Author: United States War Department

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2018-03-02

Total Pages: 656

ISBN-13: 9780666749505

Excerpt from Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad From the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, Vol. 3: Made Under the Direction of the Secretary of War, in 1853-4, According to Acts of Congress of March 3, 1853, May 31, 1854, and August 5, 1854 Three of the principal centres of trade upon the. Mississippi river are St. Louis, Memphis, and Vicksburg. To these cities converge railroads, constructed or proposed, from harbors upon the northern lakes, from the principal ports upon the Atlantic Shore, and from those upon the Gulf of Mexico, uniting the interests of the northern, middle, and southern States. From the above mentioned places railroads have been projected, and several are in process of construction, west ward to the extreme limits of {the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri, each with a purpose of forming a link in the great chain of communication which must ultimately lead to the Pacific ocean. The question immediately arises, which of the various routes shall be at first prolonged; or, can there be found a location for a main trunk that may be advantageously united with several of these branches, affording nearly equal facilities to interests so widely diffused? Nature seems to point out such an intermediate location near the parallel of thirty-five degrees north latitude, referred to in the preceeding instructions. Following the south bank of the Canadian river for nearly one-third of the whole distance to the Pacific, -we pass into the valley of Rio Grande del Norte, near the centre of New Mexico, where the soil is the most fertile, the population is the most numerous, and the mines are the most productive of any part of this interior portion of our possessions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.