A GREAT PROJECT

Evening Star, Issue 19764, 14 January 1928, Page 10

A GREAT PROJECT

COOLIDGE'S DREAM UNKING UP AMERICA HIGHWAY TO CAPE HORN. Starting from your own doorstep, liow would you like to motor leisurely over a good road down through Central and South America to Buenos Aires, or. say, somewhere in Patagonia, within hailing distance of Capo Horn? is a question asked of the United States people. The building of such an international highway for motorists has long been a favorite idea of President Coolidge, and is now a live theme of discussion in Government councils throughout Latin America. The President is convinced, according to a rvriter in the New York ‘Times,’ that it would bring the people of. these nations into closer business relations with the United States, and create a better feeling in every country through which the road would run. The writer' goes on to say;

It is a giant undertaking, but the men who build and who know roads, both in and out of the Federal service, declare that it can be done. These men are convinced that the day will come when a motorist can start Irom any part of the United States and proceed over good roads to practically all points on the west coast of South America, and, reaching Chile, will ho able to motor east into the Argentine. Uruguay, and Brazil. A year ago President Coolidge was giving thought to the proposed linking of the American Republics by a great international highway. He referred the prooosition to tbo Secretary of Agriculture, Air Jardinc. in whoso department is the Federal Bureau of Public Roads. In his reply Mr Jardinc expressed full sympathy with the idea. The proposition wa.s also discussed at the Fifth International Conference of the Pan-American Union in Santiago, Chile, in 1925, and later in Washington. As a result there was organised the Pan-American Federation for Highway Education. At a meeting in Buenos Aires the Union gave careful consideration to the proposal, and it is certain that it will again conic up for discussion at the meeting of tho Union in Havana next month. THE STARTING POINT.

So far as the United States is concerned, the roads leading to the Mexican border are practically fully built and in vise. The President, however, in Jn's recent talk with Representative Henry W. Watson, of Pennsylvania garding the plan .suggested a terminal in Maine, and Fort Kent was named ns the official northern starting point. All agree that Laredo, Texas, would be the place where the American system would link np with the international chain to South America,

The route from Fort Kent lo the Rio Grande would be by way of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Columbus, Dayton, Indianapolis. St. Louis, Little Rock. Texarkana, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio to Laredo. Another rout© would bo via New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Charlottesville, Lynchburg. Greenville, South Carolina; Atlanta, Montgomery, Alobile, New Orleans, Lake Charles, Beaumont, and Houston, to San Antonio. Still another would b© from Chicago south via cither the St. Louis or the Now Orleans routes.

The real problem to bo solved begins on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. In all the countries through which the highway would pass there are already roads which are usable for parts of the distance, but in none is there a complete chain. The writer continues: The record of the Pan-American Union show that in the fourteen countries comprising Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia. Peru. Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil there is a strong good-roads movement. The mileage of projects built, under construction, or authorised for the nations named approximate 6,000 miles. The gaps which need to bo taken care of total another 2,1.75 miles. This, however, is only for the direct line from Laredo to Puerto Montt, Chile. It does not take in the extension of the highway to the south, the lateral from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires, or the northern link to connect the Argentine capita] with Rio do Janeiro. SCENIC GRANDEUR. Tlie highway enters Mexico at Nuevo Laredo, opposite the Texas city at Laredo, on the Rto Grande, but it docs not follow the line of the National Railways of Mexico; it runs east of the rail line straight south-west through the State of Loon to Monterey, the metropolis of North-eastern Mexico, where scenic grandeur that continues for thousands of miles begins.

