Railroads in Africa

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jan 11, 1906

Railroads in Africa

RAILROADS in Africa are approaching the heart of the continent from the Kongo on the west, from Cairo on the north, from Cape Town and Lorenzo Marques on the south, and into Uganda and Abyssinia on the east. Now they propose a line along the southern shore of the Mediterranean littoral. The ground has been inspected, and the conditions are favorable. The engineering difficulties are not such as need hinder a scheme which is otherwise desirable. Over a great part of the route there would be more to fear from the predatory tribes than from natural obstacles. Tracing the new route from England, there would be first, the twenty miles across the channel, then rail through France and Spain, and again a short sea journey from Gibraltar to Tangier, where the new line would begin. Its course would be along the northern borders of Morocco, thence by way of Algeria to Tunis and Tripoli, and onward to Cairo through the Libyan desert and the great tracts of country over which the khedive rules. If a Cape-to-Cairo railway becomes one of the actualities of the future, the new line would make it possible to travel from London to Cape Town overland except when crossing the channel and from Gibraltar to Tangier.—Selected.