The news & observer., 1905-12-12
Will Make Southport a
Great CoaIiug Station.
SOUTH AND WESTERN
Seventy Four Miles Already Built and
Now 5000 Hands at S1.50 Day
are Rapidly Grading a Link Be-
tween Great Lakes and South
nnrf On Tho Coast
port on The Coast.

The recent incorporation of the
South and Western Railroad for the
completion of it's line across this State
and the rapid construction of the
road through Mitchell county has re-
vealed a railroad plan which may
work a revolution in the manufac-
turing and shipping interests of five
States and make Southport the great
est coaling station on the South At
lantic coast.
The consummation OF the present
plans indicates an independent line
from the Kentucky border, with easy
northward connection with the
great lakes, to Southport, with ia
vorable facilities there for export to
Europe, South America and the West
Indies not to mention the Opportuni-
es for traffic to the Pacific coast and
the Orient, which the completion of
the Panama Canal will invite.
The road has been completed for
seventy-four miles and runs south
from Johnson City, Tenn, through
the counties of Mitchell. Yancey and
Mcdowell, in III State. The en-
ployment of 5000 hands, the laborers
receiving $1.00 day, shows the
rapiditv with which the grading of
what promises to be a link between
the Great Lakes, the coal fields and
a terminal coast s being pushed.
The Manufacturers Record Of No
vember goth last, denotes two col
umns to a description of the wonder
full work of building this road
through three States. The engineer
ing is. on a portion of the route, as
remarkable perhaps as any east of
the Miss ssippi.
The fact has been ascertained that
parties Interested in this road have
acquired the greater part of the
water frontage on the Southport har-
Dor. Encouraged by the digging of
the Panama Canal and the Southern
Industrial development these persons,
it is evident, contemplate the early
establishment of coal exporting piers
at Southport and will make that
modest town a formidable rival OF
Norfolk and Lambert's Point. Coupled
with securing this frontage at South
port is the news that tho projectors
of this road have acquired almost the
entire Southwest Virginia coal fields,
into which the line is being pushed
as rapidly as possible. This import
ant railroad destined to feed vessels
with coal at Southport and supply
IDe NOTln NdTOlllld IdClOIIcS anu Iilll1S
with fuel, will, it is said, be built and
operated Independently Of any other
railroad, as it has strong Seaboard
Air Line domination.
The strong forte of this new line,
n the opinion of those who have
studied the construction of the South
and Western, is its proximity to the
bftuminous coal fields of Virginia,
thus cheapening, it is expected, the
cost of transportation TO manufac-
turing points in the "Old North State. >
The cost of coal is now watched as
closely by manufacturers as the price
of cotton is by mill men,
The building of the South and
Western through a territory now
without railroad facilities, where the
population is dependent upon the
rural mail carrier and the wagon
train, is expected to work wonder
full change in a number of western
counties. The plan adopted con-
templates, according to reports from
that section, the development of sew
eral North Carolina points by the
methods similar to those employed
by some of the great western rail
roads in bringing immigrants and
fostering stock raising and agricul-
ture.
The line, when completed on the
present plan, means a strong COM
petitor for the railroad traffic from
Kentucky to the North Carolina coast.