Leaving Monterey, the highway forms a crescent to tho west to the city of Saltillo. Hero in tho State of Coahmla. the traveller will get at any time of the year almost all tho fruit that grow in the tropics, while the scenery is a, continuance of the magnificent panorama which struck the eye when Monterey came into view. After Saltillo the route is straight south, hardly a curve, to San Luis Potosi, a city in the centre of a great plain where everything can grow, and

about it the towering, mountains that are the glory of Mexico. Next comes a gentle swing to the east, and the journey is into the .State of Guanajuato through-Ciudad honzaley and Dolores, Hidalgo into the city of Guanajuato, the ancient city of catacombs, which was in tbo days of thef Tarascans known as Quanaslmato, meaning “Tho Hill of the Frogs.” The journey is not a long one to the next important city along the proposed highway. There is Queretaro. where in 1848 the treaty of peace that ended the American war with Mexico was signed, and where, on June 19, 18(37, the Emperor Maximilian was executed. MEXICO’S WHITE PEAKS. From Queretaro to Mexico City tlie way is through the, giant hills of Hidalgo, south-east of the capital. Approaching Mexico City there would be seen tho magnificent snowcapped peaks of Popocatepetl and Jztaccihuatl. Nowhere in the Americas. North or South, are there mountains moro inspiring than the.se great snow-covered peaks that look down upon the city of Mexico. Bidding farewell to Mexico City, the highway veers south-east to Vera Cruz South-west in an almost straight lino tho road crosses the western part of tho State of Vera Cruz to San Alarcos, on tho Oaxacan border, and then due west across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, through tho mountains nl Oaxaca, the wildest scenery in the republic, to the gulf of Tehuantepec, near Reucbitan, and thence skimming the Pacific coastline to the Guatemalan border. The highway enters Guatemala at a little place that on the map appears as Avntla. and runs on through tho Pacific foothills of the mountains. Leaving Guatemala, tho highway crosses into Salvador at a point about five miles oast of the Pacific, and the route thereafter is through Sonsonata to San Salvador, the capital, past Lake Hopango, through Zacatecohica, to San Aliguel. Then through tho western edge of Honduras to tho Gulf of Fonseca and across the Negro River into Nicaragua, thence to the Costa Uicau line at a point about fifteen miles south-west of San Juan. del Norte, ilia southernmost port of Nicaragua. Now for tho first time since leaving tho United States the highway one again reaches tho Atlantic, and. the route is due south through Port Limou to the border town of .Cuabito, live miles from the Atlantic coast lino. Passing into Panama tho route, continues along tho Atlantic, making a orescent south from Chiriqui Lagoon to tho River Indies, about twenty miles west of Gatnn, and then south-west to Panama City. At Panama City the final lap begins to the South American mainland. Thu route is tho Chepo River, twenty miles from Panama, along the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Sau Miguel at Las Palmas, then south-west through the foothills of tho Sapo Mountains and oyer the Darien Mountains mto Colombia. Here begins tho more than d.DOII-milo stretch along tho Pacific coast to Southern Chile and the added 2,000-mile mn which ends in tho Cape Horn sector. THE ANDES MOUNTAINS. The route in South America skirts the western slope of th© Andes (o Concepcion, Chile, traversing a tend Lory in which tho mountains reach an altitude surpassed only in. Asia, with such great peaks as Chimborazo, which lowers 20,498 ft. The course of tho International Highway from tho isthmian line south begins at Jnrado, tho northernmost settlement of Colombia, and follows tho Pacific to Buenaventura and thence south along the Andean slope, entering Ecuador at a point about fifty miles east of the Pacific. theuco sc uth through Quito and Riobamba, and west to tho city of Guayaquil. Leaving Guayaquil the route is south-east to Cuenca.

The Pacific is not again seen for about 800 miles, the journey being through the Peruvian highlands, at times in the very heart of the Andes, to a point a little less than 100 miles east of Callao. At Callao the Pacific again conies into vision, and the road follows it, never more than a few mites distant, to Antofagasta, Chile, where it touches the shore line. From Antofagasta the route continues duo south, and for the entire distance to La Farena is from twenty to fifty miles distant from the sea. Leaving La Serena it once more forsakes tile shore line, and the trip is still due south to Valparaiso. From Valparaiso the line is through Santiago to Concepcion. The last straight line is to Puerto Montt, about seventy-live miles from the Argentine border. The Bureau of Public Roads estimates a total of 7,967 miles for the proposed road from Laredo, Texas, to Puerto Montt, Chile. At Valparaiso the tourist can head for Buenos Ayres in an almost straight line of about 800 miles.

It is a great dream. In all the world there will be no other highway like it. In miles of length it will be in a class by itself.