RAILWAYS
The primordial need of every country is good roads and ample transportation facilities. This is more especially true of Chile, than of most countries, because the long strip of territory between the Andean range of mountains and the Pacific is characterized by narrowness and length, a configuration which is peculiarly lacking in continuity between productive centers. The nitrate fields and other rich mineral producing sections of the north are, by nature, completely isolated from the agricultural districts of the central valley, where the principal cities and towns are situated, and also from the timber zone and grazing lands of the far south.
During the first half century of the Republic’s existence little progress was made along the line of industrial development because of a lack of railway communication. The first link in the chain of Chile’s present, extensive railway systems, a line extending from the port of Caldera to Copiapo, a distance of fifty miles, was built in 1851. Later other roads were constructed, chief among which was the line extending from Valparaiso to Santiago, and from the capital south through the central valley, the great agricultural district of the country, into the coal producing and timber regions, connecting them with the seaports and commercial centers. This section of the State railways, which for many years had its terminus at Concepcion, was in recent years extended to Valdivia, an important industrial and commercial center, and in 1912 was completed as far as Port Montt. Since the building of the first line, little more than half a century ago, the railway system of Chile has grown until it now comprises over four thousand miles of fairly well equipped roads, the ramifications of which reach into every part of the country, with the exception of the territory constituting the southern limits of the Republic, including Patagonia. A little more than one-half of the railway mileage is government ownership, the other portion being owned by individuals and corporations.