Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 111, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1917 — MOST REMARKABLE RAILROAD IN CHILE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MOST REMARKABLE RAILROAD IN CHILE

Fifty miles inland from Valparaiso is the city of Santiago, the capitalof Chile and the fourth South American, city in population. From its broad central avenue, the Alameda, lined with statues and four rows of trees, one can look upon mountains crowned with perpetual snow. From here the transcontinental tourist departs for the ride over the Trans-Andean railroad, the first rail line to conquer the tremendous Andean barrier, and probably the most wonderful feat of railroad engineering in the world. The passenger making this trip will have an experience never to be forgotten. To quote a writer: “If any other trunk line of railroad traverses a region so extraordinary, it has not yet been described.”

Penetrating deep valleys, beside rushing torrents, clinging to the perpendicular sides of precipices a thousand feet deep, stretching by 118 eerie bridges over vast chasms, plunging through! 25 tunnels, climbing the slopes ofsnjSU’ypeaks 15,000 and 22,000 feet In* 'elevation, ascending far above the timber line, the train finally passes over the Continental Divide, at 10,400 feet elevation in a three-mile tunnel, and then descends to the fertile plains of the Argentine. No greater transition could be experienced. Behind are the mountains and in front limitless prairies. Unparalleled scenic grandeur has been left behind and a world devoted to agriculture and commerce entered. —Boston Transcript.

SECTION OF ROAD AND ENTRANCE TO TUNNEL.