1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



427 



improvement by a rail road from Evansham to 

 Danville, and thence to some points in connection 

 with the improvements to the Roanoke — among 

 other proceedings the following resolution was 

 adopted. 



'Resolved, That a committee be appointed to 

 prepare an address to the citizens oi Virginia and 

 North Carolina showing the practicability and 

 importance of the proposed rail road.' 



In pursuance ol" the duty devolved on them by 

 the foregoing resolution,! lie undersigned beg leave 

 to offer to their fellow citizens of Virginia and 

 North Carolina, the following facts and considera- 

 tions. 



An inspection of the map of Virginia, as con- 

 nected with her southern and south-western boun- 

 dary, offers at a glance to the eye of the examiner 

 an immediate and direct communication by the 

 channel of the Roanoke, between the great south- 

 western valley, and our Atlantic border. A rich 

 and expanded area of the surface of Virginia, em- 

 bracing not less than ten thousand square miles, 

 with a population of one hundred and eighty thou- 

 sand souls, a wide extent of the territories of Ten- 

 nessee and Kentucky and the richest portions of 

 our sister state of North Carolina, embracing of 

 her population one hundred and sixty thousand 

 souls, seem at once connected by the ties of a 

 common interest in this common channel of com- 

 merce, which want of energy or want of resour- 

 ces in our people has hitherto left unimproved. It 

 behooves us now to exhibit to our fellow citizens 

 the titcts and calculations by which we ourselves 

 have been irresistibly drawn to the conclusion that 

 the removal of all obstructions to the free enjoyment 

 of that channel and of the rich fruits matured by 

 the increased activity and energy which such an 

 improvement must infuse into all the operations of 

 our people, is practicable; is within our immediate 

 resources; and is promptly and urgently called for, 

 by every consideration that can influence men de- 

 termined to avail themselves of the great blessings 

 which nature has scattered around them, with a 

 lavish hand. The experience of a few years, yet 

 ample in that time, the eminently successful expe- 

 riments made in Europe, on our continent and 

 even in our state, demonstrate the superiority of 

 rail roads over all other improvements. Where 

 nature has furnished, t\ee of expense, a direct and 

 continuous channel of navigable water from the 

 interior to the seaboard — such improvements may 

 not be required. But that mode of communica- 

 tion is denied to us, and accordingly the Conven- 

 tion has determined on an immediate survey of a 

 route lor a rail road from Evansham in the great 

 valley of the south west, to some points in con- 

 nection with the several rail road improvements 

 to the Roanoke. Is the contemplated work prac- 

 ticable! We assure our fellew citizens that every 

 means of obtaining information, short of an actual 

 survey of the specific route has been resorted to, 

 and we are prepared to assert that it is not only 

 practicable, but. in our opinion, presenting fewer 

 obstacles to its accomplishment than any known 

 work of the same extent, on the continent of Ame- 

 rica. 



Which ever route may be ultimately selected 

 between the eastern and western limits of the 

 contemplated improvement, the distance cannot 

 far exceed a line of two hundred and ten miles. 



Of that extent one hundred and sixty miles at 



least must be in a champaign country, along the 



valley of the Roanoke, resembling in its general 

 features that country in which the rail roads alrea- 

 dy completed and in progress, are located; differ- 

 ing however in some important particulars, in the 

 increased fertility of the soil and consequent 

 cheapness of provision on this route, and still 

 more in the greater abundance, cheapness and ac- 

 cessibility of all the materials for the construction 

 of the work. Of the remaining fifty miles, six 

 may be taken, as a large, estimate for the moun- 

 tain section, which has hitherto alarmed the timid, 

 and presented an obstacle even to inquiry. Let 

 us approach it undismayed, and how insignificant 

 does it appear? There is no person acquainted 

 with the features of our mountain scenery, that 

 has not observed how much lower is the general 

 swell of the mountains, constituting the boundary 

 between Franklin and Patrick on the one side, and 

 Floyd and Grayson on the other, than along the 

 same range northwardly. 



Over that range, at some point, the route must 

 lie, innumerable gaps and gorges offer favorable 

 locations for roads of every kind, and the observa- 

 tions of the practised hunters of these mountains as- 

 sure us, that there lies in the contemplated line, 

 a gorge offering a route with slight exceptions, al- 

 ready graduated by the hand of nature. But sup- 

 pose the intervening hills as stubborn and imprac- 

 ticable as those which the enterprise of Pennsyl- 

 vania has tamed to her uses, suppose them pre- 

 senting as much difficulty as ihose in the way of 

 the once contemplated rail road from Lynchburg 

 to New River, are they such as to deter us from 

 this great enterprise? 



The report of Col. Crozet on this subject made 

 to the board of public works 26th December 1831, 

 furnishes the following details applicable to our 

 case: 



Over Bu ford's Gap the highest rise on 



the rail road, is 75 feet per 



mile. 

 The highest estimate of expenditure per 

 mile contemplating granite sills for the 

 section is $ 14.000 per 



mile. 

 The highest average expenditure on the 

 whole route from Lynchburg to New 

 River is $11,000 per 



mile. 



Let us then suppose as many difficulties in our 

 route as the State Engineer reported, to offer them- 

 selves in the route from Lynchburg to New River, 

 the greatest difficulty which he should encounter, 

 would be an elevation of 75 feet per mile over a 

 section of six miles, and that wholly in favor of 

 the heavy traffic: and the greatest average expen- 

 diture on a section of fifty miles would be, $11,000 

 per mile. With these facts we can no longer doubt 

 the practicability of the work at a moderate ex- 

 pense. We entertain no doubt however, that the 

 estimate and surveys of an experienced engineer 

 will bring the expenditures and difficulties far with- 

 in this admission. Assuming then the estimates 

 of Col. Crozet lor a more difficult route, the upper 

 section of our work embracing a line of fifty miles 

 at s 11,000 per mile would cost $550,000 



The lower section, taking the highest 

 combined average of the Petersburg 



and Roanoke, and the Portsmouth 



