Identifier: mexicoitsancient01enoc (find matches)
Title: Mexico, its ancient and modern civilisation, history and political conditions, topography and natural resources, industries and general development;
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Enock, C. Reginald (Charles Reginald), 1868-1970
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Scribner
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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yet another to Cuerna-vaca, it is a large system of 3,823 miles. The con-struction was inferior to that of the Vera Cruz Railway,as it obeyed the cheaper and more rapid Americanmethod rather than the more enduring British. It isa standard gauge line. The route traversed by the mainline of this railway adown the mesa central, for 1,225miles, passes through vast areas of dry and treeless plainsand among numerous squalid hamlets, and here the un-lovely side of Mexican life and travel is laid bare to thetraveller. Nevertheless, these conditions alternate withthose of the handsome and extensive cities of the plateauand with the great mining regions, all of which—in pointof interest and value—compensate for sterility elsewhere.As for the branch line from San Luis Potosi to Tampico,it passes through the same remarkable tropical zone asthe Vera Cruz line. The mountain scenery upon thisroute is impressive, with dense woods and fertile valleysgiving place to the great canon of Tamasopo. The
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FINANCE, INDUSTRIES, RAILWAYS 343 same panoramic character attends it, of luxurianttropical conditions spread out 1,200 feet below thetrain, with rushing torrents, towering cliffs, and strangeand varied topographic changes. The branch whichruns westwardly towards the Pacific Ocean from themain line, passes through Guadalajara and descendsthe Western Sierra Madre towards Colima at Tuxpan.A short distance only remains to be constructed in orderto give a completed route to Manzanillo—the port uponthe Pacific coast, which will form the terminus of whatwill then constitute a new transcontinental route fromthe Atlantic to the Pacific. This is an exceedingly inte-resting journey, but a disastrous flood in 1906 set back theconstruction work. The branch line from the MexicanCentral, which runs from the City of Mexico westwardlyto the Balsas river, is destined ultimately to reach thefamous seaport of Acapulco, on the Pacific Ocean. Thisport, indeed, is the best harbour on the Pacific coast of

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