Our railway relations

Electronic reproduction of: Transcription of newspaper article : Mining journal (Marquette, Mich.), Dec. 11, 1886.

Sources: The Mining Journal Marquette, Mi. December 11, 1886 Our Railway Relations They are Going to be Far-Reaching when Roads Now in Contemplation are Built A Portland, Ma., dispatch to the Boston Herald states at a meeting of the board of Trade of that city, held Friday of last week, the railroad interests of the city were considered. The principal speaker was Theodore C. Woodbury, who had just returned from the Northwest, and who called the attention of the managers to the immense growths and resources of that section of the country centering at Duluth, Mn., and also spoke particularly of the growing rail- road system and the combinations which are being formed to give Duluth and the whole northwestern territory an eastern outlet without going through Chicago. He called the especial attention of the man- agers to The DSS and A, now being built, which will connect Duluth in almost an airline with the CPR and Grand Trunk, thus connecting Portland, Ore., with Portland, Me., in a great transcontinental route from ocean to ocean. The DSS and A will probably be completed by July 1, 1887, and will stretch From Duluth to Sault Ste. Marie, 405 miles. This road, when completed and connections role with the Canadian roads, will give the NP and all other roads centering at Duluth a shorter and more direct line to Montreal and Portland than they now have by the south end of Lake Michigan and Chicago which is 565 miles southeast of Duluth. Especial attention was called to the fact of what an immense benefit this would be to Portland if our citizens would wake up to the fact that this is the natural seaport of this great northwestern country. "This is the opportunity," he said, "that the citizens of Portland have been patiently waiting for- fifty years. If anyone will take the map and trace this road, he Must realize that Portland is the natural outlet, almost by an airline, for ten of the largest and richest territories of this continent. This is the reason all we should look so carefully after our interests in the Portland and Ogdensburg railroad. Now, for the first time in its history it comm and s a position which its projectors fore saw and that so many of us could not see." Mr. Woodbury then made the motion that the secretary of the board of trade place himself in correspondence with the secretaries of the chambers of commerce of Duluth and Minneapolis, with a view to seeing what arrangements could be made toward bringing these cities into closer business alliance with Portland and looking toward an end that can make Portland the partial outlet of a portion of the northwest, which naturally belongs to her. Messers, McLaughlin, George Walker, J. S. Winslow, Charles S. Forbes, E. Corey and Rich followed in remarks concurring in the full force of Mr. Woodbur's suggestions.