File:American railway transportation (1908) (14757192544).jpg

Identifier: americanrailwayt1908john (find matches)
Title: American railway transportation
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Johnson, Emory R. (Emory Richard), 1864-1950
Subjects: Railroads Railroads and state
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston University

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ns, it is true, are subsidiary toothers, but according to the reports of the InterstateCommerce Commission, there are over 1,000 operatingcompanies at the present time. The railroad system of the United States as a wholeis too vast and is composed of too many parts to be readilycomprehended. It is impossible for the ordinary mindat least to carry the details of such a large and intricatepicture as is presented by a railway net comprising 230,-000 miles of line and spread over a country 3,000 milesin breadth. By dividing the United States into severalnatural territorial sections, and by classifying the rail-road lines or systems according to those sections, and bygrouping the railroads according to ownership, it is pos-sible to get at least a general picture of what for con-venience sake we term the American railway system. The most general and most frequent grouping of therailroads of the United States territorially is into threesections; one section being that north of the Ohio and52
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64 AMERICAN RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION James Rivers and east of the Mississippi, another theregion south of the Ohio and James and east of the Mis-sissii^pi, and the third the country west of the Mississippi.A basis for this grouping may be found in well-knowndifferences in production, density of population, and othereconomic and social conditions prevailing in these threesections of our country. There are also sufficient differ-ences in the freight business of the railroads in thesesections to cause distinct classifications of freight to havebeen worked out for each of the three regions. Whilethis grouping of the railroads of the United States intothree sections has been serviceable for purposes of freightclassification, the sections are so large that further sub-division is necessary. Within each of these large groupsthere are distinct subdivisions, due in part to diversity ofphysical conditions, and in part to the fact that the rail-roads in different portions of the country have come,

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