



Produced by Tom Cosmas (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive)








Transcriber's Notes

The fractions one half and three quarters were shown respectively as
1-2 and 3-4 which was retained herein.




  +=========================+
  |                         |
  |    FACTS AND FIGURES    |
  |                         |
  |                         |
  |                         |
  |       CONCERNING        |
  |                         |
  |                         |
  |                         |
  |   THE HOOSAC TUNNEL.    |
  |                         |
  |                         |
  |      -----------        |
  |    By JOHN J. PIPER.    |
  |      -----------        |
  |                         |
  |                         |
  |        FITCHBURG:       |
  |                         |
  | JOHN J. PIPER, PRINTER. |
  |                         |
  |          1866.          |
  |                         |
  +=========================+




FACTS AND FIGURES

CONCERNING

THE HOOSAC TUNNEL.


By JOHN J. PIPER.


FITCHBURG:

JOHN J. PIPER, PRINTER.

1866.




THE HOOSAC TUNNEL.


In his inaugural address to the Legislature, Governor Bullock says,
"There can be no doubt that _new facilities_ and new avenues for
transportation between the West and the East are now absolutely needed.
Our lines of prosperity and growth are the parallels of latitude which
connect us with the young, rich empire of men, and stock, and produce
lying around the lakes and still beyond. The people of Massachusetts,
compact, manufacturing and commercial, must have more thoroughfares
through which the currents of trade and life may pass to and fro,
unobstructed and ceaseless, between the Atlantic and the national
granaries, or decay will at no distant period touch alike her wharves
and her workshops. Let us avert the day in which our Commonwealth shall
become chiefly a school-house for the West, and a homestead over which
time shall have drawn silently and too soon the marks of dilapidation.
Any policy which is not broad enough to secure to us a New England,
having a proper share in the benefits of this new opening era of the
West, be assured, will not receive the approval of the next generation."

This important recommendation is what the public had reason to expect
from a man so keenly alive to the interests and welfare of the
Commonwealth as Governor Bullock, whose close observation and
discernment had long since discovered the danger, and disposed him to
take a deep interest in any adequate enterprise by means of which it
could be averted. The reasons which have induced His Excellency's
convictions on this subject, and caused the apprehensions he has
expressed, are very clearly set forth in the following articles from the
Buffalo Commercial Advertiser of November 25th and 28th, 1865:--

     "To-day, the Western States are far more bountifully provided with
     avenues of transportation than the extreme East. This is peculiarly
     anomalous and inexplicable when we consider the boasted enterprise,
     wealth and shrewdness of New England, and the dependence which
     always exists upon the part of a manufacturing district toward that
     section which furnishes it with a market, and from which it obtains
     its breadstuff. It is fortunate for New England that it does not
     lie in the line of transit between the West and _its_ market, or it
     would have drawn about its head a storm of indignation which it
     could not have resisted. The State of New York has contributed an
     hundred fold what New England has towards providing the required
     facilities of traffic, for the great West. Our Yankee friends have
     done much toward facilitating intercommunication among themselves,
     but very little toward direct communication with the West.

     It is not a little strange that, with all the ambitious effort of
     Boston to become a mercantile emporium, rivaling New York, and with
     its vast manufacturing interest, it should have but a single direct
     avenue of traffic with the West. Yet such is the fact. The Western
     Railroad between Albany and Boston is the sole route now in
     existence except those circuitous lines via New York City or
     through Canada. Our down-east friends, usually so keen and
     enterprising, seem to have exhausted their energies in the
     construction of that road twenty-five years ago, and the
     consequence is that to-day the business interests of all New
     England are suffering for lack of the timely investment of a few
     millions.

     Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true that Boston is now
     virtually cut off from its trade communication with the West for
     want of facilities of transportation. For weeks past the Grand
     Trunk Railroad has ceased to take Boston freight, by reason of its
     being blocked up with other through and way freights at Sarnia. The
     swollen tide of freight via the New York Central has exceeded the
     capacity of the Western Road between Albany and Boston, and the
     consequence has been felt in an increased charge by the New York
     Central of twenty cents a barrel above New York City rates, and,
     finally, that road has been obliged to refuse Boston freight
     altogether, simply by reason of the accumulation and delay
     occasioned by the inability of the Western Road to forward it to
     its destination. In like manner, Boston freight going forward by
     canal is hindered and accumulated at Albany. A similar state of
     things exists in regard to most of the westward bound Boston
     freight, as Boston jobbers are finding out to their cost. Merchants
     at the West, who purchase in Boston, are six and eight weeks in
     getting their heavy goods.

