74 
ENGINEERING REPORTS. 
turesque scenery, affording at once an agreeable and interesting 
journey. 
To locate the railroad, and construct the necessary auxiliary 
road contiguous to it on the east side of the Coatzacoalcos 
(should the route on that side of the river prove the best), would 
involve so much delay in making surveys, opening picaduras, 
bridging the Coatzacoalcos, and other streams, that, in order 
to accommodate the immediate wants of travel, it would be un- 
advisable to attempt the construction of a carriage-road east of 
the Coatzacoalcos. 
As it would be almost impossible to build a railroad through 
a country like this, where a wheel was never seen, except on 
the plains of the Pacific, without first constructing an auxiliary 
road contiguous to it, in order that every point of the line of rail- 
road may be accessible for all implements, provisions, and every 
thing necessary to its construction, I have thought proper to em- 
brace the foregoing estimate as an item in the cost of the railroad. 
The present mule-road from Suchil can now be travelled for 
eight months in the year the whole distance to Yentosa, with 
the exception of three or four miles near the northern terminus . 
To put this in a condition for travel the year round, it is calcu- 
lated that one-half, or $65,000, the estimated cost of the aux- 
iliary road, will be amply sufficient. 
In order to arrive at an estimate of the business which such 
a road would do, it is only necessary to mention, that during 
the three years ending Dec. 1st, 1851, upwards of 225,000* 
passengers and 45,000 tons of freight have crossed the Isthmus 
of Panama alone. This gives an average yearly transit of 75,000 
passengers and 15,000 tons of freight {not including the mails). 
Now, considering the constantly increasing travel, the great 
natural advantages of the Tehuantepec route, the healthiness of 
its climate, and the saving (over the present routes of travel) of 
from 1500 to 2000 miles in distance between the United States 
and California, we may safely assume, as a basis of calculation, 
50,000 passengers and 10,000 tons of freight, or two-thirds of the 
yearly number which have actually crossed Panama within the 
last three years, for the number which will cross Tehuantepec. 
* Vide Revenue and Income, page 121. 
