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Show Highway Leads to Long Extinct Mexican Volcano Of the many spiral roads built for ascending steep mountain summits one of the most Interesting Is that which has recently been completed to the crater of the extinct volcano Macunte-pec Macunte-pec in the vicinity of Jalapa, a city of the State of Vera Cruz, Mex., 70 miles by rail from the port of Vera Cruz, says Popular Mechanics Magazine. Jalapa is picturesquely situated on the slope of the sierra which separates the central plateau of Mexico from the Gulf coast, at an elevation of 4,300 feet. To the south of It the peak of Cofre de Perote rises to a height of 13,419 feet, and still farther south that of Orizaba, 18,700 feet, the highest high-est peak In Mexico and the second highest in North America. The new road starts at a point on the national highway to Mexico City that is about a mile and a quarter from the center of Jalapa. For a distance dis-tance of about half a mile to a gate at the entrance of the hill the road is on private property, and here It is about thirteen feet wide with a 6 per cent grade. From the hill entrance to its summit the road Is llVfc feet wide, with a maximum grade of 4 per cent, excepting in a few spots where an Increased grade of 6 per cent was necessary. nec-essary. This part of the road is all on sidehill cuts, excepting a short stretch of about 32S feet at the end of the first complete circuit of the hill, where it was possible to build the road on the surface without any cutting. For reasons of safety It was decided to make two one-way roads, one for ascending and the other for descending. descend-ing. The descending road starts with a grade of 8 per cent and nearly parallels paral-lels the last part of the ascending road until it strikes the crater, the edge of which it follows until It reaches the point where the ascending road enters the crater, the whole being a distance of 1,950 feet, the last 280 of which is in the crater with a 10 per cent grade. |