PHYSIOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN TENNESSEE. 59 



has been necessary for them to climb some 300 or 400 feet in order to 

 reach the level of the surrounding Highland Plain. The Louisville line 

 of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, for example, has heavy grades 

 where climbing out of the basin near South Tunnel. The Evansville line 

 of the same road for years operated a three or four per cent, grade be- 

 tween Baker and Ridgetop at great expense for maintenance, and with 

 constant danger of having run-away trains. It has recently rebuilt a 

 number of miles of track there and constructed a tunnel almost a mile 

 long at an expenditure of several millions of dollars, in order to over- 

 come the physical obstacles presented by this rim. The Tennessee Central 

 Railroad leaves the basin to the west by following the valley of Cumber- 

 land River, and so avoids heavy grades. To the east of Nashville it 

 climbs out of the basin by a long heavy grade. The Nashville, Chatta- 

 nooga and St. Louis Railway has expended large sums of money in de- 

 creasing the heavy grade on the western edge of the basin between Pe- 

 gram and White Bluff, and its main line to Chattanooga has a similar 

 steep grade just north of Tullahoma. 



The development of civilization on the Central Plain has probably been 

 more homogeneous than elsewhere in the State. Conditions there on the 

 average have been better than elsewhere, and so there was in early days 

 a rather more rapid settlement of the region and development of culture 

 and wealth. Land holdings were often large, and farming on an exten- 

 sive scale by slave labor was usually profitable. The sympathies of the 

 people were in consequence strongly southern, and in the Civil War they 

 entered the Confederate Army. Since then the region has been Demo- 

 cratic in political faith and conditions are such as to warrant the predic- 

 tion that it will remain so. 



So far as physical conditions go there is no adequate reason for any 

 marked difference in political faith or social or industrial life in the Cen- 

 tral Basin. Practically all interests and pursuits are similar, the soils and 

 products are largely similar, and hence all phases of community life may 

 be expected to be much alike. Such political differences as have marked 

 some sections of the region in the past have been due to the strong per- 

 sonality of some political leader whose influence and personal following 

 have swayed the votes of his county or section at certain times in some 

 special direction. These differences have usually disappeared soon after 

 the leaders that caused them have ended their political careers. 



The future of this region will be one of continued homogeneous devel- 

 opment under very favorable natural circumstances. This development 



