Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1908-03-05
THE |STHM|AN ROAD
GREAT INCREASE IN TRAFFIC
FROM ATLANTIC TO PACIFIC.
Tehuantepec Railway, Opened in
1907, Stimulates interchange of
Shipments by Joining Oceans
with 100 Miles of Road.
Copyright by Walden Fawcett

Neutrality-suspicious. than $40, 00O, 900
worth of merchandise originating in
United States territory crossed the
1sthmuses of Panama and Tehuante-
pee in 1907, most of it being inter-
changed between the eastern and
western ports Of the United States,
including Hawaiian islands. This traf
tc in merchandise originating under
the American flag is more than three
times as much as that of any earlier
date
The sudden and large increase in
the interchanges between Atlantic
and Pacific ports by way of the mar
row strip of land which separates
those oceans is due chiefly to the
opening early in 1907 of the Tehuan-
tepec railway, which connects the
waters of the two oceans by a land
haul of 100 miles, it's termini being
Coatzacoalcos on the Atlantic, or
Gulf of Mexico side, and Salina Cruz,
on the Pacific side
The enterprise of connecting the
two oceans by this short land haul
was planned before the construction
OF the earliest transcontinental rail.
way in the United States, the first
concession for the road having been
granted by the Mexican government
in 1857. This and subsequent conces.
sions having failed to produce results,
the Mexican government in 1882 itself
took up the work, making a series
OF contracts under which line was
completed from ocean to ocean in
1894, but owing to defective condi.
tons it's partial reconstruction be-
came necessary, and this reconstruct
ton was accomplished through a part
nership entered into by the Mexican
government with British firm, the
road having been actually opened for
business in January, 1907
Modern steel docks at the eastern
aid western termini permit the trans
fer by steam and electric power of
merchandise from the hold of the YES
sci direct to the car standing on the
dock alongside the vessel and re-
transfer from car to vessel by the
same manner. The tine occupied in
shipment across the isthmus is less
than "a hours, and the entire time &C.
scup1ed in the, transfer from the hold
of one vessel to that of the other YES
sci less than 4S hours Regular es-
tablished steamship Lines now run be
tween Coatzacoalcas, at the gulf end.
and Philadelphia and New York, and
between Salina Cruz at the Pacific
end to the western part c. the United
States and the Hawaiian islands,
y lille various lines connecting with
foreign countries also touch at the
eastern and western terr1:ci (
The result of this new opportunity
to Interchange merchandise between
the Atlantic and Pacific ports with q
minimum Of land haul has been that
the value of merchandise moving
from the eastern ports of the United
States across the Tehuantepec route
to the Pacific, as shown by the re-
ports Of the bureau of statistics OF the
department Of commerce and labor,
was in the first quarter tf the year,
1888, 900, In the second quarter
/ ever $4,000, 900, In the third quarter
ever 81, 900 900, and in the fourth quar-
1er approximately $4,000.OO0 The
westward movements Of merchandise
Via the Tehuantepec route have been
shiefy sugar from the Hawaiian II
sands. the shippers Of that article hav-
~ abandoned the around-t the Horn
ropte and sending via Tehuantepeo al
their sugar destined for the eastern
aqa4t q the United States