American auspices, and was
opened for traffic in November, 1888. The inevitable widening of the
gauge to standard size took place, and was completed in November, 1903.
The length of the main line is 800 miles; the shortest route from the
United States border to the capital. The Interoceanic Railway, a
British company, which forms part of the consolidated system now, will
give it a line to Vera Cruz, whilst, _via_ the International Railway,
it has communication westwardly to the important city of Durango.
Another branch line runs to Matamoros, upon the Gulf of Mexico. The
line also traverses a portion of Texas.

The Interoceanic Railway is a main line from the capital to Vera Cruz,
passing through the town of Jalapa, amid a region famed for its beauty
and unique tropical surroundings; and the line was constructed and
operated by British interests. It embodies 736 miles of line. Its
original concession was designed for powers to run to Acapulco, on the
Pacific coast; hence the name of the railway; but it does not nearly
reach the coast, although it descends into and serves the fertile and
picturesque State of Morelos, connecting at Puente de Ixtla with the
Mexican Central Railway. From that point a branch line runs to Puebla,
the second or third important city of importance in Mexico; passing
near the famous town of Cholula, of Aztec and Toltec remembrance. The
Interoceanic is now merged into the new consolidation arrangement.

[Illustration: THE SEAPORT OF VERA CRUZ.]

The International Railway runs also from the United States border, at
Ciudad Porfirio Diaz, or Eagle Pass, across the great plateau to the
city of Durango, as before mentioned, passing through important
agricultural, manufacturing and coal-bearing regions.

The Hidalgo and North-Eastern is a narrow-gauge railway, 152 miles
long, from the City of Mexico into the State of Hidalgo, and forms a
part of the Mexican national system.

In the consolidation or fusion of the foregoing lines, that is to say,
the Mexican Central, National, International, and Interoceanic, the
Government has a dominating interest of 85 per cent. of the capital
stock, and the control of this great system and company, now termed the
"National Railways of Mexico," with an authorised capital of 615
million _pesos_, or 61,500,000 pounds sterling, will be mainly a State
affair; and any profits accruing from the enterprise after payment of
interest on bonds and dividends on preferred sto