Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-01-10
Other Papers
A HIGHWAY BY AIR
York Herald Tribune)

One result Of Colonel Lindbergh's flight along
the narrow strip Of land that is Central America may
be to create a highway where one ought to be but has
never existed; a highway next to impossible save by
the aerial path on which the Spirit of st. Louis will
be the pioneer. There is something misleading about
a map. A casual glance in the atlas discloses no rea-
son why one might not build a wide paved road south
ward from Mexico TO the corner of South America.
The strip Of land between the two continents seems
made ideally for purposes of communication. In fact,
it has been for forty centuries, and probably for four
thousand centuries, much more . barrier than a high
way. When the Incas ruled South America, although
they built roads across the Andes and even drove their
pathways down into the eastward lands of what are
now Argentina and Brazil, they attempted no land
communication to the north. For them, as for the
earlier Mayas, the highway to and from the valleys of
Central America was the sea.
This is a consequence Of the spine Of the country
and Of what might be called it's ribs. Down the whole
length Of Central America, from southern Mexico, to
Panama, runs a great backbone of mountain ranges, a
portion of that vaster Cordinneran mountain system
whose northern end is the Rockies and whose southern
is the great ridge Of the Andes. In Guatemala this
central backbone hugs the western coast. In Salvador
it edges inland a little, so that fertile valleys and a
narrow coastal plain are left on the Pacific side. To-
ward the southern part Of Nicaragua there are a few
low spots in the backbone, as alos in Panama, but in
the main it is continuous.
Taken alone. this mountain spine Of the country
might not impede communication. Highways could
run north and south on either of its sides. The real
trouble is the ribs. Springing outward from the back
bone of the land at more than a dozen places between
Mexico and Panama are east-west mountain ranges
whose character ~justifies the skeletal metaphor. Be
tween these lie fertile valleys, what the anatomist
would call the intercoastal spaces of the land. Here
agriculture has thrived, but communication has been
scanty. To climb the mountains to north or south is
too difficult. 1t is easier to 60 down the valleys on
the east side of the spine, and take the ocean route to
north or south. Even along the coasts, foot travel up
or down the continent is impeded by wide and swampy
river mouths and by stretches of impenetrable jun
gle in the warm, moist climate Of the lowlands.
So the land seems to have lain in prehistoric
times, when the Mayas carried their commerce by sea.
So, with minor differences, it lies today. Only by air
is the highway open from north to south, and even
this route is not without its dangers, for mountains
must be crossed, and landings on most of them would
be impossible. Colonel Lindbergh's trip, If as sue
~cessful as his skill has led US to expect, may define
these dangers better than before and may show how
to conquer them. An aerial highway from our border
southwark would do much for Central America and
for the whole New World.