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TRANSALPINE RAILROADS. 499
of lines is still very far from being completed. Some continents are almost entirely without this mode of rapid communication. South America, which is twice the size of Europe, does not possess more than 1800
miles of railway. If we except Hindoostan, the only railway in the continent of Asia is that from Smyrna to Ephesus; Africa, also, is devoid of
railways, except in the extreme north and south—that is, in the two colonies of Algeria and the Cape of Good Hope, and in the Nile basin, which,
as far as commerce is concerned, is only a colony of Europe.
During the last forty years, two thousand millions of pounds have been
expended in various countries in the construction of railways; and even
this large amount is nothing but a small sum compared with that which
it will be necessary to expend in order to continue and complete the
work which has been undertaken. No one can fail to see that these expenses are very different from those which are employed by man in the
art of destroying one another, and that their tendency is to create fresh
wealth, and to bring nations into friendly relationship. The fraction of
national savings which is able to escape the rapacity of taxation and the
squanderings of luxury and debauchery, although still, alas, too small an
amount, will serve, however, to bring to a happy completion those enormous works of which our ancestors never dreamed; and we must not
think of styling even these works as " wonders of the world," because
some day still greater works will be attempted. The Pyrenees, the
Cevennes, the Vosges, the Jura, the mountains of Bohemia, and the Apennines are already crossed by railroads; the locomotive scales the heights
ofthe Sierra Nevada of California at as great a height as 7020 feet, while
on the east it crosses a pass of the Rockjf Mountains 8240 feet high. At
Soemmering and at-Breuner, the Alps have submitted to the hand ofthe
engineer; Saint Gothard, the Simplon, Mont Genevre will be surmounted
in due course; and finally, for the last eleven years, the work has been
going on of driving a tunnel 13,363 yards long under the mountains of
Frejus, between the French village of Modane and the Italian town of
Bardonneche, while sixteen miles to the eastward a temporary railway,
following the windings and scaling the heights of the Mont Cenis carriage road, reaches an elevation of 6880 feet, and then descends in zigzags
into the abyss at the bottom of which is situated the town of Suze. In
the time of Hannibal and the Romans, and down to thl earlier years of
the present century, no one could travel from La Maurienne to Italy except by the pathways of the two Monts Cenis, or through formidable
passes intersected by precipices, and almost always obstructed by glaciers. Since 1840, one route enabled the travelers of the two nations to
communicate with one another at all seasons; and now the pressure of
the two commercial currents which seek to be connected across the rampart ofthe Alps has become so strong that it has been found necessary to
improvise a railway of a special construction, while waiting for the great
international road which will overcome the Obstacle of the Alps between
Paris and Turin.*
* The Mont Cenis Tunnel was opened in 1871.
| Title | The ocean, atmosphere, and life |
| Creator | Reclus, Elisée |
| Publisher | Harper |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1873 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000552 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | TRANSALPINE RAILROADS. 499 of lines is still very far from being completed. Some continents are almost entirely without this mode of rapid communication. South America, which is twice the size of Europe, does not possess more than 1800 miles of railway. If we except Hindoostan, the only railway in the continent of Asia is that from Smyrna to Ephesus; Africa, also, is devoid of railways, except in the extreme north and south—that is, in the two colonies of Algeria and the Cape of Good Hope, and in the Nile basin, which, as far as commerce is concerned, is only a colony of Europe. During the last forty years, two thousand millions of pounds have been expended in various countries in the construction of railways; and even this large amount is nothing but a small sum compared with that which it will be necessary to expend in order to continue and complete the work which has been undertaken. No one can fail to see that these expenses are very different from those which are employed by man in the art of destroying one another, and that their tendency is to create fresh wealth, and to bring nations into friendly relationship. The fraction of national savings which is able to escape the rapacity of taxation and the squanderings of luxury and debauchery, although still, alas, too small an amount, will serve, however, to bring to a happy completion those enormous works of which our ancestors never dreamed; and we must not think of styling even these works as " wonders of the world," because some day still greater works will be attempted. The Pyrenees, the Cevennes, the Vosges, the Jura, the mountains of Bohemia, and the Apennines are already crossed by railroads; the locomotive scales the heights ofthe Sierra Nevada of California at as great a height as 7020 feet, while on the east it crosses a pass of the Rockjf Mountains 8240 feet high. At Soemmering and at-Breuner, the Alps have submitted to the hand ofthe engineer; Saint Gothard, the Simplon, Mont Genevre will be surmounted in due course; and finally, for the last eleven years, the work has been going on of driving a tunnel 13,363 yards long under the mountains of Frejus, between the French village of Modane and the Italian town of Bardonneche, while sixteen miles to the eastward a temporary railway, following the windings and scaling the heights of the Mont Cenis carriage road, reaches an elevation of 6880 feet, and then descends in zigzags into the abyss at the bottom of which is situated the town of Suze. In the time of Hannibal and the Romans, and down to thl earlier years of the present century, no one could travel from La Maurienne to Italy except by the pathways of the two Monts Cenis, or through formidable passes intersected by precipices, and almost always obstructed by glaciers. Since 1840, one route enabled the travelers of the two nations to communicate with one another at all seasons; and now the pressure of the two commercial currents which seek to be connected across the rampart ofthe Alps has become so strong that it has been found necessary to improvise a railway of a special construction, while waiting for the great international road which will overcome the Obstacle of the Alps between Paris and Turin.* * The Mont Cenis Tunnel was opened in 1871. |
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