REPORT. The Board of public works beg leave to call the attention of the legislature respectfully to the views embraced in the following REPORT: The delicate and multifarious duties devolved upon this board by recent legislation, and the eminent importance of the interests committed to its care, require of it at this time a more extended and detailed report than has heretofore been customary. It is highly important, too, to the credit of the state in the markets of the world, that an authentic and official exposition of the character of those public works in which she is engaged, and upon the success and productiveness of which her financial prosperity chiefly depends, should be given to the public. represen Probably no state in the Union has in a few years so radically changed its policy upon the subject of internal improvement as Virginia. The revolution in public opinion has been almost complete. Scarcely a section of our widely extended commonwealth is not awake to the transcendant importance of the subject. The natural and deep rooted prejudices which were formerly so generally entertained by the people against taxation for any but the most necessary public purposes, are rapidly giving way. Not only are the tatives of the people in the legislature of the state voting large appropriations at every session to public works, but the people are also themselves voting directly for liberal subscriptions to the same purposes, by counties, cities and towns, in every quarter of the commonwealth. It will be gratifying to those who are in the habit of believing our state still slothful and blind to her true interests upon this subject, to know that Virginia contains now nearly seven hundred miles of completed railway, that she has nearly seven hundred additional miles in progress and under contract, together with some three hundred of still additional miles projected and subscribed for. Besides these railroads, she has about 872 miles in length of the most capacious and substantially constructed canals in the Union, and turnpike roads, a large portion of them, of the first order of grade and construction, measuring about 3000 miles in length; all of which last, if not financially remunerative to the state treasury, are inestimably valuable to the agricultural and industrial interests of the state. In addition to the works already mentioned, large subscriptions have recently been made towards plank roads-a species of improve ment second in value and usefulness to none other—some of which are partially completed, and considerable distances of which are in rapid progress. This entire system of works when, completed as far as subscribed for, will have produced a public indebtedness of only about $20,000,000, a large portion of which cost, as has already been stated, will have been productive long before this aggregate indebtedness will have been reached. The expenditure of this large sum of borrowed capital leaves the commonwealth, not prostrate in repudiation, after the examples of so many states that have been her pioneers in like undertakings, but with her bonds commanding high premiums in the markets at home and abroad, and with her credit ranking favorably with that of the wealthiest states in the Union. The annexed table presents a condensed view of railroad progress in the state, together with the interest of the state in their capital stock. completed, 16024 miles. 676 66 66 in progress, (under contract,) Capital stock, (leaving out Baltimore and Ohio railroad,) The works enumerated in this table will in a few years, when all of them are completed, constitute a system of railways possessing capabilities for greater commerce than any others of similar length in the United States. There will be, first, as a basis of the whole system, a line of road extending from the banks of the Potomac to the North Carolina line, crossing all the great streams of the state near the head of tidewater. By means of this line of roads the products 636 $16,117,100 00 borne down upon those streams, and upon the various railroads running westward from it at right angles, are received and borne to the most eligible commercial points along their route. The country through which this line of roads passes, if not now in all its extent one of great fertility, is capable of being rendered so in the highest degree by the application of guano and marl, which they render accessible to it, and which seem magically adapted to the speedy and complete restoration of its soil. Upon this base line of railway will rest four of the most important public works projected upon the continent. 1. First and southernmost among them is the Danville railroad. It traverses the great southern region of the state, crossing the fertile valleys of the Appomattox, the Staunton, the Banister and the Dan rivers, which constitute probably the finest tobacco region in the world, and penetrating to that most productive portion of North Carolina which lies along the eastern base of the Blue Ridge mountains. It will ultimately form a connection with the Georgia and South Carolina network of railways, and bring to our state an immense southern as well as local commerce. 2. The second great railroad that leaves the base line in question, is that of the Virginia and Tennessee company, in connection with the Southside road from Lynchburg to Petersburg, and its projected extension to Norfolk. Threading the most productive portions of the James river valley; thence penetrating the whole extent of that prolific bed of mineral and agricultural wealth which lies between the Alleghanies and Blue Ridge south of the James river; thence connecting in Tennessee, by works already in progress, with the Georgia and South Carolina railway systems, with the Mobile and Ohio road, and with the Mississippi river at Memphis, where it will participate in in all the advantages that are to result from the projected railway connections of that city with New Orleans, with the Western Mississippi country, and ultimately with the Pacific ocean-it is impossible to appreciate adequately the importance of this work to the state, or to overestimate the stupendous results of its future operations. It will tap the Mississippi river at a point below the mouths of its largest tributaries, where the whole trade of that river and those tributaries can be reached. It will pierce the valleys of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and be accessible to the trade of the whole state of Tennessee. By intersecting the Mobile and Ohio road, it will be in railway connection directly or indirectly with the entire eastern half of the valley of the Mississippi. Such are the promises of the main stem of this road to the commerce and wealth of the commonwealth. Besides this main stem, routes are feasible for a branch road, diverging from it at the Horseshoe bend of the New river and extending to the Ohio river, either at Louisville or at any one of several eligible points, in the option of the state, higher up that stream, which promises the same results in regard to Kentucky and the Ohio valley as are promised by the main stem in regard to Tennessee and the Mississippi valley. 