The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-24
High Officials of the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic
 are in Birmingham
WILL ENTER CITY WITHIN
 NEXT EIGHTEEN MONTHS
Party Will Spend Today Visiting Fur naces and Mines In the District and Inspecting Seaboard.
 Terminals.

High officials and directors of the Att
 lanta, Birmingham and Atlantic railroad
 arrived in Birmingham yesterday, and will
 remain in. the city until tomorrow morn ing.
 In the party is Harry M Atkinson of
 Atlanta, president of the road; Percy R.
 Pyne, A. D. Russell of New York, Gordon Abbott of Boston, president of the old Colony Trust company; Preston $. Ark wright of Atlanta. George D. Wadley. vice president and general manager, and Alex Bonnyman, chief engineer. MT. Pyne MT. Russell. MT. Abbott and
 MT Arkwright are directors in the Att lanta, Birmingham and Atlantic, and are making general tour of inspection. The party will spend today in visiting furnaces. mines and industrial plants in
 the Birmingham district. A trip will also be made over the Seaboard terminals in
 Birmingham, and they will be inspected
 by daylight. Visiting officials are travel
 ing in a special train. They will leave the union passenger station this morning
 at o'clock for the trip through the dis
 trict, and will return tonight.
 Have Large Interests. As is generally known, the Old Col
 ony Trust company and MT. Atkinson are | interested very extensively in Birming-
 ham and in the Birmingham district. Among other things, they control the
 Birmingham Iron company, and MT. Att llinson and his associates own large mar
 ble fields in the vicinity of Talladega | and Sylacauga.
 In speaking of the entrance of the At lauta, Birmingham and Atlantic into Bir-
 mingham, Mir Atkinson said:
 "We expect to get into Birmingham in | about eighteen months. We are working all along the route just as rapidly as possible but it will take us practically i that length of time to complete the con struction and get everything in working order.
 We have not decided the exact route by which we will come into Birmingham | proper, or whether we will have our own terminals. These matters are yet to be determineds and we have them under con- l sideration. We have plenty of time yet.
 "Our policy will be a progressive one. 1 Our idea is to have a line from the in- 1 land direct to the coast, and there have 1 boat line to handle the traffic directly 1 to the east. As has been announced, we | are building fast freight boats for our | service out of Brunswick to the east. That
 is the cheapest means of transportation l of merchandise, raw and finished prod
 ucts.
 I've have the finest terminals in Bruns-
 wick to be found in the south, or any
 where else. While there are larger sea-
 board terminals, there are none so com
 plete We have an excellent water front and ample track facilities.
 First-CIass Construction. I've have one of the best roads in the 1 south The construction will be first | class, and the road will be well ballasted. 1 Heavy rail will be used, and 1t will be the l best we can construct. Our contracts l have been let as far as Reeder's Gap, and l from there we do not know what course | we will pursue, that is to say, we have | not determined whether we will build direct or come in over the Seaboard. l "Our line will be an independent We will have no strings tied to us at all, and will seek business from all the railroads l in Birmingham. It will be essentially a | southern railroad The offices will all be in the south the officials all live in 1 the south, and they will all be men fa- miliar with southern conditions. we leave here Thursday morning over the Louisville and Nashville, and go to
 Talladega. We will then go over our con- struction work on horseback for seventy five miles, and we will also go over the East railroad, which we have bought. and which is being rebuilt from end to end. It will form a portion of our line.
 We will then go to La Grange. Ga.. and from there will go over our road to Bruns- | wick"