The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-13

something about the railway movements going on in the country. He replied that q number of roads were in contemplation and proection, saying that the day Woul.l 1 come when there would be one through railroadj line to China and another to Cal cutta. The building of @ road to con- meet with the lines now being pushed northward from Bangkok is another pos sibility and all farther India will eventu- ally be accessible from this point. AL ready more than 1500 miles of. flne are open to traffic, and one can go almost to the Chinese frontier by rail. There are trains leaving every night from Kan goon to Mandalay The journey takes IS hours and from there one can travel on l to Katha, and by river to Bhamo. on the edge of China, or he can go farther north ward by rall to Myitkyna, on the upper Irawadi, near the chinise boundary.
 -Bhamo is on the trade route to China and considerable traffic passes through lit Surveys have been made from Myit lkyina through Yunnan to Chunking on | the Yangtze. This Is the capital ol Sczechuen and Is one of the most i'm : portant cities of western China. Ihe lrailroad, for the building of which the United States has recently loaned mt lions of dollars, is to- go there and the extension of the Burmese road will bring this country into connection with the whole Chinese railway system The road will go through Yunnan, one or the most fertile provinces of China. It will tap the French line which Is build. ing westward from Yunnan, and US trade will be enorous. This road will probably be Eng1ands great trade route to western China and Yunnan will then receive It's British cotton goods by way of Burma. When the Burma and Chi nese systems are connected, one will be able to start here at Rangoon and go T. .. 1..I 4Ix {rfr will probably be made in less than 25 days.
 How the Roads Are Constructed
 The Burmese railways are all narrow gauge lines built of rails weighing about 50 pounds to the yard. They are mostly single track The materials used in their construction have been import ed from England, with the exception of the great viaduct at Gokteik gorge, which was built by Americans This viaduct- is .30e feet high and it stands upon natural bridge which itself is several hundred feet above the stream. The viaduct is a half mile in length. It was awarded to the Pennsylvania Steel company in a competition in which both German and English bridge build CTS took part.
 F The railways were all constructed by the state until a few years ago. when
 
 Railways company. which manages them under government regulations. This company Is now making surveys for extension. As far as can learn the roads are we'll managed During the past year there have been only 13 acci- dents and no serious injuries to speak of.
 The lieutenant governor tells me that the good roads movement is in existence, and that the highways are being steadily pushed by the department of public works There are now more than l1,0C9 miles of we'll made roads in Burma and the government is spending something like $1,300,000 year on maintaining and extending them. The average country road. made under government direction, has width of from 60 to 100 feet, with a path IS feet wide in the center. The foundation is stone. which is kept in oi der with a steam roller where possible and in other places by rollers drawn by bullocks. The cost of the roads is high on account of the luxuriant vegetation, and in lower Burma it is said to be some thing like s300 per mile every year. This is largely ewing to the scarcity of good stone for crushing and the high cost of labor. r