3. The third great railway diverging from the base line of this sys tem, is the Virginia Central road. It traverses a section of the state entirely distinct and separate from that which is tributary to the Virginia and Tennessee road. It is a necessary outlet to the trade of the counties along its completed and projected route. Considered as a local work, accommodating the trade of a large, populous and fertile region of country tributary to it, it is second in importance to no other work of the kind in progress. It is destined to secure to the cities of Virginia a large and immensely valuable trade that would otherwise inevitably go off to cities of other states. It would command an immense eastern and western travel, and would bring to our mountain watering places, from all parts of the Union during the summer season, countless numbers of visitors. Both as accommodating the trade of numerous counties of the state that would have no other easy access to market, and as securing to Virginia a large portion of wealth which would flow beyond her borders into other states, this work is of the first importance. But its local character is not its most interesting one. It will be chiefly important, when completed to the Ohio, as a continental highway. Taking its departure from Richmond, upon the head of tidewater, at a point upon the James river whence that stream is diverted by high bluffs from the direct course it seemed pursuing, to the nearest point upon salt water, (at Eltham, near the mouth of York river) this road, as constructed and projected, penetrates through the entire centre of the state to the Ohio river at the mouth of the Guyandotte. It will afford transportation for all the rich and varied products of that portion of our own state lying between its termini, embracing minerals the most valuable and abundant, including coal, iron and salt. It will strike the state of Ohio at its extreme southernmost point, where, consequently, access to its terminus by water will be least obstructed by ice, and not far from Portsmouth on the Ohio river, from whence a continuous line of canal communication extends through the centre of that state to Lake Erie. Egress from this lake to New York can only be had at a point four degrees northward of Guyandotte, where, consequently, the waters would be closed by ice some sixty days sooner. The canals of Ohio, running from north to south, would therefore be feeders of this road for several months in the year without a rival, not only during the months of actual ice in the northern lakes and canals, but during all that portion of the fall while ice is apprehended. In addition to the advantages held out by these water communications serving as feeders to this road, including the Ohio river itself, it must be remembered that Cincinnati, with her energy, public spirit and capital, is straining every nerve to form railroad connections with the most advantageous Atlantic seaports. The immense trade of that city will be ours, if we but furnish for it the strongest attractions. The magnitude of the capital and the importance and value of the commerce which are concentrating at that city with astonishing rapidity and in amounts almost beyond belief, will be best understood by considering the extent and character of country contributing to its wealth. That city has so thrown out her lines of improvement, and is so advantageously located, that she has become the centre to which not only all the commerce of Ohio tends, but also a great part of that of Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. Extensive and fertile regions of Kentucky and Virginia contribute their trade also to swell the wealth of this western emporium. Possessing these great means of wealth and power, Cincinnati has long understood the vast importance to herself of opening the shortest, cheapest and most direct line of communication with the Atlantic ports. The lines of transportation she has projected have been chiefly directed towards New York and other northern cities, because her efforts and labors to accomplish her great objects were responded to there in a manner best calculated to ensure the accomplishment of her aims, and not at all because those commercial localities were the most preferable to her. The Virginia Central railroad points from the nearest Atlantic seaport directly to this enterprising and wealthy city, which seems to concentrate the capital and commerce of the Ohio valley. It offers the shortest transit from her wharves to the seaboard. It presents for her trade far easier grades than any rival road north of it. Its construction will cost less than any road that has ever been carried over a mountainous region of country. Mountain barriers, elsewhere so difficult to overcome, are in Virginia scarcely obstacles at all. A water communication is perfectly practicable over this route. A railroad is comparatively of easy accomplishment. Much of what has been said concerning the Central railroad is equally applicable to a branch of the Virginia and Tennessee road, which might be extended from New river, at the Horseshoe bend, through Lexington, Kentucky, to the Ohio at Louisville, connecting with a railroad already constructed, seventy-five miles in length, between Lexington and Louisville. 4. The fourth line of railway resting upon the base line of our great Virginia network, and which the board feels especially constrained to press earnestly upon the attention of the legislature, is an extension of the Manassa's gap railroad, from its present western terminus at Strasburg, to a point upon the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, equi-distant between Baltimore and Parkersburg, and about seventyfive miles west of Strasburg. This road would place Alexandria in direct communication with the Ohio river at Parkersburg, and thence with Cincinnati and the whole Ohio system of railways. In connection with this work a road twenty-five miles in length, from Fredericksburg to the nearest point of the Orange and Alexandria railroad, would make a continuous line between Parkersburg and Petersburg, passing through or near all the principal cities of the state except Norfolk, and capable of being continued jointly with the Southside road to that city from Petersburg, over a route which has recently been found by survey to be only about eighty miles in length and to be almost level throughout its distance. By the route in question the distance between Alexandria and Parkersburg is about 367 miles, all of which is provided for but the portion of seventy-five miles between Strasburg and the point upon the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, already described, called Paddytown. As little or no doubt can exist that the road from Paddytown to Parkersburg will be ready for use on the 1st January 1855, no time |