purposes. But Russia has
other ard far WIDER plans with cher
new railWay-plans which have grown
with the railway and which are Gtil
growing. There is, in the first instance,
the colonization of Siberia. the laying
dry Of hOgs. the cutting down of for
cSts, utilization Of peat, sanitary meas
ureS for the protection of the settlers
and, their cattle, the building of schools
the supply of. the requisite Agricultural
machinery and implements, location Of
the settlers, the supply of building
material. the making of roads ard
bridges, the establishment of mutual
insurance, the survey Of the country
the establishment of the postal service,
etc.
The building of the Siberian railway
naturally led to the task of making
numerous rivers naVigab Bile, so as to IA
Cilitate the transport of the building
material; to the formation Of an cXten-
s.ve mining industry for the production
Of iron and coal to the erection of roll
ing mills for rails: to the building ot
WoTkmen's colonies. and of technical
railway schools; to the erection of c.
ment and numerous other factories, etc.
1t became necessary to fully inV@sti-
gate the possibilities of naVigattr.-' the
Arctic ocean and the large rivers.
The Baikal lake had to be surveyed and
provided with marks for navigation,
and it became necessary to increaS" the
volunteer fleet with three large ocean,
going steamers for the transport of scr.
sons and goods. The desirability of
connecting the Siberian railway witk
Archangel also soon became evident.
etc. The Russian colonization III 81
IBERIA has been going on, very gradually,
for hundreds Of years, but the new era
commenced with the year 1860. when
the Amur and the tssuri districts We're
Ceded to Russia by China On May 50.
1891, tie present Czar cut the FIRST sod
of the Siberian railway in NladivDsS) TX
as the representative of his ,lther.-
British Engineering.