Arizona republican., 1903-12-26
THE RAILROAD TO QUITO.
Trains Now Running From the Pacific
 to Beyond the Western Andes.

Just thirty years after the first link of the railroad between Guayaquil, tho leading port. and Quito. the capital n' ! Ecuador, was built. the track has a, | last crossed the summit pass of the ! Andes. at a-height of 10,70O feet ahov" 1 the sea, and descended to the lofty plain on which Quito stands to the It, 1 tie town of Guamote. 10000 feet above sea level.
 Nine-t tenths of the work has heen done, though the end of the finished | track, now advancing northward To still 160 miles from Quito. The r"- mainder of the work will involve few i difficulties.
 One of the engineers. F. w. Bennett | has supplied to the latest bulletin of ! the American Geographical society q profile of the completed road as it rises a gradually from the coastal plain and steeply up the Andes slope. 10 fall II little as it reaches the summit pass and drops to the plateau.
 AS an engineering feat the construc- ton of the road to the interior plateau has been one of the most remarkable In railroad building. The line sur mounts one of the most inaccessible [ hitherto has been traversed only by a few difficult and perilous mule paths.
 lip the mountains the road is an al- most endless chain of bridges! tunnels and astonishing grades. Some roads Tn our country expend hundreds of thou sands of dollars rather than encoun- , ter a steep grade and sometimes ex- tend their lines for several miles tn |. save even a moderate grade But some of the grades on the Guay- aquil-Quito road are 51k per cent. This very heavy grade. however, Is confined to portion of the mountain division. thirty-eight miles in length. The ra- mainder Of the road has no grade ex- ceeding 3 per cent.
 Years ago the great enterprise was brought to a sudden standstill at Chim- ho at the foot of the mountains. fifty six miles from Duran. the starting point. which is across the Guayas riv- CT from Guayaquil. and is connected with that port by ferry. Difficulties. both physical and financial. led to the abandonment of the work. and for thirteen years nothing more was ac- complshed
 It was not till the government of General Alfaro. in 1898. gave contract to a company of American and British ca Ditalists known as the Ecuador De- velopment Company. that work Cn the most difficult and costly part of the line began. This company has carried he road uD on the plateau and is to complete the line to Quito. the total rost from Chimbo to Quito being over s20. GOO0c0. not counting rolling stock
 Tt was found to be impossible to ''uild the road up the mountains from Chimbo along the route previously se- !ected. because it extended over the tops of landslides. and when deep cut tings were made for the road large treas of the surface began to move: SO this route was abandoned and the builders turned into the deep gorges of the Chimbo and Chan-Chan rivers. constructing long retaining walls where they were needed along the sides os the ravines. using the narrow bot tom lands and crossing and re-crossing the streams to avoid cliffs and heavy cuttings.
 Thus in making the road up the mountains. the Chan-Chan river is rossed twenty-six times and there are forty-three steel bridges on this part of the line. Ravines are spanned by
  village of Adusai. being $40 feet long and another 373 feet long and 122 feet high. The contracts for bridge work were let in this country and have help cd to swell the prosperity Of our bridge builders in recent years.
 The difficulties were increased by the sparsity of timber. for there is none In the interior excepting the planted eucalyptus. All the ties of California redwood. and. all the timber, excepting for temporary purposes, was brought from California and Oregon The Quito plateau, now brought into close touch with the Pacific coast, Is n region of great natural resources and has a climate that can be compared to nothing but perpetual spring. II has hitherto been largely cut off from commercial intercourse with the west ern part of the republic because most commodities could not be carried on the mule paths.