Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-01-04
RAILROAD IN THE ANDES.
Difficult Undertaking Before American
Engineers.

Down from the SUBMITS of the Andes
in Peru to the navigable headwaters %
the Amazon, a sheer drop of three
miles in a distance of about $50 miles
American brain and muscle this fall
began the construction of railroad
When this work is completed it will
rank among the railroad engineering
maryels of the world. The Amazon
Pacific railroad is to be its Official
name. 1t is to be completed in a year
or two, in order to begin operating the
line President Leguia of Peru signef
the bill of the Panama canal Earl,
this fall President Leguia of PERI
signed the bill which placed $40, 600 00f
in gold at the disposal of Alfred w
McCune. the concessionaire and maste-
builder.
The line is to be about go mile.
long. 1t is the first hundred miles
however-the hundred miles Of tunnels
curves. bridges embankments anG
switehbacks from the summit of thu
Andes down their eastern slope-tha
Will put the greatest test upon the
ability of the builders. Here will be
employed devices in railroad building
such as have no counterpart in thi;
country, not even in the most Difficult
passes of the Rockies. Marvellous a.
the railroad will be from an engineer
ing and scenic standpoint, it will be
even more notable for it's economic
effect on world trade. Although PERI
is not more than 500 miles wide from
cast to west, its trans-Andean products
must take journey of 10000 miles
down the Amazon and to Europe, re-
turning by way of Panama. in orde
to reach the commercial cities of it,
west coast. The new road will permi
the Interchange of Oriental and Occi-
dental Peruvian products in four day.
instead of six months.
This plan was all dreamed out in the
early '70s by Henry Meiggs. the mos
famous American soldier of forum
who ever visited South America. Hi
greatest work was the construction o
the famous railroad from Callao t,
Croya on the top of the Andes, a roao
| which for quarter of century has
furnished stock Illustrations Of thu
school biographies as the highest rail
road in the world The difficulties en-
countered illustrate those the builder!
of the new road are overcoming.
THE road has got to go there, jus
there" said Meiggs at one time, point
ing 70 the route mapped by the survey
ors. IF you can't find a roadbed, wei
hang it from balloons"
AT points on the road the tract
| leaves tunnels which end in the face
of precipices, crosses and canyons OF
cobweb- like bridges, and then enter
other tunnels. At some places the clitf
were so precipitous that the workmel
had to be lowered with ropes from tn
edge and held there until they Gu
footholds in the rock. The famou
bridge spanning the gorge, called III
Infernillo Little He'll, is an exampl
of this tunnel and bridge construction
The Amazon and Pacific railwa
company, as the McCune concession
officially known, has been duly incor
porated in New Jersey. Peru agrees I
give 100000 600 in bonds to the roa
builders. payable in installments at IN
completion of every rs miles of tn
railroad. In addition Peru Will eonve
to McCune 100000 acres OF land |
the montana country when the ROAD
completed.-New York SUM-