132 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
turnpike past Old Fort, surmounted the troublesome 
Blue Ridge in a series of curves and spirals and 
windings that was a feat of engineering, finally tun- 
neling through the mountain and continuing down 
the Swannanoa Valley to Biltmore, where, turning 
westward, it went on to Asheville, whence, in 1882, 
the line was completed to Paint Rock. The town now 
grew so rapidly that, in 1887, it proudly boasted of 
eight thousand inhabitants, and of having become 
one of the leading resorts of the South, thousands of 
tourists coming there from nearly every state and 
territory in the Union, while banks, hotels, clubs, 
schools, and churches appeared as by magic. About 
this time, also, the estate of Biltmore was purchased 
by Mr. Vanderbilt, the development of which was 
destined to play an important part in the civiliza- 
tion of the mountains. 
Then did the prophets again raise their voices, 
the guidebook of the day predicting within a decade 
or two a city of from twenty to thirty thousand per- 
manent residents, with new railroads, half a score 
of fine hotels, hills and valleys dotted with villas, 
and river-banks lined with manufacturing establish- 
ments of various kinds giving employment to thou- 
sands of operatives. Two decades have passed since 
then, and the prophecy has been fulfilled with a few 
extras thrown in in the way of costly waterworks, 
electric lights, street-cars, and automobiles. 
But the prosperity was not unbroken. For a 
number of years Asheville was a noted asylum for 
tuberculosis patients; then its transient population 
