Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-04-20

Philadelphia (Pittgburg) Company.
West Virginia (Wheelingl Natural Gas
Company and several other compan-
les have pipe lines extending from
their gas wells in Greene county, which
cost fully $1,5O0.OO0 more. With the
building of the proposed Uniontown,
Waynesburg & West Virginia Railroad
and the proximity Of natural gas and
its consequent cheapness. manufac-
turing plants would be established
along the entire length Of the road
There are four distinct gas belts in
Greene county. They have scarcely
been touched by the drill, which
means a large supply of gas for the
consumer locked up in its natural
reservoir. The gas, 1t is estimated,
will last from 17 to 20 years. When
it becomes exhausted. the manufac-
turing plants will have the Pittsburg
vein of coal and coke to fall back up
on, which, with a thickness Of from
eight to ten feet, underlies the entire
length and breadth of Greene county.
Greene county is n Of the richest
agricultural counties in Western Penn
sylvania. 1t touches on West Virginia
directly east Of Wheeling, adjoining
Marshall county. This road will bring
the population of Monongalia and Mar
;oo oo,nf;or Wacf Xy;roipio opd Eay-
cite and Greene counties, P~ennsylva-
mia, in much more convenient rela-
ton to Wheeling. In fact the compile
ton of the u, w. & w. R. r. will
bring Wheeling in direct contact with
more than a quarter Of a million peo-
pie. 1t will bring to your commercial
interests that vast population, with
practically no railroad competition. In
less than five years the development
along the line, in mining and manu-
featuring plants will increase this to
more than half a million. When We
consider the wonderful showing of
Western Pennsylvania this is making
a very conservative estimate.
Pfttsburg,s Advantage.
P~ittsburg's principal advantage was
and is her close connection with the
great coking district of Westmoreland
county and the coal fields of Western
Pennsylvania. The coking Goals of
Westmoreland county are being largely
worked out and the production of
coking is gradually shifting to Fay
cite county and the new developments
on the Monongahela river in the west
ern edge of the county, bring the new
coke plants within 60 miles of Wheel
ing. When the proposed u, w. & w.
r. R. is completed the coking coal
fields will be right at the doors Of
Wheeling, in fact bring Wheeling into
the heart of the Monongahela Valley,
into one great industrial centre. What
this grand valley has been to Pitts
burg it will be to Wheeling on the
completion of this road, and if adj
vantage is taken of the conditions thus
brought about far greater results can
be obtained, for we are living in a
fast age.
Here you have freight rates to the
great West and South so cents per ton
less than Pittsburg while to the lakes
in the North your rates are the same.
1t requires a ton Of coke to make one
ton of pig iron. Your steel works are
now paying at least so cents a ton
over their Pittsburg competitors. With
this road in operation coke will be de-
livered at the furnaces of Wheeling
and the Ohio Valley at the same cost
that it is now delivered in Pittsburg.
Under these conditions, with raw ma
terial laid down in Wheeling at the
same cost as in Pittsburg, and the
advantage Wheeling has in the rates
to the West and South and those to
the Lakes and the North the same as
Pittsburg enjoys it doesn't take a wise
man or a prophet to predict what the
result will be. You will also be bene-
flied in your shipping East, as 60 miles
are to be saved via Uniontown and
Connellsville. Your city will be 60
miles nearer the seaboard.
When the u, w. & w. r. R. is fin
ished and in operation, the city of
Wheeling will not only be one of the
best located cities in the beautiful Ohio
Valley, but the greatest commercial
and industrial center, as far as natural
and artificial advantages are concerned,
in the United States.
This road will cost, fully completed
and equipped, from $4,000, 900 to So
0OO, 900. 1t will have seven tunnels in
the approach to Wheeling; through the
city we have one tunnel 1920 feet in
length and a shorter one 500 feet in
length. 1t is not what a railroad costs
but what it is worth when completed
to the inhabitants of the region
through which 1t passes, that makes
Re valuable.
There will be enough coke produced
at the Fayette county terminal and
consumed at the Wheeling end of the
road, by the furnaces in Wheeling and
tho Ohin Valley IN nav a handsome