The news & observer., 1905-12-03

the Lead-Thcy Are Spend
ing Twenty Million Dol
ars i'm Construction
Construction on the extension of the
South & Western Railway is now be-
ing rapidly pushed northward in the
vicinity of Clinchport and Gate City
Va, the construction southward from
Spruce Pine, n. c., which has been
under way for some time. also con-
tinulng. According to reports, the
owners of the Clinchfield Corporation
that con -ro.s the railroad viii spend
upwards of $20.00O,0O0 to make the
line coal carrier of the most substan-
tial character. These gentlemen IN
clude James A Blair. of New York;
Norman b. Ream, of Chicago; T. JEFF
ferson Coolidge, of Boston. and others,
all of them being also the dominating
elements in the Seaboard Air Line.
Therefore, while the two railroad
companies are not corporately asso-
ciated it is accepted as a certainty
that thev will be physically connected
at or near Spartanburg, 5. c.. to form
a coal route from the southwestern
kentucky and Virginia coal fields to
the sea. Writing of this important
line, the Bristol. (Tenn.) Herald says:
The company is building through
the mountain Businesses of the Blue
Ridge in Western North Carolina. No
engineering is too difficult. no cost too
great in reaching the standard set.
Two thousand men are working TO
make a roadway and a grade equal
in all respects to the Pennsylvania
system. The entire undertaking is
stupendous, and, so far as the South
is concerned. it Will be the greatest
construction work of this generation.
On the immense Blue Ridge tunnel,
800 feet long, work is proceeding
night and day
The road IS being built with 1
per cent. grade over its entire length,
even through the most rugged and
nearly inaccessible parts of the Blue
Ridge. Between Spruce Pine and
Marion 10 camps have been provided
for and all but two of these have
been established.
THE line from Johnson City up the
Nolachucky and Toe rivers to Spruce
Pine which has been built and opera
ted for several years. is being improved
all along the right of way. The
track is being Strengthened where
curves are too sharp, and trestleS
cut out and replaced by fills and the
roadbed improved wherever improve
ment is at all possible
There are at present something
like Is engineering parties out on the
Ten These engineers are surveying
possible changes in the route, straigh-
tening the track already laid and taxi
ing every possible advantage of the
peculiarities of the mountainous for
nation of the country.
Camp Two is situated five miles
from Spruce Pine From this point
can be seen a wonderful feat of en-
gineering. The road runs down on
the side of one slope away off in the
distance, and then comes back up on
the opposite side of the valley or
canyon, till, from a point near the
great tunnel, it is only one-fourth or
a mile from one track to another, after
making a loop OF 10 miles of the most
difficult road at a possible cost of
100000 per mile and gaining only
one-fourth of a mile in actual prog
ress. All this work is done to keep
the road down to 1 per cent. grade
and make it,. as has been said. the
best coal road in the South and sec
ond to none in the whole country.
From this camp, too, work is going
on for at least five tunnels which will
probably not be completed under b
to Is months. Leaving the Blue
Ridge tunnel, the road follows the
trend of a valley along the face of the
mountain and is a series of cuts and
fills only broken by an occasional
miles to keep this l per cent. grade,
that must be observed at any cost.
Each of the eight camps already
established, to say nothing of the en-
gineers who are IN tents. will average
200 men. The labor employed is
largely of native Americans. but is
somewhat mixed with Italian and 9TH
9r foreign alenSentS. Numbers tor
the mountain white and native North
Carolinians are working in the camps
and ooinsg home to their families at
night From this point much work
progressing and all along through
the mountains are surveys, stakes and
grade points made out all along the
right of way.
'The line from Spruce Pine to Mar
ion is full of lumber. 1t may be a
low grade. but still it will be market
ed. as we'll as that already shipped all
along the line from Johnson City to
Spruce Pine. The hills are full OF
mica. and there are some farming
products in the valleys and open
spaces Here are grown as hne
peaches and apples as anywhere in the
world"
There is a good wagon road from
Spruce Pine to Marion. so miles, ana
the railroad forces, to reach the camps,
are making new roads which VIII
doubtless become permanent and ana
in developing the country.