Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-07

There Is now standard gauge rail-
way with eighty-pound rails and perfect
ly ballasted track extending across the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The track is equal
to any in the United States; the rolling
stock is all American and most of the men
In charge are citizens of the United States.
Trains are running daily from ocean to
ocean, a distance of 1913 miles, In about
eleven hours. with Pullman cars from the
City of Mexico, in which meals are served
from a buffet The journey from the City
Of Mexico to Salina Cruz, the Pacific port,
is now made In about thirty-six hours, and
the time will shortly be reduced to thirty
hours. Mr. Galbraith, the general man
ager. said this morning.
In July we shall be prepared to handle
100000 tons of freight month, and as
our equipment Is increased we can handle
more BY adding to our rolling stock we
can take care of 20O0, 900 tons a year At
present, however we haul only local freight
and construction material for the harbor
works at either end of the line, but by
July or August when the ports are COM
pleted, our contracts with steamship lines
to New York, New Orleans. San Francisco,
Honolulu and elsewhere will be taking eff
feet and we will inaugurate a traffic which,
believe. will grow to large dimensions.
There are great possibilities for local de-
velopment also. The soil and the climate
are capable of producing everything. Only
industry and labor is needed. The people
down here plant their corn with stick
without even plowing the ground, and even
with that primitive method of farming the
crops are large and profitable.
This is intended to be through route
from the Atlantic ports of the United States
and Europe to the Pacific ports of the
United States and Asia in competition with
the Panama railroad and canal when the
latter is completed and it will always have
certain geographical advantages. We ex-
pect to do a very large business and the
preparations are made accordingly. Through
business. however. is impossible until the
harbors and port works at CoatZacoalcos
on the Gulf of Mexico and at Salina Cruz
on the Pacific are completed SO that ocean
steamers can discharge and receive cargoes
without difficulty. These works are now
almost done Within three or four months
at the latest we shall have harbors and
docks on both sides Of the isthmus capable
of handling any amount of freight that
may be offered with the most modern
electrical machinery
Topography of the Isthmus.
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is very much
different in appearance from what I ex-
pected, and l presume the popular impress
sion of the topography is a mistaken one.
The Cordilleras the great range of noun
tains which forms the backbone of the
hemisphere and extends from the Pacific
coast. subsidies considerably here, although
not so much as on the Isthmus of Panama
and Is divided by valleys, canyons and
rocky ravines through which the railway
has been built. By the railroad 1t is 1913
level, the Chivela pass, is $50 feet above
the Gulf of Mexico. The 1sthmus of Pan
anna Is only forty-seven miles wide and
Culebra Hill, the highest elevation, is 357
feet above the gulf. At one place the Te-
huantepec railway runs for fifteen miles
through canyon; it follows another for
ten miles. and crosses the great divide
through short tunnel
1t was remarkably considerable on the part
of nature to lower the mountain range here
and at Panama, the narroWest places of
the continent and for years after the dis
covery of the Pacific this phenomenon de-
ceived the explorers, who expected to find
a passage by water.
Dream of Columbus.
Columbus positive that one existed,
and he sought for 1t In the most persistent
determined and confident manner One of
the most pathetic pictures in all history is
the venerable admiral, broken in health
and in reputation, propped up by cushions
upon the deck Of his caravel cruising
along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico In
search OF the water passage to India which
he had seen in his dreams and was con-
WINGED must be there. He entered every
river. he coasted around every inlet and
bay, and finally, when his supplies gave
out and he was compelled to return to
Spain, disgraced and Inundated, he still
insisted upon the accuracy of his theory,
and would have undertaken another voy-
age TO prove it IL some one had furnished
him a fleet. He died unconyinced. One of
his last acts WAS the preparation of ar
elaborate argument to prove that there
was a waterway across the isthmus and
that 1t was the shortest route to India
from Spain.
All the early navigators had similar
opinion. Cortez believed in the theory OF
Columbus until his death, and in letter to
the great Emperor Charles concerning
the expedition sent by him under Alvarado
to Guatemala he says:
Il have received information as well as
of the riches of that country as that in the
opinion of my navigators there exists q
strait leading from that bay into the oppo-
site sea, which is the thing above all others
In the world am DESTROYS of meeting with,
on account of the immense utility which
am convinced would result from ii to the
advantage OF your imperial majesty"
This waterway, however. has never been
found. The nearest approach to 1t is by
the river and lakes of Nicaragua; the mar
rowest passage and lowest point between
the two continents is on the Isthmus Of
Daren, where II is asserted that the In
dams cross from one ocean to another in
canoes with only few miles of portage.
Various Schemes Of Transit
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in direct
line. is only 125 miles wide; the lowest
punt rs Sdlu ~ pt ioO lSSt dUoNc tlutWdtti,
and this depression occurs from heights of
more than 5000 feet in the state of Oaxaca
one side and the Chiapas on the other.
canal was proposed shortly after the
Spanish authorities became convinced that
a natural waterway did not exist, and sew
eral concessions have been granted from
time to time during the last three centuries
for that purpose to English, French and
American citizens Repeated surveys have
been made and all sorts of schemes have
been submitted, more or less practical more
or less fantastic. Some of them have con-
templated canal the entire distance. 9th
ers have been part canal and part rail-
way, and Captain Eads Of st. Louis, as
you doubtless remember, spent years
around the Capitol at Washington trying
to secure the Endorsement of our Congress
for a plan to carry ocean ships over the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec upon railroad
trucks-to lift them out of the sea on one
side and launch them again on the other
The government of Mexico finally settled
down to the necessity of railway and be-
came convinced that II was the only prac-
tfcal transportation plan. Several conces-
sions We're granted to various people, but
no construction work was actually done
until 1882 when Delfino Sanchez, a Spanish
promoter, who had already built line from
Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, organ
lied company and was given subsidy of