TOPOGRAPHY AND RAILROADS II 



the time of our visit to Costa Rica trains ran westward over 

 this line — known as "Linea Vieja" or "Old Line" — only as 

 far as Guapiles. The town of Carrillo had disappeared, 

 having had nothing but the railroad to maintain it; there 

 was nothing there but a telephone guard station on the wire 

 running to San Jose, which followed the line originally sur- 

 veyed for the railroad. A trail connects Guapiles with Car- 

 rillo but was said to be extremely rough and the fording of 

 the rivers, particularly the Toro Amarillo and the Sucio 

 (so called because of its muddy waters), very dangerous. 

 Another railroad route to the capital therefore became nec- 

 essary and this was constructed by an American, Minor C. 

 Keith, between 1884 and 1890. It diverges from the Old 

 Line at La Junta, on the left bank of the Rio Reventazon, 

 38.6 miles from Limon, and reaches the interior by follow- 

 ing the great cafion of that river, on the south side of Tur- 

 rialba and L-azu. It ascends to El Alto, where between 

 Irazd and La Carpintera, it crosses the continental divide, 

 descends the Pacific slope to San Jose and continues to 

 Alajuela. 



The railroads from Limon to Carrillo, Alajuela to Cartago 

 and from Esparta to Puntarenas were constructed when 

 General Tomas Guardia was supreme in Costa Rica (1870- 

 1882), by means of two loans obtained in England. When 

 Mr. Keith undertook the building of the line from La Junta 

 to Cartago, the first two sections just named as built by 

 President Guardia were ceded to him. He too had recourse 

 to foreign capital and the entire road from Limon to Ala- 

 juela when completed became the property of the Costa 

 Rica Railway, a British corporation. The United Fruit 

 Company of Boston, organized in 1899, began the building 

 of the Northern Railway running from Limon to the banana 

 districts of Zent and Matina, which was opened for traffic 

 in 1902. In 1905 the Costa Rica Railway Company leased 



