The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09
Jolrneyi,1g Along Bo1iuia's Ne1u Ra;11uays

1t is 1000 feet lower than the altitude of the pass of the Peruvian Central.
 
 The La Pax-Antofagasta line has mileage of more than TOO miles, and it's highest point on the main line is over 13,o00 feet above the sea- The highest point on the Africa line is just under 14,00O feet, but the Antofagasta line is building branches that are almost as high as the highest point on the Moro- eacha branch of the Central above Lima One of these runs from Ollague to Colahuasi, where there are copper mines owned by the Guggenheims said to be among the richest mines of the world. The other begins at Rio Mulato, between Oruro and Uyuni ,and goes to Potosi, the famous mountain that has produced billions of dollars in silver and that promises to produce like val ues in tin. The Rio Mulato and Potosi branch crosses a pass 15,S14 feet high. or only 51 feet lower than the pass to Morococha, where are great copper mines, largely owned by Americans.
 Of all these lines the most difficult of construction was the Central Peru
 
 Meiggs and it's first SC miles are said to have cost more than s300,000 a mile. That road Is of standard gauge, and 1t has no gradient sleeper than IA in 100. It has 67 bridges, of which Is 575 feet long, spanning a ravine 300 feet deep. Melggs also built the greater part of the onthern railway, and that without cogs, and he was the construc- tor of the road from Valparaiso to an- tiago that now froms part of the first great route between the Pacific and the Atlantic
 Outside the Meiggs roads, the new line just opened from Africa to La Paz has been the most expensive and the most difficult of construction. The Arica-La Paz road is less than half as long as the, Peruvian Southern, and only about one-thrd as long as that from Antofagasta to La Paz. Its length is under 250 miles. It begins at the sea- coast. and crosses the Andes at less than 14,000 feet above the level of the ocean. On some parts of the-route the grades are so steep that the rack-and- pinion system has to be used. The max imum grade of the ordinary line is only about per cent, while some of the cent. The cog system is longer than that of any other railroad, and there are many engineers who claim that it cannot be worked at a profit. The cog system is about the same as that of the roads up Pikes Peak. Mount Wash ington and the Rigi. It does we'll for tourist traffic, but whether it will work with the heavy freights is a ques- tfon. One of the civil engineers en- gagged in its construction tells me he thinks that the cog part of the road may eventually be run by electricity
 During my stay in La Paz I have met Sir John Jackson, whose company has built the Arieo-La Paz system. He is one of the famous engineers of the world and his company has work going on all over the globe. It is arranging to connect the Bolivian and the Argen- tine railway systems
 When the Panama canal Is completed the shortest route from the United States to Bolivia will be by way of Africa. That port is 220o miles from fanama, and by the canal it will be less than 36Oo miles from New Cor leans Most tourists will prefer to go by way of Molendo and the Peruvian more gentle and which has also the ad- vantage of the halfway station at Are quipa and the pleasant trip over Lake I1ticaca. The quick jump from Africa to the top of the Andes is liable to give one soroche and many will mt oare to risk the long rack-and-pinion system. some will go to La Paz by one route and come back by another. At present the most of the traffic to Bolivia passes either through Mollendo or Antofagasta.
 The Antofagasta-Boliv railway sys- tenn Is perhaps the most important of the republic. It is now giving a direct service from La Paz to the ocean in A hours. There are three trains week,