Railway Trains Cross Lebanon Toward Damascus
By H. H. Jessup
It is a new experience for us old residents in Syria to look out upon railway trains passing in the distance and see the French locomotives dragging their burdens up the cogged track over Lebanon toward the Bukai and Damascus. The passenger train is ten hours in passing over the 120 miles, scaling Lebanon at an elevation of 5,000 feet above the sea. The road was opened August 4, and already the freight traffic is so great that three freight trains a day can not meet the demand. As we arrived August 12 from New York, we have not yet been over the road to Damascus; but Dr. Crawford tells me that the ride from Damascus up the river Abana to the fountain of Fiji, and on to Zebedany, under the dense shade of poplars, and by the roaring river, is most refreshing and delightful. The ride over the heights of Lebanon is no less so, with its bold scenery and magnificent views of the distant sea and the rocky mountain gorges.—Rev. H. H. Jessup.