1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



811 



course conlinucd would still be on a very level 

 route, by Liberty to Eulbrd's Gap through the 

 Blue Ridge, direc-tly as can be, and on the best 

 possible route to JOvanshatn and Abingdon. All 

 the route, however, west h-oni New London, 

 would be common to both of the eastern routes 

 proposed. 



it is not to be supposed that a railway could be 

 kept on the summit ot a ridge, even if the location 

 ollered a perlect levxl. Tlie interlocking of the 

 Jiead sjirings of the streams flowing to opposite 

 sides, would often afiect the straightncss of the 

 ridge. But these streams, so near tlieir sources, 

 would not be much below the general level, and 

 would not be expensive to be crossed by nearly 

 level construction. Allowing ibr such straighten- 

 ings in various parts of the line jiresented by the 

 middle of the riclge, the line would pass li-oin Pe- 

 tersburg, or (to be more precise,) fiom the Peters- 

 burg & lloanoke Railway, a llnv miles south of 

 Petersburg, through Dinwiddle, by Nottoway 

 Court House, and nearly along the line which se- 

 parates Lunenburg and Charlotte on the south, 

 from Prince Edward on the north : and this route 

 is every where so distant from any existing or con- 

 templated improvement for transportation, that the 

 railway would convey all the marketable produce 

 of the adjacent country, and yet take away no 

 business or profit I'rom any other road or naviga- 

 tion. At New London, or before, the two ridge 

 routes would unite: and therefore the western con- 

 struction of the railway would be the same lor 

 either plan. 



Next, as to the comparative length of the two 

 routes for railways. According to Wood's and 

 Boye's large map, the straight lines from Rich- 

 mond to Lynchburg, and from Petersburg to 

 Lynchburg, are very nearly equal — the latter be- 

 ing 1^ miles the longest; and the straight lines 

 from the same towns to New London, are precise- 

 ly equal. But even if the map does justice to the 

 more southern lines, (which there is good ground 

 to doubt,) the comparison of the practicable road 

 routes would be still more iiivorable to Petersburg. 

 The actual road distance from Richmond to Lynch- 

 burg, (by mail computation,) is 120 miles: and it 

 may be presumed, that this is the nearest and best 

 route, because the road is so .much used, that if 

 not direct, it would have been made as nearly so 

 as the nature of the country would permit. On 

 the contrary, it may be truly said, that there is vo 

 road from Petersburg to Lynchburg, because there 

 has been so little trade or travel li:om one of these 

 towns to the other, that there was no necessity for 

 obtaining the shortest route. Any one of the 

 roads by which the traveller could now pass from 

 Petersburg to Lynchburg, would be made up of 

 several shorter roads connecting intermediate 

 places, but each place lying considerably without 

 the best or most direct route for the entire distance. 

 Thus by connecting some of these roads, the pre- 

 sent nearest travelled distance fi-om Petersburg to 

 Lynchburg, is 117 miles, by received computation : 

 and persons well acquainted with the whole coun- 

 try, are decidedly of opinion that the distance could 

 not exceed 110, if a road had been traced with the 

 design of passing merely from Petersburg to 

 Lynchburg. But admitting the uncertainty of all 

 estimates of distance, based merely on opinion 

 and computation — and claiming merely equal 

 nearness from Petersburg to Lynchburg, (which 



cannot be questioned,) it will follow that New 

 Jjondon, which is on the ridge, and in the direct 

 best route to Abingdon, (and thence to Tennessee.) 

 IS as much nearer to Petersburg than to Richmond, 

 as it is more southward in position than Lynch- 

 burg. The latter town is not only out of the pro- 

 |)er route, but is surrounded by a very hilly coun- 

 try, which would make the construction of a rail- 

 way across the course of the streains very costly — 

 though it could be easily reached by a short branch 

 from the railway, laid on one of the ridges between 

 two of these streams — and wltich branch would 

 be necessary, and sufficient, to accommodate the 

 Lynchburg travel. Besides the advantages gain- 

 ed, in less distance and more perfect level, by keep- 

 ing the railway route southward of Lynchburg, 

 there w^ould be thereby avoided any conflict of in- 

 terest with the James River Canal — and besides, 

 the more distant the road from the river, the great- 

 er would be its use and its profits, in transporting 

 the produce of the southern counties, which have, 

 and can have, no cheaper way of reaching their 

 markets than this railway would oiler. 



Now, if the supposition that the length of the 

 ridge railway route from New London to Peters- 

 burg would be 10 miles less than the one to Rich- 

 mond north of the Appomattox — and that the 

 more perfect level of the former gives it a fiirtlier 

 comparative advantage of 10 miles — then it would 

 be clear that Richmond, considered as the ultimate 

 destination of both routes, would be reached as 

 cheaply by one as by the other — because 20 

 miles is precisely the distance from Petersburg to 

 Richmond — and through which a railway will be 

 completed before operations are flurly commenced 

 on the great western route. Tlie line of new rail- 

 way which I advocate, would join the Petersburg 

 and Roanoke railway about three miles fi'om its 

 eastern termination in Petersburg — and if that 

 route was chosen, the town of Petersburg would 

 doubtless, if governed by enlarged and sound 

 views of self-interest, perHKY therailways to be con- 

 nected, and continued northward, toithout the least 

 obstacle or detention. Thus 24 miles of what might 

 be then considered as part of the great south-western 

 railway, at the Richmond end, would be actually 

 completed and ready for use, and for that extent re- 

 quiring no investment to be made, or risk to be en- 

 countered, by the new company. 



But, suppose that I have overrated the balance 

 of advantages, as to distance and level, of the 

 southern route — and that 10 miles would be enough 

 to allow, on either or both grounds, instead of 20 

 miles. This change would make Richmond 10 

 miles nearer by the northern ridge, than by the 

 southern, via Petersburg. Even then the latter 

 would still be the preferable route. The nortliern 

 road, though shorter by 10 miles, would have to be 

 constructed throughout, save about a nii'e next to 

 Richmond. But of the other, 24 miles would al- 

 ready have been constructed by other companies, 

 and would be at once available as part of the great 

 south-western line: and 24 miles ot completed va'd- 

 way is not so great an obstacle, as half that dis- 

 tance requiring construction — unless indeed the 

 subscription and support were most abundant, and 

 the profits of the investment great, and absolutely 

 certain. The company owningthe Richmond and 

 Petersburg railway, have the strongest induce- 

 ments to approve and to aid the adoption of this 

 route — as its being made the eastern link of the 



