The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1906-10-08

5000 MILE PAN-AMERicAN RAIL
ROAD IN SIGHT.
Immense Project Long Planned Has
Now Actually Been Commenced
Money to Complete II Is
Arranged For.

Arranged fors
Another link is in sight for the
5.00O-mile Pan-American railroad
which win some Gay enable a citizen
OF Alaska TO make a continuous train
journey through zones temperate.
tropic and again temperate. and at
the Straits of Magellan To dip his
hands in antarctic chilled water-a
scenic railway crossing the Panama
canal with a grade rising from bolow
sea level to ~. 900 feet above on the
majestic plateaus of the Andesl
is &c a dream of enthusiasm? Then
must hard-headed bankers of New
York have suddenly become overen-
thusiasuc in supplying $4,000, 600 Of
capital, and the president OF Bolivia
quite lost his wits when the other day
he started with so much pomp the
building of the now railway lines i'm
J mis- country. says the New York Ttib-
une. Speyer q co. and the National
city bank. never accused Of ovcren
thusiasm before. are the capitalists
They agree to supply another 10000
600, IT necessary and the Bolivian
government promises Co make repay
ment within 25 years from date More
than $t0.0 eco. 900 is to be provided for
railways by the people who name
themselves after El Lihertador Simon
Bolivar. making the total about S31
500. 900.
II is rue that this money Will be
largely used on the lines of a general
system of Internal railway develop
ment yet Bolivia win be bisccted by
q trunk road from Peru, ON the north,
to Argentina on the south. following
the surveyed route of the Pan-Amer-
lean scheme. The main line OF this
trunk viii be i59 miles long, adding
26l miles to the existing but made
Quate and probably 10 be superseded
route of the narrow gauge Antufagasta
railroad. All internal lines projected
total a distance of nearly 1000 miles,
about five times the length of those
existing. They include Viacha &c
Porto Pando, POI miles; Viacha 60
Oruro. 13S miles. Orro TO Potosi, l65
miles; Oruro to C~ochabamba, 129
miles. and Oyuni to Tupiza. 126 miles
From two to ten years Is estimated
as the time necessary to complete the
various sections.
OF the IS republics that are coop
Grating TO startle with the locomotive
whistle the condor sailing over An
dean abysses and to compete with
llama. donkey and Indian as freight
carriers. Bolivia and Peru are now
showing the greatest activity. The
dizzy engineering feats OF climbing
the higher mountains OF the world, on
larging the gold bearing lnca's trail
along p%recipices, tunneling through
impossible rock walls and shutting
back mt forth on steel spans across
t%ortuous chasms never passed by man,
have already been accomplished with
large success In Peru. The pioneer
genius of Henry Meiggs has its mon
uments.
II inspires a poet to think OF the
snow.clad peaks rising four miles in
air It makes a railway traffic man
ager rub his hands when he considers
the present llama-donkey-Indian style
of transportation at a minimum cost
of 20 cents a ton a mile. Moreove.,
a railway runs at the same speed and
at equal cost in both directions. What
will happen TO the old-established wa
ter routes of South America. that take
twice as long and double cost 20 go
upstream? IL takes two weeks to
float a cargo Of rubber, gold or cot
fee 1870 miles down the Madeira
river. but a month for boats to go up
And in the dry season, when the river
runs low, traffic is at a standstilL.
The Pan American line, al starting
from the present Mexican railroad ter
minus at Ayutla, the northern bound.
airy Of Guatemala, and extending &c
the river Quiaca, Of the boundary he
tween Bolivia and Argentina (whence
existing lines run south and east #
is estimated win cost 5000. 900. 600
Mileage and cost are surpassed by
, single systems in this country. It Is
pointed out. Some engineers, think
ing OF CULTS and heights TO conquer
have deemed the average estimate oI
$4,000 q mile optimistic Yet The
actual cost of "a road from Lake TlU
, caca. ;he inland sea of South America
corresponding To- Baikal in Siberia, {,
Bolivia's capital city, Ia Paz, ha,
proved to be only $4,000 d mile mi.
line begins TO run along the great cen
trail plateau of Bolivia, a prairie ~.
900 feet above the sea. and mist.
with clouds. yot %suunounted by an.
lordly peaks. more than four mile
B. high. of the ulampu Cordilleras Oh
this majestic plain the present mail
line is To- Doe built Here The eng.
neerlng difficulties are practically nl|
and there is no fear of cncountcrin.
p such q chimera as the moving noun
tain that lately banlcd The builders o
an Argentine railroad The mountai
Is a great cune of mud that change
it's shape when the river Medic fret
- In the rainy season A steel spa
B $50 feet long is believed to have cor
luered the unstable foe.