Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-07
time, though the formal opening will no
take place until January l.
Trains Run Before War Began

Before the war began regular trains had
been running some twenty miles over the
northern and some twelve miles over the
southern branch. In February, 1904, the
lines had been extended far as Usan,
thirty miles south of Yontangpo. Work
men in ever-increasing numbers We're put
on the embankments, the grades and the
bridges. From Yontangpo south and from
Fusan north everything was hustle and
hurry. Great loads of ties from the Hok-
kado and rails from England and Amer
lea We're brought into Chemulpo and Fusan.
At these ports they We're reloaded on fiat
boats and =towed along the coast and up the
little streams to the points nearest the rail-
road. Here the materials were landed and
piled on bullock carts, then dragged across
the country to their destinations.
The terminal points at either end were
moved farther and farther afied. By the
beginning of June regular passenger serv-
ice had been established to Mitsuyo, thirty
six miles north of Fusan, construction
trains running about twenty miles farther
to Taiku. Here a mountain spur blocked
the road and it was found necessary to run
a 1000 foot tunnel There has been no de-
lay on this account, however, as a switch
back has been constructed to carry the
trains over the mountain.
There are, altogether, twenty four tun-
nels with total length of 1890 feet, gen
orally quite short, and most of them oc-
curing in this same stretch of hill country
between Waikan and Kantoku. Here, too
the grading has been sleeper than else
where. In some places it is as much as
one in fifty, while at no other point on the
line does it exceed one in eighty. Though
there have been many streams to cross,
none of them are of any great size.
The principal difficulty has BEEN in al
most every instance, the necessity of build
ing much longer structures than the mere
stream would seem to warrant, owing to
the floods during the rainy season. The
300 bridges. large and small, have a total
length of 23,S0O feet. In going over the
line in June our train left the regular en-
bankment for the first time al Usan about
ten miles beyond Suwon. A four-span
bridge was under construction. The piers
mad been completed and the workmen were
driving the piles preparatory to swinging
the steel girders into place. From this
point we were frequently obliged to run
down from the regular road bed. over
stream on rickety wooden structure. then
climb up stff grade to continue our jour-
ney on the proper track.
The Bridge Work.
On the bridges the Japanese were at,
work. Koreans doing only the heavy tasks;
pumping out the cofferdams, carrying and
the like. The excavation was all done by
native coolies under Japanese foremen
Near Suwon was quarry which furnished
the limestone used for the piers and cul-
verts and the stretches Of rock-faced en-
bankmentS
The road has been built by some twenty
Japanese contractors employing forces OF.
from five hundred to thousand men each
The Koreans in every case have done none
of the skilled, merely the cooIie labor The
construction work was carried on by two
distinct bodies or men, the one following
the other. The first laid the track, under
as a mile day This, of course. along a
roadbed already graded. The second di-
vision followed the first, STRENGTHENING
tracks rearading cuttfngs-the first angle
having been too great with the consequent
danger Of landslides in the rainy season.