A railroad between the Cibao and Santo Domingo City has long been contemplated. Government engineers a few years ago surveyed a route from Santo Domingo City to La Gina, on the Samana-Santiago Railroad, passing through Cotui. The route is 80 miles long, and the estimated cost is about $2,325,000. Such a through railroad would open up great tracts now isolated, afford an easy means of communication between the north and south, and be of inestimable advantage to the Republic. It is the most urgent and important public work under consideration in the country.
Another road which has long been projected and which the Dominican government in 1906 determined to have constructed with current revenues, is one in the east, from Seibo, on the plains in the interior, to the port of La Romana in the southern coast. This region, excellently adapted for cacao raising and sugar planting, has been kept secluded by bad roads. After several thousand dollars had been spent in surveys and a little grading, the work was stopped by lack of funds and the government decided that the expense of construction and the undeveloped character of the country counselled an abandonment of the project for the moment. If the railroad is finally built, it will probably be from Seibo to San Pedro de Macoris and not to La Romana.
Even in the immediate vicinity of Santo Domingo City most roads are in such bad condition that during the rainy season villages only a few miles away cannot be reached except by floundering through the mud for many hours, and even during the dry season, with all conditions favorable, it requires two days hard riding to reach the city of Azua, 80 miles to the west. A railroad from the capital to Azua has therefore been proposed repeatedly, and in 1901 a concession was granted for the first section thereof, from Santo Domingo to San Cristobal, a distance of 16 miles, with the right of extension. The revolution of the spring of 1903 interrupted the construction of this road, but a little work was done in 1906 under a new contract, which has since been declared lapsed.
Private plantation railroads are to be found on several sugar plantations near La Romana, San Pedro de Macoris, Santo Domingo City and Azua, and on the United Fruit Company's plantation near Puerto Plata. They aggregate about 225 miles in length and are used exclusively for the purposes of the respective estates, except one which carries passengers between the town of Azua and its port on steamer days.
In several of the larger cities carriages and light automobiles can be hired at a reasonable figure, and furnish the principal means of communication within the city and to other places as far as the roads will permit. Between Monte Cristi and La Vega there is a regular automobile service, as also between Santo Domingo City and nearby towns. In only one place is there a car line—in Monte Cristi, where a small car runs—if that term can be applied to its motion—between the town and the harbor, a little more than a mile away. The cars, each drawn by a meek little mule, remind one of matchboxes on wheels; they are open on all sides and contain simply two benches, back to back, which will hold a maximum of three passengers each. In Santo Domingo City there was a horse car line for almost twenty years, running out as far as Fort San Geronimo, about three miles; but in March, 1903, while the city was under siege during a revolution, the car barns were destroyed by fire and with them the entire rolling stock, the car axles being taken for barricades. In 1915 the government granted several franchises for electric car lines, one for Santo Domingo City, with the right to extend as far as Bani; another for Santiago, with the right of extension to Janico; and a third for Macoris, with the right of extension to Seibo, but no work has been done on these projects.
On certain parts of the country roads there is communication by oxcart during the dry season, and in the arid region such communication is possible almost all the year round. On the Samana peninsula and in other mountain districts, merchandise is occasionally transported in Indian fashion, on two poles tied to a horse and trailing on the ground behind. In general, however, recourse must be had for transportation purposes to the faithful horse and the patient donkey. In the northern part of the Republic the ox is often used as a beast of burden and sometimes for riding, furnishing an odd spectacle. The ox is guided by a string tied to a ring in his nose, but neither the configuration of his back nor his gait are to be recommended for comfortable rides.
Most of the roads of Santo Domingo can be called roads only by courtesy. They are generally little more than trails of greater or less width. The larger receipts enjoyed by the government since the customs collections were taken over by Americans in 1905, have caused a little improvement. Thus, a first-class macadam road has been constructed from Santo Domingo City to San Cristobal, a distance of sixteen miles; the old trail from Santo Domingo to San Pedro de Macoris has become available for automobiles; and the royal road in the Cibao from La Vega through Moca and Santiago to Monte Cristi, a distance of about 100 miles, formerly a horror, has been converted into a fair dirt road. The amount of work to be done appears all the more appalling when it is considered that in the small island of Jamaica, less than one-fourth the size of the Dominican Republic, there are 1000 miles of fine roads. The American authorities in the island are giving considerable attention to the improvement of the principal highways around and between the more important cities, and valuable work is being done. By an executive order of November 23, 1917, the military governor appropriated $650,000, to be expended on portions of a trunk road which is ultimately to connect Santo Domingo, La Vega, Moca, Santiago and Monte Cristi.
The majority of the roads and trails have scarcely been touched since their course was fixed, centuries ago. Occasionally the abutting property owners or an energetic communal chief cut away encroaching vegetation or drained an unusually bad bog or threw dirt from the sides of the road to the middle in order to raise it above water level in the wet season, but such instances of civic thoughtfulness have been only too infrequent.
During the rainy season travel becomes troublesome on all roads and impossible on many. On the unimproved highways deep, dangerous bogs form in every depression, containing either liquid mud where the horse is almost forced to swim, or soft tough clay, where the horse's feet are imprisoned and the animal in its desperate efforts to jerk itself free indulges in contortions anything but pleasant for the rider. The horses and cargo animals ever treading in each other's footsteps, cause the earth to wear away in furrows across the road, which fill with water and with mud of all colors and conditions of toughness. With few interruptions the monotonous splash, splash, splash of horses' feet constantly accompanies the traveler. The first ten minutes of such a journey on slippery ground make the trip appear an adventure, the next ten an experience, but after that the expedition becomes exceedingly wearisome. In the dry season all moisture disappears and the ridges between the mud trenches become hard as brick. The efforts of travelers to avoid bad places by going around them has caused the roads to become very wide in places—the width varying from one to over a hundred feet. At times, in grassy or stony stretches, the road disappears entirely, and the traveler's best guide is the telegraph wire, where there is one. Again it passes through thorny woods with overhanging branches which continually threaten to unhorse the rider. Thus it winds along, through forests and plains, over fallen logs and trees, beside precipices, down steep banks, across rapid streams. A trip into the interior in Santo Domingo requires a good horse, a strong constitution and a large supply of patience.
In rainy weather the traveled roads are even worse than the unfrequented ones, for the ground is rendered more miry, and the bogs are more frequent. On a highroad near La Vega I arrived at a mudhole where an old man was being rescued by a passer-by from drowning in the liquid mud; I snapped a photograph of the scene when he was still knee-deep. Near the city of Moca there is a slope where many a horse has fallen and thrown its rider on the slippery loam. A friend of mine who for safety's sake alighted from his horse to walk to the other side of the gully, had his foot so tightly lodged in the pasty mud that, in his straining to withdraw it, the foot slipped out of the shoe, which remained as firmly imbedded as before. His posture and predicament were naturally a good deal more amusing for his companions than for himself. Yet some of these roads in dry weather are excellent dirt roads. On a road in the Cibao I made a trip of fifteen miles in the rainy season in five hours of hard riding and arrived with an exhausted horse; six months later when the road was dry I made the same journey comfortably in an hour and a half. On the first of these occasions—it was in the course of a vacation trip for the purpose of studying the country—I happened upon two other travelers and together we floundered for many weary miles through black mud varying from the consistency of soup to that of pudding. The road was indescribably bad, and riders and horses were covered with mire and thoroughly fatigued. That evening at the inn, through the open door between our rooms, I heard my traveling companions discussing me. One of them asked: "What is his object in coming here?" The other answered: "He says he is traveling for pleasure." "Then," responded the first solemnly, "he is either lying or he is insane."