     We are informed upon reliable authority that flour can be sent from
     Chicago to New York, by lake and rail for $1.90 per barrel, while
     very limited quantities only can be sent to Boston at $2.25, and
     that by the "Red Line" $3 a barrel is demanded.

     New England depends upon the West for its bread, and also for its
     market for its imports and manufactures. If the state of things to
     which we refer, continues much longer, it will be compelled to go
     to New York both for its bread and its customers.

     The West complains of New York, because, forsooth, it is tardy in
     enlarging its canals to meet the anticipated necessities of its
     future growth, and Boston has had the assurance to join in the
     thoughtless and unfounded clamor. Yet the great State of
     Massachusetts has supinely stood still for twenty-five years
     without making an effort to overcome the barrier between it and the
     great West. During that time the Western road has grown rich, and
     paid large dividends from a business which has been greater than it
     could transact, and to-day there exists an almost total blockade of
     Boston freight at Albany.

     Surely, this does not reflect favorably on New England shrewdness
     and enterprise, neither does it tally with New England interest.
     Besides, it is detrimental to the business interests of the West.
     As the case now stands the fault rests with Massachusetts alone, in
     not providing railroad accommodations east of the Hudson river. It
     is also nonsense to assert, as some will, that the capacity of the
     Erie canal is inadequate. During the past season it has not been
     taxed to half its capacity, and yet it has found the Western Road
     unable to dispose of what Boston freight was offered.

     Western merchants and shippers ought to know where the fault lies,
     and to the end that they may be informed we have penned this
     article. Their true remedy is to buy in New York, and to ship their
     produce to that city, until Massachusetts shall provide adequate
     facilities of transportation.

     Boston is the natural eastern terminus of the great northern line
     of transportation, and we should have been glad to have seen her
     citizens and those of the great state of Massachusetts realize the
     fact. Their supineness, however, has lost to them for the present,
     if not forever, the great commercial prize which nature intended
     for them. It remains to be seen whether they will realize their
     position, and make an effort to retrieve their "penny wise and
     pound foolish policy."

       *       *       *       *       *

     "In a recent article we took occasion to point out the importance
     to the country at large of the construction of adequate facilities
     for the accommodation of the traffic exchanges between the
     different sections; and to call the attention of our readers to the
     remarkable fact that while the whole country, and particularly the
     West, had undergone a wonderful development requiring for its
     accommodation a corresponding increase of commercial facilities,
     that New England had stood still for a quarter of a century. The
     fact that a great State like Massachusetts, with a great emporium
     like Boston, should have but a single line of direct communication
     with the West, and that it should supinely stand still and refuse
     to add to it, notwithstanding the yearly demonstrations of its
     growing inadequacy, seemed so strange as to justify remark. The
     other fact that the transit of freight to and from Boston should be
     almost stopped by the inability of that single railroad to handle
     it--thereby increasing rates and compelling purchasers as well as
     sellers to go to New York--also seemed to be inconsistent with our
     traditional ideas of eastern shrewdness. Our remarks have received
     additional force by the fact, subsequently learned by us, that
     there are at the present time between four and five hundred
     car-loads of Boston-bound freight lying at Albany and Greenbush
     awaiting cars for its movement to its destination, while there
     exists no stoppage whatever of New York freight, thus demonstrating
     clearly the inadequacy of the Western road to answer the demands
     made upon it.

     Since that article was penned, information has reached us to the
     effect that our Massachusetts neighbors have at last waked up to
     the importance of the subject, and are about to enter vigorously
     upon the work of providing another avenue of trade between Boston
     and the West, by what is known as the Greenfield route which
     embraces the long talked of Hoosac Tunnel. This great enterprise
     has enlisted the energies of the engineers and railroad men of
     Massachusetts for more than thirty years, with constantly varying
     prospects of success, and at last seems in a fair way of being
     accomplished.

     The high range of hills which runs along the whole western line of
     Massachusetts, for a long time baffled the efforts of railroad
     engineers; and the rival claims of competing routes distracted the
     popular mind, and delayed the construction of either. The most
     eminent engineers preferred the Northern, or Greenfield
     route--involving the Hoosac Tunnel--as being the most direct and
     feasible. In the struggle which followed, the Southern route was
     successful, and the Western road was built and opened in 1842. The
     other route was also constructed after a time, upon either side of
     the proposed tunnel, but for lack of the completion of that great
     work, has never been anything but an avenue for local travel and
     traffic.

     The whole length of the proposed tunnel is 25,574 feet, and the
     estimated cost of construction is about three and a quarter
     millions. When we consider the vital interest which the citizens of
     Massachusetts have in the completion of this work, and the enormous
     interests to be served by it, the sum required seems absolutely
     trivial, and the withholding of it really parsimonious as well as
     foolish. We are