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tazzygirl -> RE: Remember when Obama said....... (12/27/2011 10:36:40 AM)
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It was called the Pan American Railway. The intention was to connect Victoria Texas with Rio de Janeiro in the 1890's. They made it from Victoria to the Guadalupe River, at which time Victoria refused to put up any more money. It was then abandoned.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eqp01
There is much not discussed about the railway system in the US. James Blaine, Secretary of State, was pushing for an intercontinental railway. There was a conference in DC during late 1889 to discuss the
convened on October 2, 1889 in Washington, DC for a six month session, 27 delegates from thirteen nations assembled to consider ways to reduce tariffs and promote trade in the Americas. Advocating the construction of a railroad in far away Ecuador was likely the last thing on their minds. "A lot of historians dismiss this conference as a major failure because it didn't produce a customs union customs union
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But what is ignored are all of the other accomplishments, which can be credited to a large degree to the efforts of the US Secretary of State at the time, James Blaine. He saw Latin American markets as being key to the development of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , and he believed that what would make that possible was the building of an intercontinental railroad."
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In light of the prominence that railways enjoyed at that time, it's not surprising that many historians now consider the conference's most important accomplishment to have been the creation of the Intercontinental Railroad Commission. Enthused by Secretary Blaine's passion for an intercontinental system of rails that would link the US to the most distant points in South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , the commission set the plan in motion by designating the Guayaquil-Quito line as the first segment to be undertaken.
This was, in essence, the beginning of the Organization of American States - OAS
On the eve of the upcoming Summit of the Americas, John Sanbrailo marvels at the chain of events that led to today's OAS. The first inter-American gathering in Washington, DC led to creation of the International Union of American Republics which became the Pan American Union twenty years later and then, in 1948, the Organization of American States. "That was really the first Summit of the Americas," he says of the 1889-90 session, "and Eloy Alfaro was one of the earliest Pan-Americanists. He was a brilliant Ecuadoran who had this tremendous vision of how the Americas could be united in a great spirit of hemispheric solidarity. The Guayaquil-Quito Railroad was the first example of inter-American technical assistance, and without Alfaro's leadership and courage, it's doubtful that the 'Railroad in the Sky' would ever have been completed."
But, as I said, the intercontinental railway was never completed.
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