Monongalia Mirror

"Board Tree Mountain."

The crossing of the "Board Tree Mountain," at the point formerly known as Pettibone's Tunnel, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, is an achievement worth a journey of many miles to witness. It is thus described in the Baltimore American of the 17th inst:-

The cars, twenty in number, left the Wheeling depot about nine o'clock on Friday morning, and reached the most interesting point on the route about 1 o'clock—the passage over the Board-tree Mountain. They were conveyed over the great barrier by the most powerful locomotives, each engine taking over two cars. The ordinary locomotives also require their aid, not being of themselves able to overcome the grades. The great care exercised by the conductors caused a considerable delay, and owing to the slipping off the track of one or two cars, the time consumed in crossing the mountain was over three hours. The feat, however, was safely and satisfactorily accomplished. On the outward trip this point was passed in the night, and the passage over was at once wonderful in its performance, and the scenes singularly picturesque and beautiful. When the cars arrived all the laborers, at this point turned out with torch and lantern to assist in the operation, the whole of the mountain glared, as the cars mounted upwards, with the bursting flames of the engines, while the sparkling lights carried up and down the declivities looked as if the stars had fallen from the skies, and were sporting upon the verges, of the precipices. Nothing could exceed the beauty of the sublime spectacle; and the excursionists perched like eagles upon the sides of the mountain, gave vent to their admiration & re-echoed from the depths of the gorge to the lofty summit.

The passage over the mountain is effected by a series of slopes cut out of the sides, terminating in what are technically known as Y's. The slopes have an inclination generally of about four hundred feet to the mile. Each engine pulls its load of two cars up a slope, and when it reaches the switch at the end, pushes them up the second and again pulls them up the third, and so on until it reaches the summit from which the descent is effected in the same manner. There are five slopes on the Western side, and two on the Eastern, the latter being of course much longer. Whatever danger there may be in traversing the precipitous passage is entirely forgotten in the novel position of the spectator and the extraordinary beauty and sublimity of the whole scene.—On the return trip the cars crossed in the day time, and the passengers were gratified with a most beautiful panoramic view of mountain scenery.

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