Southern Railroads [pp. 592-594]

SOUTHERN RAILROADS. 593
roads are numerous and well managed, the inference is clearly legitimate that a
large amount of commerce is pressing for accommodation, and that it is under
the control of a competent and intelligent people. Measured by this standard,
the South has something of which to be proud. We have compiled the following statistics showing the extent and the value of railroad property in the several Southern States. The figures date up to the close of 1859, and show the
length of the road constructed or in course of construction, the length in actual i
operation, and the cost of the roads, including building and equipment:
State. Length. In Operation. Cost.
Virginia................................. 2,058.5............ 1,525.7............$43.069,360
North Carolina.............................1,020.0............ 770.2............ 13,998,495
South Carolina...........................1,136.0............ 807.3............ 19,083,343
Georgia....................................1,617.2............1,241.7........ 2.5,687,220
Florida.................................... 730,5..........289.8............ 6,368,699
Alabama...................................1822.4.......... 798.6............ 20.975,639
Mississippi................................. 445.1........... 365.4............ 9,024,444
Louisiana..................................1,160.0 419.0..... 16,073,270
Texas.......................................2,667. 0............ 284. 6............ 7,578,943
Arkansas................................... 701.3............ 38.5............ 1,1.:0,110
Missouri...................................1,337.3............ 723.2........... 31,771,116
Tennessee........... 1......0.... 327,348,141
Kentucky................................. 698.4............ 468.5............ 13,852;062
16,828.1 8,794.8 $235,960,842
It will be observed that Virginia has a greater length of road in operation than
any other State, and that she has invested a much larger amount of capital in
those works than has any other section of the South. The total length of the line
in that State is 2,058 miles, and the length in operation, 1,525 miles; the cost of
building and equipment having been over forty-chree million dollars. In
1855, the total mileage of road in operation in Virginia was 986 miles; the increase since that period having been 539 miles, or about fifty-five per cent.-a
progress most creditable to the enterprise of that State. Next in importance
comes the State of Missouri, which, although its length of road is not equal to,
that of some other States, has yet expended an amount of capital in its roads.
surpassed only by Virginia. Upon an operative mileage of 723 miles, that
State has expended nearly thirty-two million dollars. Tennessee, with 339
miles more road than Missouri, has invested only twenty-seven million three
hundred and forty-eight thousand one hundred and forty-one dollars in structure
and equipment; while Georgia has built and equipped 1,241 miles (518 miles
more than Missouri), at a cost of only twenty-five million six hundred and eightyseven thousand two hundred and twefity dollars. Alabama has secured a large
extent of road at a comparatively light cost, having opened 998 miles at an outlay of twenty million nine hundred and seventy-five thousand six hundred and
thirty-nine dollars. The growing wants of that State have caused the projection of a much larger extent of railway accommodation, there being at the present time 1,024 miles of road awaiting completion. In South Carolina the cost
of the roads has been still lower than in the last-mentioned State-the length of
road being nine miles additional, and the aggregate cost nearly two millions less.
The cost of the North Carolina lines has been still lower than that of South.
For somewhat less than fourteen million dollars, that State has constructed and
equipped 770 miles of road. the average cost per mile having been only eighteen
thousand one hundred and seventy-nine dollars. Louisiana, on the otliher hand,
has invested a large capital for much more limited results. Her length of road
in operation is 419 miles, at a cost of over sixteen million dollars-the average cost per mile being thirty-eight thousand three hundred and sixty-one dollars, or twenty thousand one hundred and eighty-two dollars more than that of
the North Carolina roads. Louisiana has at the present time 741 miles of road
uncompleted, which, if finished at the same rate of cost as that already in
operation, will involve an additional outlay of twenty-eight million four hundred.
and twenty-five thousand five hundred and one dollars, making the total cost of
railroads in that State nearly forty-four million five hundred thousand dollars.
Kentucky is somewhat behind some other parts of the South in the extent of her
railroad works. Her neighboring State, Virginia, has 1,525 miles of road in