WEST VIEGINIA. 83 



the construction and working of roads, wliicli is expected to answer all the 

 requirements of a most effective system, and secure convenient means of local 

 communication. 



Numerous turnpikes add to the facilities for travel in all the more densely- 

 settled portions of the State. Parkersburg has long been connected with 

 Staunton, and also with Winchester, in the valley east of the Alleghanies, by 

 turnpike routes ; and there has also been maintained a daily stage line between 

 Guyandotte, at the mouth of the river of that name, and Covington, via 

 Charleston and the White Sulphur Springs. These were all long lines, and 

 involved considerable capital and enterprise in their management and main- 

 tenance. 



IMPROVEMENT OF RIVERS. 



The Monongahela is navigated by steamboats in a good stage of water to 

 Fairmont, in Marion county. Slackwater improvements have been made 

 upon it at intervals through its entire course to Pittsburg. It has proved of 

 immense benefit to the adjacent population in affording facilities for transporta- 

 tion of iron from the furnaces in the vicinity of the river, coal from its banks, 

 the produce of the farmers, and supplies of the merchants. 



The Great Kanawha is navigable to the falls near the mouth of Gaulcy river, 

 a distance of nearly one hundred miles. Millions of bushels of salt, immense 

 quantities of coal, and large quantities of merchandise, have thus found a market, 

 and a large passenger trade has been accommodated. Like the upper Ohio, 

 this river sometimes has its navigation obstructed ; in the summer only steamers 

 of light draught can ply; but, with a little deepening and clearing of the 

 channel, it may be made entirely navigable at all seasons. Some dredging has 

 been occasionally done, and slight improvements in its navigation effected, but 

 reliance has generally been placed on the ordinary natural facilities afforded 

 by the stream itself. The fact that through this avenue cauuel and other coals, 

 in unlimited quantities, can be obtained for the markets down the river with 

 one hundred miles less of transportation than from Pittsburg, should stimulate 

 improvement in this direction, and aid in developing the magnificent coal 

 interests of the Great Kanawha. 



The Guyandotte river has enjoyed slack- water navigation to a certain extent. 

 Dams were built, bvit no very substantial or permanent works constructed. 

 They have fallen into neglect, especially since the commencement of the war, 

 and are now nearly if not entirely useless. 



The Little Kanawha could easily be made navigable for a distance sufiicient 

 to add considerably to the convenience and wealth of the communities in prox- 

 imity to it, and the wants of the oil region will soon, without doubt, accomplish 

 successfully the improvement. In a good stage of water the oil is now either 

 boated down in bulk, or floated in barrels, in large quantities, to Parkersburg. 

 Large rafts of barrels filled with oil present a novel and peculiar aspect of river 

 transportation. 



RAILROADS. 



The Baltimore and Ohio railroad, with its branches, furnishes the only railway 

 facilities enjoyed by West Virginia, with one small exception. It is to the en- 

 terprise and invincible determination of this company, and not to aid from the 

 State of Virginia, that the partial development of the resources of the northern 

 counties of the new State is due. 



The construction of this road was commenced on the fourth of July, 1828 ; 

 it was opened to Ellicott's Mills, twelve miles from Baltimore, May 22, 1830; 

 its opening to Washington was celebrated in August, 1834. Westward 

 its construction was pushed for many weary years, through and over moun- 

 tains, across yawning abysses and over wide rivers, moving now with celerity 

 . on the surface of level glades, and then with a progress labored and slow* 



