The Cairo bulletin., 1909-08-27
BIC -FOUR BRIDGE
BROOkPoRT CLAIMS ATTENTION
AS CENTER OF OPERATIONS
BY RAILROADS.
Outlet For Southern Illinois Coal TO
River and Southern Ports
Surveys Made and
Land Secured.
(Paducah News-Democrat.)

lIduutdl 4NcWS-b al
I'VE will have a railroad running
into Brookport in addition to the Hi
nois Central before trains are rum
ming over the Ohio river bridge pro-
posed for Metropolis, stated a resi-
dent of the smaller city yesterday
People of the Kentucky side of the
lriver have lost sight of the fact that
! Brookport. is the destined terminus of
| the Big Four and New York Central
surveys, over what is known as the
IF. H. Il n. O. route, and it is not
lgeuerally known that the road has
bought outright 100 acres of ground
| opposite the lower end of Palucah,
| for ultimate use as terminal yard
Tine line will start at Effingham, H.,
and is Only the natural outcome of
enormous purchases Of central Hi
nois coal fields by the big combined
systems, and their desire to reach the
nearest river point so that they will
be enabled 10 get their product to
the south cheaply, The Zig Four and
the Pennsylvania as well as the Bur
| lington and Wabash have gobbled up
Iall of the available supply of central
| Illinois coal, and have mines enough
to supply the visible demand for
years to come. The roads though,
have to have cheaper transportation
thar they themselves can create, and
the river, the use of towboats and
coal barges is the natural result. The
demand will be created partially by
the Panama canal, as well as by the
trend southwark OF the big iron mills
and furnaces Thousands of acres of
coal lands have been bought by the
railroad systems a few miles nefth
of here and they are simply com
PEELED to seek water haul to meet
competition in the southern markets.
I'VE are very we'll pleased with the
situation" continued the visitor, who
lis enc Of the best posted gentlemen
in outhern Ialiy OIL. and it seems
that Brookport is destined to be a
railroad town OF some dimensions in
the immediate future, One striking
fact about the matter is that the Hi
nois Central, just as soon as the
right-of-way for the T. H. & II. o.
was acquired threw a crew of men
out to the line of survey ana laid ties
and rails for a crossing. It seems
that this was done because of the
legal poiat that the burden of proof,
in case Of accident is on the road
making the crossing, irstead Of on
the road first in the field at that pOnt
and the Big Four will be the crossing
line, There are -four or five Of these
snort tracks laid out there. by them
selves aHd connecting with nothing
When a move Of that kind is made
by a big railroad system it must GER
tainly mean that something's doing. I
lont Know whether the J. c. intends
building ont across the Big -Four sur
Vey or not but they must have some
thing like that up their sleeve, be
cause of their preemption of the
crossing 1t will he fight we'll worth
watching when those two big sys-
leans commence in real earnest, and
BrcoEpot will stard by and enjoy
he action We have everything to
gain over there and nothing to lose"
A reference to an authentic map of
the proposed surveys levels. attitudes
rs well as the purchases made by the
inc confirmed the news given by the
gentleman from Brookport. and it
seems that fight is to be made for
both .Brookport and Metropolis terri
tory by tn ebig systems to enable
DRY by The big systems to enable
'dGe,