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descending; the carriages are dragged up the former, and let
slowly down the latter, by means of stationary engines; the
comparatively level spaces between being traversed, sometimes by
horse, and sometimes by engine power, as the case demands
‘There are ten inclined planes; five ascending and five
descending; the carriages are dragged up the former, and let
slowly down the latter, by means of stationary engines; the
comparatively level spaces between being traversed, sometimes by
horse, and sometimes by engine power, as the case demands.
Occasionally the rails are laid upon the extreme verge of a giddy
precipice; and looking from the carriage window, the traveler
gazes sheer down, without a stone or scrap of fence between, into
the mountain depths below. The journey is very carefully made,
however; only two carriages traveling together; and while proper
precautions are taken, is not to be dreaded for its dangers.

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To the west rise the somber heights of Cumberland Gap. Through
this portal ran the famous ‘Warrior”s Path,’ known to wandering
hunters, the ‘trail of iron’ from Fort Watauga and Fort Chiswell,
which Daniel Boone widened for the settlers of Kentucky. To the
southwest lay the Blue Grass region of Tennessee with its various
trails converging on Nashville from almost every direction. Today
the Southern Railway enters the ‘Sapphire Country,’ in which
Asheville lies, by practically the same route as the old
Rutherfordton Trail which was used for generations by red man and
pioneer from the Carolina coast. In our entire region of the
Appalachians, from the Berkshire Hills southward, practically
every old-time pathway from the seaboard to the trans-Alleghany
country is now occupied by an important railway system, with the
exception of the Warrior”s Trail through Cumberland Gap to
central Ohio and the Highland Trail across southern Pennsylvania.
And even Cumberland Gap is accessible by rail today, and a line
across southern Pennsylvania was once planned and partially
constructed only to be killed by jealous rivals.

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