The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-08-21
FORGING THE LINK.
THE ROAD WHICH WILL UNITE
New York end Passgonia-coss of the
 Enterprise.

 New York end PatagonIa-coss Of the
 Enterprise.
 More important than the canal that is to unite the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific, and more dazzling than Ce- cil Rhodes Cape to Cairo dream. is the project to link together the three Amer jeans by an intereontinentaI railway. For years 1t has been regarded as an enchanting but irnpraeticable dream: but the child may now be. living that shall make the journey in a Pullman car from the northwest territory to Pat agonia. Recent developments have given the project a very practical ap- pearance. It is estimated that the route of the proposed railroad from the south ern boundary of Mexico to Buenos Ayres would be about sixty-seyen hun dred miles long, divided among the va rious countries through which 1t would pass somewhat as follows: Guatemala, 220 miles; Salvador. 22O: Honduras, 7o; Nicaragua, PA: Costa Rica, 363; colom- bia. 1872; Ecuador, 36E; Peru, 1,671; Be- livia, TIA; and Argentina, 1,t4S. Of this 6.7G0 miles perhaps 1.500 miles are now in operation, leaving about 5,200 miles to be built. The total cost of the enter prise is estimated by competent engi- neers at in the neighborhood of s175, ,0oO,- from New York to Buenos Ayres would be about 10,50O miles. ....... ... .-A.l
 The railroad provisions of the con- cession form the point of the greatest public interest. The line will be known as the Great Central Railway of. Nica- ragua, and will be three hundred and twenty miles long, ultimately connect ing the capitals of Nicaragua. Hondu- ras and Salvador. The company was incorporated May 1, under the laws ot teh state of Maine, with capital of one million dollars. Among the incorpora- tors are former United States Senator John M. Thurston, Robert Pitcairn, as sistant to President Cassatt of the Pennsylvania railroad; ,Durbin Horne. M K. Salisbury, T. M. Armstrong and Francis J. Terrence. A corps of four teen engineers are now on the ground making the necessary serveys; and James Rees & Sons of Pittsbnrg have Q stern wheel steamboat almost ready to be dispatched for service on the Coco river, and are at work building another of similar patterns, and also tugboat for the same destination. .[t-4.... F.
 The construction of the Great Central railroad, in connection with other works now in process of consurnmation, will bring the Pan-American railroad within the hopes of men of the present generation. Railroad connection can
 now be made as far south as oaxaca, Mexico. The Harrimans are said to be after the lines in Yucatan, merging them into one system with the intention of bringing them into harmonious con- nection with those of the rest of Mexi- co. When this is done a comparatively short link will have to be built to join the whole system to the Northern rail- way of Guatemala, now under construc- tion by an American syndicate. It is D little unfortunate that both the North ern railway of Guatemala and the Hon. duras railway are transisthmian lines, running from ocean to ocean, so that neither can be utilized to any great ex- tent for the intercontinental route. It is also undeniable that the engineering difficulties to be overcome in crossing the alternate, swamps and mountain, ranges between iYncatan and Central. Honduras are considerable. Still they aer far from being insuperable, and are, in fact, trifiing in comparison with those that were surmounted by, rail- road builders In the American Rockies. It will, therefore, be seen that the Breat Central of Nicaragua will close up one of the widest gaps between the railway system of Mexico and the Isth- mus of Panama. With San Salvador, Tegucigalpa and Managua joined to- gether, there remains but the compara- lively short stretches to Purlto Arena to give through connection as far as Port Limon, Costa Rica. From that point a long. rugged and difficult route lies zig- tagging among the mountains down into Colombia. It Is in South America that the most difficult part of the Pan- American railway remains to be built. The lines of Colombia appear to have been built in a hapshazard fashion, starting from the more important cities | but leading nowhere in particular. | Around Cartagena and Bogota are sey- l aral short lines, but it will be difficult | f not impossible to make them of ser vice for the intercontinentaI route. | From Bogota to La Paz is a trackless | and unexplored wilderness more than .wo thousand miles in extent through | .he widest and most savage portion of | he western hemisphere. Should Peru | succeed in her present attempt to build | ] line through the disputed Acre dis rict, as surveyed by the French ensl- | leers, this unknown land will be robbed | # much of. its terrors, and the problem # the Pan-American railway will be greatly sirnpliffed.
 From La Paz to Buenos ,Ayres com ,aratively little remains to be done. The railway system of Argentine is the most complete and extensive in South and line now in process of obstruction from Salta to Potosi will connect 1t with that of Bolivia. The of>Chili would not form a part f the New York Buenos Ayres route, ut would undoubtedly be connectedl
 Vf N.7 !