| Show coq nn the ANDES 01 1 A tv X t A Z 4 ap 4 Vs R W WT N A IL laying the trans andean cable prepared fry by national society So claty washington D a service j MJE E andes rooftops of the west T era eln hemisphere have frequently JL st stirred the imaginations of engineers the building of early spanish trails across these mountains was among the feats of colonial says days the trans andean railroad was one of the outstanding engineering engineer ing achievements of its time and more recently the laying of the cable that links argentina and chile by voice added another chapter to engineering progress in south america braving lee ice accident and avalanches north korth american and chilean engineers by sheer strength and persistence dragged the heavy cable up and over the freezing windswept wind swept mountain passes blocked with drifts for months each year deep snow here causes frequent slides or avalanches before which even the stoutest poles are as heat straw in a kansas cyclone so to keep the cable from being swept away workmen dug a ditch many miles long over the higher andean wastes and burled buried the catle cable in it near the tiny hamlet of las cuevas on the argentine side of the andes the line reaches a point 12 1 feet above sea level ey by contrast the submarine telegraph cable off the alie coast of chile rests on sea bottom in feet of water showing the amazing physical geography in this part of the world dangerous and difficult though these lonely andean passes are stubborn man has long used them in his restless transit across south america tolling toiling on foot or shouting and stoning their lazy llama pack trains native races of long ago traveled the worn trails that parallel the winding river up ever narrowing canyons under dins cliffs and along th the edges of dizzy precipices in the glittering days of spanish viceroys vice roys when the king of spain ruled much of south america through his bis agents at santiago de chile pack trains and soldiers used these same andean trails to reach cordoba and ancient cuyo country broke off from spain in these same bleak passes where the big cable now carries spoken words once echoed the shouts of san Mart martins lins famous army of the andes when chile and the argentine more than a century ago wrested independence from spain for much of its length cable parallels the well known rack railroad crossing the andes it took years to build this difficult railway whose maximum grade is 8 per cent at mendoza on the argentine side of the andes you leave the standard track and transfer to narrow gauge coaches for several hours a locomotive of the adhesion type draws the train p finally when grades grow steeper your engine crawls on the toothed rails of the rack system As you climb slowly higher and higher tunnels and snow sheds increase in number and length vegetation disappears to make this trip in june or july which la Is midwinter there is to see the alps of south america in all their glistening glistened glist eniD glory sometimes snowplows snow plows precede your train in july scores of passengers were delayed many days at each end of the trans andean line waiting for 25 foot drifts to be cleared up in these passes resort hotels have bare risen and holiday feckers come from valparaiso santi ngo ago buenos alres aires and montevideo tor for winter sports one even sees soldiers training on skis winding ever upward the road runs in the shadow of mount tupungato feet high bl ii and past an odd rock formation known as the penitents penitente Peni tents from its resemblance to a procession of monks then you stop at puente del inca it a strangely stron gely formed natural bridge which gives the district its name just beyond this bridge it if the day is clear you can glimpse great highest mountain in the americas whose snow capped peak rubs the sky feet abao the sea christ of the andes at las cuevas the westbound train crawls into the mountain side bide from argentina to emerge on chilean holt holl over the hill through which this two mile tunnel runs Is laid the telephone cable and it if the day be clear just as your train emerges in chilean sunshine you can look up at the hilltop and behold that famous peace monument the christ of the andes which stands more than feet above sea level on the chile argentine frontier far below though still nt at feet elevation inca lake Is set among the peaks still descending your train creaks squeals and winds in and out among mountains of infinite majesty digi dignity alty and distance rattles over bridges that span roaring casca cascades deg to emerge at last into fertile green valleys of chile in clean sate safe steam heated trains this Is a fascinating trip you may sit bit comfortably at lunch and look out through plate glass windows at one of the worlds most astounding panoramas put but you merely see it IL the workers out there along the track in skating caps ear muffs and mittens the engineers on snowshoes and the crew dir liling the rotary plow against the drifts they not only see but they fe feel el and smell the andes and they hear the alie voices of the high passes the hiss of the snow and shriek of winds around the crags the roar of avalanches down the smooth steep snow cov ered slope of one mountain plainly visible from the train an avalanche slides countless tons of rock dirt and snow coasting straight down irom from the nery ery clouds leaves a long perpendicular scar what Is that funny trail down the mountain side asks a 11 solitaire player looking up from his lards cards no one answers to save their cable from these slides the telephone engineers burled it in the rocks all the way from las cuevas on the argentine side over to juncal in chile safety comes first when we picked out the route tor for laying our cable over the andes it was not with the view of keeping close to roads and trails said an off official iclal of the american owned telephone and telegraph company what we sought was a path that would give the cable the most shelter and minimize the danger of breaks from avalanches landslides or earthquakes but always we had to carry the heavy cable on the last lop lap of its hard journey up steep mountains and over cliffs to where we had blasted a sunken way for it only picked men could stand this tremendous physical ordeal we chose only those who had worked d for years in high altitudes even th the e blasting and digging of our cables underground der ground path oner oer this roof of the world it a ditch many miles long was a backbreaking back breaking task once the andes separated chile and the argentine riot not only physically and in a commercial way but also formed a barrier against intellectual social and artistic relations now by this cable friendly intercourse Is easy and not only can santiago talk over the andes and across the far pampas to busy buenos aires but by a gomile GO CG mile mlle cable under the great river platte she ean can talk to montevideo in uruguay and from there on by radio telephone to europe the british isles and th the e united states when the airplane surey suney party which was sent cent to south america in 1030 1930 by the national geographic so 0 o clety reached santiago de chile one of its members called the socie tys headquarters in washington D 0 over thousands of miles of spa sea jungle plains and andean snows this long distance dialogue was held as easily as it if the speakers had been face to face bilat a contrast since doughty old tupac the inca warrior braved these andean passes t probably it often took him to get his runners through now when tile the passes are free 0 of dangerous storm clouds and fogs planes fly every week between santiago and Afen mendoza doza the andes are as high cold and vast as ever only they seem less so now because trains and planes are faster than mules and llamas and because our voices on the new telephone cable carry farther than the voices of general san Is martin lartin and old chief tupac shouting across the canyons |
