The National tribune., 1909-01-21

the whole breadth of the South into
the Gulf of Mexico.
The third was of scarcely less inn
portance than the other two, since it is
/ the gateway between the great interior
of the country and the South Atlanic
coast This gateway has Chattanooga
for its northern end and Atlanta, 12O
miles away, for its southern terminus.
Every student of geography knows
that the eastern coast Of the United
States is separated from the widespread
/ ing interior by the two great parallel
walls of the Appalachian chain of
mountains, which run from the north
east to the southwest. from Cape Gaspe
in Canada down into the center of Ala
bama- These two walls are separated
thru their entire length by valleys from
Is to co miles in width. and which
have local names in the different States.
as the Cumberland, Shenandoah and
Tennessee valleys. The mountains on
either side have similar local names in
the different States, as the Alleganies.
Cumberland, Blue Ridge, Great Smoky,
Catskills. etc.
It would seem that in some remote
con of the worlds formation this valley
! between the two ranges of the Alle-
ganies was wide. deep, long lake, the
waters OF which at length burst thru
its granite sides and cut channels of
escape to the sea on the east or to the
Ohio River on the west. In this way
were formed the Hudson, Susquehanna,
Potomac and James Rivers, flowing into
the Atlantic Ocean, and the Allegheny,
Monongahela and Tennessee Rivers,
flowing into the Ohio. Where these
rivers cut thru the giant mountain walls
are the passes by which the people Of
the country trade and travel. They
are, they always have been, the por-
tails of commerce and communication.
Thrusthe gateways cut by the Hud'
son, Susquehanna and Potomac % the
east and the Allegheny and Mononga-
hela to the west run the great trunk
lines from Boston, New York, Phila-
delphia, Baltimore and Washington TO
Chicago. st. Louis and the West.
The Southeastern Gateway.
The Chattanooga-Atlan gateway
serves for a country as large as either
of the others. II only fails in being
quite as important. because the coun-
try is not so densely populated nor the
volume of trade which passes thru it
nearly so great. The railroads now be-
ing constructed from Atlanta 10 Sa-
vannah look, however, TO the flowing
thru this gateway of an immen'e COM
uerce between Chicago and the West
Indies and South America. which may
in time become much greater than the
trade which now goes from this region
to New York. and thence westward to
the centers OF distribution in the in
terror
The gateway is formed on the north
by the Tennessee River gathering the
floods of East Tennessee, western North
Carolina and southwestern Virginia,
and carry ing these in a mighty current
against the high granite wall now
marked by the towering nights of Look
out. The floods bursting the rocky
obstacle made narrow, tortuous cre-
vase, thru which the river now runs and
by which the emigrants from Vir-
ginia and North Carolina made their
way into middle and west Tennessee
1t Is far the best passage of the west
ern mountain wall for many hundred
miles north and south, and probably
one OF the earliest railroads in the
country was run thru 1t from Chatta-
nooga to Nashville. The village of
Chattanooga was built at this end of
the gateway, and Is now the principal
city IN The valley between the cum
fsrla-d aIountains and the lofty Smoky
mountain range, which is the southern