The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1913-06-10
TUNNELING THROUGH ROCK.
Great Engineering Feat NOn c. c. and
@. Railroad Nearly Two Miles
LOng.

spartanburg; June 5.-Under Sandy
Ridge mountain, near Dante, in Wes-
tern Virginia, tunnel nearly tWo
miles long is being hewn out OF solid
root at the rate of sixty-1ve feet
week. On the completion of this tun-
nel-the twenty-eighth in thirty-four
miles of railroad contsruction-thare
will come into existence trunk line
which its projectors believe will
change the traffic map Of the South.
The road-the Carolina, Clinchfeld
and Ohio--Will bring Spartanburg, its
Southern terminus, Atlanta, Charles
ton, Savannah and Jacksonville many
miles nearer than by the present ex-
listing railroad routes to Pittsburg,
Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit.
Builders of the existing trunk lines
running north from the South Allan
tic States avoided the Blue Ridge.
They constructed railroads east of the
mountains to Richmond and Wash
ington, west of the mountains to Gin
cinnati. The promoters of the Clinch-
field Road chose the most direct route;
they struck right into the heart Of the
mountains and continued in the noun
tains through the 243 miles of road
extending from spartanburg through
North Carolina, Tennessee and Vir-
ginia to Dante. 1t cost $35,OO0OOO to
build this line, which was opened
three years ago.
At Dante the railroad tapped rich
coal fields, yielding heavy tonnage.
But there was no northern outlet; the
line was cul-de-sac; its develop
ment was incomplete.
Thirty-four miles ahead, at Elk
horn City, KY, was the Chesapeake
and Ohio road, and thither the pro-
iectors of the Clinchfeld turned their
eyes. The capitalists who built the
Clinchfield-Thomas F. Ryan, James
A. Blair, Norman B. Ream and others
equally we'll known-realized the ad-
yantages which would accrue from
tibet hirty-four mile extension, but they
hesitated to incur the enormous add1-
tional expense in the very infancy of
the road. In the form of rugged and
almost impenetrable mountains the
extension presented engineering dlf-
ficulties of most serious kind.
It was not until Mark w. Potter, OF
New York, assumed the presidency of
the Clinchfeld that it was decided to
build the extension. The thirty-four
miles of road are costing $5,500,OOO.
The contractors, Rhinehart & Dsn-
mis-, Of Lynchburg, Va, have been at
work a year. They have pierced the
mountains in twenty-seven places,
built bridges, constructed the road bsd,
ballasted it and laid the tracks from
Elkhorn City to Sandy Ridge. The
tunnel through Sandy Ridge is all that
remains to be done 1t will be $500
feet long. and Ward Crosby, chief en-
gineer of the Clirnhfeld, estimates
that it will not be completed until
next May. At places the tunnel will
be half mile under the mountain
Work is being done simultaneously
from both ends.
From EIkhorn City Clinchfeld
trains will pass over the Chesapeake
and Ohio 152 miles to Catlettsburg,
XIV. where the Ohio River will be
struck and a junction effected with the
Baltimore and Ohio.
The shortest route at present from
spartanburg to Cleveland is by way
of Cincinnati, and the distance is 767
miles. Over the Clinchfeld by way of
Elkhorn City the distance will be 6SS
miles. The shortest route at present
from spartanburg to Pittsburg is by
way of Washington, and the distance