What advantages are claimed for this route? The benefit to Mexico is self-evident. It will greatly facilitate the commerce between the two long coast lines of the republic. This great undertaking was not begun for the national trade alone. It is intended to compete for all that traffic which has heretofore gone around Cape Horn, through the Straits of Magellan, or across the Panama railroad. The Tehuantepec route is one thousand, two hundred and fifty miles shorter between New York and San Francisco than the Panama route. The average freight steamer would require from four to five days to cover this distance. The managers of the Tehuantepec National railroad propose to unload a cargo, carry it across the isthmus and reload it in two days. It will probably require one day for a vessel to pass through the Panama canal. This would make a net saving of from three to four days for the Tehuantepec route. The extra cost of loading and unloading would be made up by the saving of canal dues and expenses of the ship for that period. Thus there will be a net saving of three to four days in shipment, which might be quite a feature with many classes of freight. In cheapness of transportation, the continental railroads of the United States could not compete. Already contracts have been made with a line of steamers which have heretofore run between San Francisco, Hawaii and New York via Cape Horn to transfer their freight by this route. The government claims to have more freight in sight for 1907 than the Panama railroad has ever carried in a single year.
This route has been lost sight of in the enthusiasm over the Panama canal. It will be completed several years before the canal, and will during that interim, at least, have a great advantage over the present Panama railroad route. The same necessity of transhipment exists there, but without the fine, safe harbours, modern and commodious docks, and the quick loading and unloading machinery with which the Tehuantepec route is equipped.
Note to Revised Edition. The success of the Tehuantepec National Railroad has greatly exceeded expectations, and it was found necessary to double track the entire length of the road. The improvements at Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos (now officially called Puerto Mexico) have been completed. Both cities have been made ports of call for all lines of steamers passing near. Through Pullman service is now maintained between the City of Mexico and Salina Cruz. Since writing the original edition of this book the writer has visited Panama and gone over the canal route with Colonel Goethals, the engineer in charge. It is a pleasure to record an appreciation of this great work, and to know that it will be ready for the world’s fleets by 1915, and probably a year earlier. There will still be a wide field of usefulness, however, for the Tehuantepec National.
CHAPTER VIII
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE ANCIENTS
“Builded on the ruins of dead thrones
Whose temple walls were old when Thebes was new;
On altars whose weird sacrificial stones
With ghastly offerings were crimsoned through;