Daily Kennebec journal., 1904-06-11
ETNA BOG.
No Longer Causes Worry for
Railroad Officials.
Thousands Of Carloads of Gravel Were
Dumped Into It Without Result
Why tho Railroad Finally Abandoned
1t.

Shortly before you reach the Etna sta
ton, going east on the Maine Central. Won
will see. If looking out the windows upon
the left hand side of the car the disused
road bed of railroad track i'm which
many of the old sleepers are still en-
beiided. OF the thousands who ride over
the road every summer and see the old
right-of-way, how few there are who stop
to give it more than a passing thought.
Unless they are among the old timers Of
the travelling public or Of railroad men,
they suppose 1t is the last reminder of a
one time side-track; also it is barely pos
sible that some of the later day railroad
men know little concerning that Neglected
bit of road bed.
And yet that same piece of road gave
the Maine Central engineers the greatest
concern for many years. In may ways It
was one Of the most puzzling. most exas-
perating, most discouraging problems
with which they have ever had to contend.
1t was a problem which taxed their in
genuity to the limit and which, in a
sense, baffied them, being surmounted
only by abandoning a considerable stretch
of road and making long detour with
the new track.
This bit of road leads up to and passes
through the famous Etna Bog. When
the engineers who ran out the route Of the
old Penobscot Il Kennebec Railroad a
great many years ago come to this par
ticular stretch of country they took what
appeared to be the most available route.
1t would have been money in the pocket
of the road had they decided differently.
but who can fortell how such things are to
work out? The engineers knew that it
was bog, hut they did not know that II
was bottomless. Had they been aware of
this, no doubt their decision would have
been different. 1t must not be attributed
to lack Of care on the part of the engi-
neers that this fact was not brought to
light, for SO far as is known no one knew
it until the road was built
When the road had finally been built
and trains were running 1t was discovered
that the road bed over the bog was gradu-
ally sinking. The discovery caused no
and gravel dumped in will soon fix it and
the trouble will be over That was a mis-
take-a very great mistake, as subsequent
developments showed Gravel was
dumped into the bog. only to sink down
and make it necessary to dump in more
How many carloads of earth and gravel
were dumped into that unfillable bog could
not. in all probability. be known but GER
tain it is that they run up into the thou
sands Old sleepers followed gravel and
rocks and broken ledge was used as well.
Trees and old stumps were taken and
thrown into the apparently bottomless
hole. By dint of hard work the track
would be brought up to proper grade and
the bed would appear to be as stable and
solid as could be wished for and the work
would be stopped. Engineers would make
an endeavOr to convince themselves that
at last solid foundation had been Sc
cured. All would be well for a time and
then-then it would be found that the
track over the bog was settling again.
The work must be resumed and then the
same performance would be gone through
with.
At last there came day when the off,
cials of the road decided that 1t was use
less to continue dumping money, for that
was what it amounted to. into Etna's
bottomless bog. In shorV they gave up
beaten in the effort to secure solid
foundation there. The engineers went to
work upon the problem of getting around
the bog and securing. a solid foundation.
As is well known all over the world the
things which American engineers can't
do in the way of railroad building and es-