Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1905-05-05
GIANT TASK in RAILROAD BUILDING
Two Carloads of Powder in a Single Blast-$25O.-
600 Paid for One Mile of Track-2.629 Men
Employed Piece of Track Being
Built for the Wabash System.


West Virginia town. on the new line
Of the Wabash, twenty miles east of
Cumberland, when the ringing of
sells and blowing of whistles gave
the warning that in few minutes
the button would be pressed that
would explode 5000 pounds of giant
powder in the rocky mountain side
dii .ctly opposite and close to the
town.
For three days the people Of Paw
Paw had watched men carrying can
after can of powder into the tunnels
dug into the face of rocks. AS the
number Of cans disappearing in the
mountain side increased the alarm Of
the people grew, and some in terror
left the town, while those remaining
filed their ears with cotton and wait
ed for-they knew not what.
At last, when 1926 cans of powder,
SIPS pounds, had been emptied in
the arms extending right and left
from the inner ends of the two 45-foot
tunnels, wires laid and the tunnel
closed. the electric button was press
ed. There was a deep, rumbling re-
port, the whole earth seemed to rock
as though shaken by an earthquake
toppled over into the canal and river.
Carloads of Powder in One Blast.
Not stone had been thrown a hun
dred feet toward the frenzied town,
but 10000 yards of rock had been
torn from the mountain side and many
precious days saved the contractors
who are building the link" connect
ing the Western Maryland railroad at
Cherry Run with the West Virginia
Central railroad at Cumberland, and
thus bringing nearer realization
George Gould's dream Of making the
Wabash railroad an. ocean to ocean
line.
1t was only the proximity of this
blast to a town that made it particu-
larly prominent on this railroad con-
struction that is requiring a blast
for almost every foot of the roadbed,
in faat it was small one in compari.
son 10 some that have been fired. In
one blast, in Siding Hill mountain,
the charge consisted Of 1,400 cans
of powder, just two carloads, and
when 1t was put off rocks weighing
half ton were hurled through the
air hundreds of yards, across the Po-
tomac river and striking telegraph
poles along the Baltimore & Ohio rail-
road broke them off close to the
ground
1t is this necessity for almost con-
tinuous blasting that has done much
toward making this sixty-fve mile
strip Of railroad construction the
most expensive Of any built in recent
years, with the single exception of
the line over which the Wabash en-
tiers Pittsburg. The cost of building
the first five miles from Cumberland
averaged $25O,OO0 mile and the
average cost for the sixty-five miles
IS 100000 a mile. In building this
connecting link. the Wabash has had
to contend with an unusually large
number of obstacles of a surprising
variety, some placed in the way by
Iature, others by man.
TunneIing Through Solid Rock.
Until the advent of the Wabash 1t
vas supposed there was no feasible
route through the narrow gaps in the
mountains between Cumberland and
Hancock, forty miles, save those fol-
lowed by the Chesapeake and Ohio
canal and the Baltimore & Ohio rail-
road. 1t was this belief that has kept
life in the old waterway, life sus-
tanned by the Baltimore & Ohio Rail-
road company to bar out any possible
rival. Some years ago the Hon. Henry
q. Davis, then owner of the West
Virginia Central railroad, had route
surveyed through the country follow
ed by the Wabash, but it was given
up as impracticable. AS result, it Is
not surprising that the construction
of this road is proving one Of the
greatest undertakings of years, re-
quiring application of almost every
method known in railroad building
and the ingenuity of contractors, who
have built railroads in almost every
state in the union, has been taxed to
the utmost.
Upon forty miles of this line there
are engaged to-day 1929 men, 300
animals, nine locomotives and nine
steam shovels. For eighteen months
there has been no cessation Of labor
and it is hoped that in eight more the
work will be completed.
8 Obstacles to Be Met.
An idea Of the difficulties encoun-
tered can be formed from the fact
that. this line in forty miles crosses
the Potomac river nine times, the
chesapeake C Ohio canal seven
times, the Baltimore & Ohio railroad
three times, passes through noun
tain ranges and spurs by five tunnels,
varying in length from 700 feet to
1900 feet, through ridges and hills
by innumerable cuts, many Of them |
over fifty feet deep through solid rock |
and some almost mile in length and |
that a great portion of the road is