The Minneapolis journal., 1904-10-07
THE BATTLES
OF GOULD'S ROAD
HOW IT WAS OBLIGED TO FIGHT
A WAY INTO PITTSBURG.
Sixty Miles of Track That Cost $780,
,OOO-One of the Most Expensive
Stretches Of Railroad Ever Built
Four Years Of Bitter, Unremitting
Struggle.
BrOoklyn Eagle.

Brooklyn Eagle.
Sixty miles of nickel-plated railroad
track, laid on teakwood and mahoga-
ny ties and ballasted with silver dol
lars! Locomotives trimmed in gold and |
coaches upholstered in satin and lighted |
with radium at $3,O00,000 an ouncel |
Passenger stations fitted up with more
than oriental. magnificence, and ham
sandwiches distributed free to travel
ers at every way station! Such is the
new Terminal railroad, into Pittsburg,
opened by the Wabash for traffic on
July 2, as fancy paints it when it is
cost $2!o,ooo,ooo. It is one Of the most
expensive stretches of railroad ever
built, made so by natural barriers, legal
obstacles, unforeseen accidents and con-
tingencies, and series of engineering
difficulties that presented fresh prob
lens for solution with almost every
mile. It's completion is, therefore, a
triumph for the Wabash engineers, who
discovered a new route into the iron
city; a triumph for the Wabash attor-
neys, who have been compelled to fight
every step of the way thru all the
courts of Ohio, West Virginia and
Pennsylvania; triumph for the master
and controlled the Wabash cohorts thru
four years Of bitter, unremitting strug..
gle, and triumph for the people of
| Pittsburg, who have been clamoring for
a third Of century for better shipping
facilities and the advantages that
would come from competition in both
freight and passenger service.
| When it was first rumored that the
| Wabash had secured a route into Pitts
burg, the managers of competing lines
merely smiled. The Pennsylvania and
Vanderbilt lines occupied the valleys
east and west. Both banks Of the Ohio
and both sides of the Allegheny and
Monongahela rivers are crowded with
tracks and nearly always blockaded
with freightcars. The whole south side
was barred by the solid, rock-ribbed
Duquesne Heights. If the Wabash en-
ters Pittsburg, said the wiseacres, it
will have to come in underground or
up in the air.
However, Joseph Ramsey, Jr., presi-
dent of the great Wabash system that
almost spans the continent, was born
about geographical conditions in the
neighborhood Of the smoky city than
most people. For more than twenty
five years he had thought and planned
for great road connecting his native
y with hen the H Wss wsS caf far back
the Pittsburg,. CHARTERS & Youghiogh-
eny railroad, he made a survey for a
line from Pittsburg to Mingo. Nothing
came Of it at the time, but Ramsey s
knowledge of a perfectly practicable,
under his hat for eighteen years, and
stood him in good stead four years
ago.
At about that time a master stroke
was delivered in securing from congress
the passage of a resolution giving to
lxl. o IT, eo1l I,.1 j
pany the right to build a bridge across
the Monongahela river for an electric
traction line. Two diminutive piers
were built in the river, presumably as
an evidence that the spirit was will
ing even tho the flesh was weak. Their
went to sleep. It was simply, blind
Nobody suspected that the Wabash was
/ the deus eX machina that controlled tht
actions Of the supposed traction com
| pany. but such was the fact. An in
stficFen trolley eyo road was permitted un
Il opposed to obtain charter and secur
/ the right to build a bridge across tn
L Monongahela, altho if the Wabash ha'
Il come oft openly and asked for the sam
i privileges it would have met with tn
! Then, in the fullness Of time--abou
:, the fall of 19OO-the Wabash bough
/ out the Wheeling & Lake Erie railroad
/ extending from Toledo to Wheeling
/ This road reached the Ohio river fou1
tssn 6h ss abd bdl0% ang0 np the at oo MarsS5
/ Of the river. with a branch line
/ Mingo and Steubenville. The rount
Il about, meandering track was a vext
tion to PRESIDENT Ramsey's practice
soul. He walked twenty miles thru tn
hills from Mingo to Jewett and decide
III thar O ShOrfol1t IRA tica bIa WOr
ws.s begun at once on the constructio
- of al air line, and no expense We
spared to push operations at top spec
Then the smile came off the faces. c
\ those at the head of the competin
a lines. They needed no one to tell thel
y that the Wabash was not spending mi
a lions to get short cut to an insigni1
q cant waystation like Mingo. The nj,
a ger in the woodpile of the Pittsbu1
"a & Mansfield railroad bridge began
y be apparent to the blindest of them al
= Then they shed their coats and bega
to fight.
W.. J. Patterson, chief engineer of Il
Pittsburg, Carnegie & Western raj
road during the period of constructio
but now president of the, complete
IS Pittsburg:. Wabash. terminal; loser
and 'Gs, George ys' Gould, share IRE ed equally Il
credit for the final triumphant entry
the Wabash system. The propositie
3c was taken to Mr.. Gould by Mr.. Raj
sey. The able chief owner of tt
,. Wabash and director Of it's p1licy a
~ n,ittod that Pittsburg terminal wou
Sc be a good thing, but hesitated at tt
enormous expense, doubling whether ;
M adequate return could be expected
w 50 great an investment. Then Rams
played his highest trump card-the 10
r. er, in fact. It was contract signed
~ Andrew Carnegie, still effective, alt
- T-t4 I'D G4o&a Sfr
SC corporation was even thought Of, gut
d. anteeing for the Wabash from the CT
~ negie mills an enormous annual tonna1
DC beginning from the date Of the cc)np
D. tion of the Pittsburg extension. Simil
~ contracts were produced bearing t
SC signatures of Jones & Laughlin a
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