Early Days of the Mexican Railway

Central

The longest of any Mexican line,--direct, 1,225 miles, - it has also the largest subsidy, $9,500 per kilometer, amounting to about $32,000,000. It runs through a country rich in mineral and agricultural resources, and connects the largest centers of population in the south, although it crosses certain areas of sterile plains in the north.

The company was incorporated in 1880, under the General Railroad Laws of Massachusetts. "The capital stock is fixed at $32,000 per mile ($20,000 per kilometre), according to the declaration of November 29, 1880; and the mortgage bonds and obligations shall not exceed an equal sum per mile, and these quantities shall not be increased without the previous consent of the Federal Executive of Mexico. The capital stock is divided into shares of the par value of $100 each, transferable upon the books of the company under such regulations as the General Board of Directors may prescribe." (By-Laws, Art. 1.)

Its obligations were, that the line from Mexico to Leon should be finished by December 31, 1882 (completed in advance of time specified); that to the Pacific, within five years; to Paso del Norte, within eight years after completion of road from Mexico to Leon. A bond of $150,000 to be deposited with the government in the city of Mexico.

The history of this road, in connection with that of the Mexican (Vera Cruz) and that of the National (Palmer-Sullivan), well illustrates the advance of the railway movement in Mexico, after the initiatory attempt had so signally succeeded. The following statement is chiefly taken from the Report of the company, but has been verified in detail by the author of this work. This road was commenced in June, 1880, with a force of three hundred men, grading northwardly from the city of Mexico. The railway concession provides a subsidy of about $15,200 for each mile, "with the right to import materials for construction, repair, and operation for fifteen years, and exemption from all taxation for fifty years after the completion of all the lines, and authorizes the construction and operation for ninety-nine years of a telegraph line and of a standard-gauge railway from the city of Mexico, through the capitals and centres of population of the interior States, to Paso del Norte, and from any point on that line through Guadalajara to the Pacific coast." In addition, the company bought the Guanajuato Railway, the concessions made to the States of Chihuahua, Aguascalientes, and San Luis Potosi, besides obtaining another to the port of Tampico. "The subsidy is payable in certificates, in which merchants are compelled to pay eight per cent of all duties at the frontier and maritime custom-houses."

The Mexican Central runs through the centre of the table land, which already supports a population of nearly four million inhabitants. The following is a list of the cities upon the line, not including those of less than eight thousand inhabitants, with their population, (Verified from the Anuario of Mexico for 1832.) the State capitals being marked with stars.

* Aguascalientes 35,000
* Chihuahua 16,000
* Durango 28,000
* Guanajuato 63,000
* Guadalajara 93,875
* Mexico 260,000
* Queretaro 48,000
* San Luis Potosi 45,000
* Zacatecas 64,000
Paso del Norte 8,000
San Juan del Rio 11,000
Tula 10,000
Salamanca 19,450
Irapuato 21,311
Lagos 20,000
Celaya 30,000
Silao 38,000
Sayula 16,000
Tepic 14,000
Salvatierra 8,000
Leon 82,000

930,636

In round numbers, probably a million.

The feasibility of this vast project has already been demonstrated, in the almost triumphal advance from the valley of Mexico to the valley of the Rio Grande. Of the region traversed Humboldt says: "So regular is the great plateau (formed exclusively by the broad, undulating, flattened crest of the Mexican Andes), and so gentle are the slopes where depressions occur, that the journey from Mexico to Santa Fe, New Mexico (about twelve hundred miles), might be performed in a four-wheeled vehicle. . . . The two extremities, Mexico City and Santa Fe, are respectively 7,462 and 7,047 feet above the sea; but the elevation at El Paso del Norte is only 3,800 feet. The table lands of Chihuahua are from 4,000 to 5,000 feet."

Exceedingly rough hill and mountain work presents itself, first, in securing egress from the valley of Mexico itself, and again in the States of Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and Durango. Intervening between these ridges are broad valleys and immense plains, which offer few obstacles to the railway constructor of the present day. The region, throughout the entire distance traversed by the trunk line, is the healthiest in the world; but the coast termini of its Gulf and Pacific branches are in a climate not noted for its salubrity.

On August 2, 1882, the first train crossed the Border, at El Paso, from the United States into Mexico. Progress over the desert plains was rapid, and by the middle of September, 1882, the road was completed to Chihuahua, the isolated northern capital of the great State of the same name, when twenty-five thousand people assembled at the celebration of this event, including some two thousand from the United States.

From the city of Mexico working northward, the advance has been even more rapid, owing to the accumulation of material and the incentive of rich regions to be opened up. After entering Tula, the ancient seat of Toltec empire, the engineers of the Central bent every energy towards gaining the populous centres beyond. Never halting in their triumphant progress northward, everywhere hailed with joyous acclamations, they successively reached and passed Queretaro, Celaya, and Silao, reaching at last, in November, 1882, the gate of Guanajuato, the capital city of a great mining State. This city, being intrenched among almost inaccessible hills, was connected with the trunk line by a branch, at the opening of which it was estimated that at least eighty thousand people gathered to witness the arrival of the train from Mexico, with its freight of distinguished passengers. The festivities on this occasion were kept up for two days, and by night the city was brilliantly illuminated. The 1st of January, 1883, found the work advanced beyond the expectations of its most sanguine friends, and the entire State of Guanajuato spanned entirely by the iron road.

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