Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/442

434 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.

The year 1883 opened with over six hundred miles of road completed and in running order; viz. from El Paso southward to Chihuahua, two hundred and twenty-five miles, graded one hundred and twenty-five miles beyond; and from the city of Mexico to Lagos northward, about three hundred miles, and graded one hundred miles farther. On the Tampico branch, towards San Luis Potosi, about one hundred miles were completed, and on the Pacific branch, easterly from San Bias, about twenty miles. January 1, 1884, found over 1,050 miles of completed track, and but 160 miles intervening between the termini of the northern and southern divisions.

Next in sequence to be considered is the long narrow-gauge line known as the Mexican National, with a total length of about two thousand miles, and a subsidy of $11,270 per mile. It first runs westerly from the city of Mexico, to Manzanillo, on the Pacific, passing through the important cities of Toluca and Morelia. Shortly before reaching the latter large city, it sends its northern trunk up towards San Luis Potosi, crossing the Central at a point west of Queretaro, and entering the United States at Laredo, on the Rio Grande.

Connecting directly with the systems of Texas and the other Southern States, the National forms a short line from the capital to St. Louis and New York, over the Gould System for the former city, and over the great Pennsylvania Central for the East. The distance from Boston to the city of Mexico by this route is about three thousand miles.

It is built in pursuance of a decree of the Mexican Congress, and known as the "Palmer-Sullivan Concession," executed in September, 1880, for the construction of certain roads and