Virginian in 1907 -- Completion

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
September 28, 1907

VIRGINIAN TO BE IN OPERATION BY SPRING
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Major Page Says Work is Proceeding Without Delay, 290 of the 443 Miles Being Laid With Track
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NO INTERFERENCE WITH THE ORIGINAL PLANS
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    "The Virginian railway will be built according to original plans, and will be in operation between Deepwater and Sewell's Point by April or May of next year, the time originally named [ Would you believe over a year later than that?]."
    This was the prompt and unqualified declaration of Maj. W. N. Page, of Ansted, who has been identified with the enterprise from its inception as engineer and president of the temporary organizations in West Virginia and Virginia--the Deepwater and the Tidewater railroad companies--and who is unquestionably as closely in touch with the plans of H. H. Rogers, long known to be the chief backer of the enterprise, as any man in the country.
    Major Page had been asked about the foundation for the reports printed in some of the eastern newspapers to the effect that recent difficulties in marketing securities and obtaining money for construction purposes had seriously embarrassed Mr. Rogers, so that even now the completion of the road was regarded as problematical.  In answer to this Major Page said:
    "I know nothing about these matters other than what I have seen in the newspapers.  I regard it simply as newspaper talk.  We are going right ahead with the construction of the road.  We have 290 out of the 443 miles laid with track, the work of construction is preceding without delay, and the whole line from Deepwater to tidewater will be finished by April or May of next year."
    Asked about the plans for an extension of the line to the lakes, which is the ultimate object of the builders, the enterprise having been designed to provide an entirely new and altogether superior road from the lakes to the sea.  Major Page said that no announcement of plans as to the construction of that end of the line was ready to be made yet.  That this part of the project will be carried out at the earliest favorable moment, however, no one who has talked with Mr. Rogers can doubt, as it was his appreciation long ago of the need for more rails between the lakes and the sea that led him to take up the enterprise.
    It is felt to be of the utmost importance to the development of sections of West Virginia and Virginia rich in mineral resources that the Rogers road shall be completed, and the authoritative announcement that there will be no let-up or interference with the original plans will be received with great satisfaction all through the region affected.

[Is there any credible evidence that Rogers seriously planned to build to the Great Lakes?]
Gordon Hamilton
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