THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

Evening Star, Issue 11656, 17 September 1901, Page 7

THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

Few. people -realise, the stupendous character of the enterprise undertaken', by Russia in the construction of the great S&erian railroad. The distance from Tcheliabinsk, just on the eastern Blope of the Urals; to Vladivostok, on the Pacific, is 4,714 miles. In this Far-Eastern terminus, close to the harbor, is'the station, a redbrick and stone building. The first stone of this edifice, was laid by the" present Emperor of Russia when as Czarevitch he was touring in the Orient. On the building is inscribed-the date—l9th May, 1891. On that day the construction of the Asiatic end of the lino was begun, so that the grand work has now been just over ten years in hand. The expectation of the Russian engineers was that the whole line would be completed by the end of 1902, and though this would have been impossible, the Boxer troubles have greatly delayed matters. The line has been from the first built in seven sections simultaneously. These are: —(1) The West Siberian line (880 miles), from Tcheliabinsk to the River. Ob; (2) the Central Siberian line, ■ from the Ob to the city of Irkutsk (1,162 miles); (3) the Circumbaikalian line, which runs round the south end of Lake Baikal to Myosavaya, on the eastern shore (194 miles); (4) tkeTransbaikalian line (669 miles), from Myosavaya to Stretiensk; (5) the Amur line (1,326 miles), from Stretiensk to Khabarovsk; (6) the North Ussurian line (230 miles), from Khabarofsk to Graphska: and (7) the South Ussurian line (253 miles), from Graphska to Vladivostok. For seven years all went smoothly, and progress was remarkably rapid at the eastern and western" ends of the railroad. In August, 1898, the first train reached Irkutsk, and before that year was ended the line was opened on the Pacific as far as Khabarofsk. Thus the first, second, sixth, and seventh sections of the mighty undertaking wa-e brought to the stage of utility with wonderful speed and skill. It must be borne in mind that great difficulties hau to be overcome. Mighty rivers had to be spanned, apd the Siberian bridge building stands unrivalled among the world's feats of railway construction. The grand iron girder bridges over the Irtish and Ob rivers measure 703 and 800 yards respectively. The bridge across the Yenisei has a span of 930 yards, and the Uda bridge is 350 yards. The most wonderful of all the bridges will be that by which the line will cross the mighty and beautiful Amur. This gigantic span will measure 2,000 yards. For more than a year the line has been in full operation all the way from the Urals to Lake Baikal, a distance of 2,100 miles. Here is a fact of which Russia may well be proud, considering the immense difficulties presented on the central section, almost throughout the distance of over 1,500 miles between the Ob and Lake Baikal. The line in that section no longer runs through flat, rich steppes of black earth, as in Western Siberia. On the contrary, the country consists of the "Taiga" forest districts and of tangled and rugged mountains. The latest figures published in Russia relating to this mighty scheme for traversing Asia by the iron rail are full of interest: The length of the railway now finished is 3,640 miles. The number of workmen employed at one time is never less than 70,000. Cement has been used to the amount of 2,200,000 tons. No fewer than 9,000.000 wooden sleepers have been laid down. For the timber required 40,000 acres of forests have been cleared. The utility of the Siberian railway, as far as it has been constructed, has already greatly exceeded the most sanguine expectations of its projectors. The development of Siberian trade has been marvellous, and emigration from European Russia to the East has been immensely stimulated. Up to the beginning of the present year 4,500,000 passengers had been booked on the line, and 85,000.000 tons of goods had been conveyed. The population is rapidly increasing. In 1899. the immigrants numbered 225,000 of both sexes. From 1893 to 1901 they amounted to 1,200,000, and the population of Siberia is now 8,000,000.