Excerpt from The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 13 The work of connecting the capital through this vast tableland with the United States was comparatively easy. But when it came to constructing the lines from the high elevation of the City of Mexico, as has been done in various directions, toward the coasts, it became a herculean task, calling for engineering Skill and a large expenditure of capital. Notwithstanding the Obstacles, the mountain range confronting the Gulf has already been pierced by at least four lines of railway, and they are now in operation to Tampico and Vera Cruz, the two most important ports on the Gulf. But thus far the Sierra Madre Range traversing the Pacific coast line has not been completely crossed. The Guada lajara branch of the Mexican Central Road has been extended some distance toward Manzanillo, and work on that extension is being pushed to completion. The Mexico, Cuernavaca and Pacific Railway, a road under enterprising American management, leaving the City of Mexico, climbs to a height of feet above the sea-level, then descends into the charming valley of Cuernavaca, cuts its way through the mountain gorges amidst most beautiful scenery, has already reached the Balsas River leading into the Pacific, and has a com paratively easy course along its valley to the Pacific port of Acapulco. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.