Re: VP Gore on Telecom Reform

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Date: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 18:22:15 -0400
To: farber () central cis upenn edu (David Farber)
From: rjs () farnsworth mit edu (Richard Jay Solomon)


After the nonsense about Aspen, I didn't read the rest of the speech. Aspen
was NEVER on the Union Pacific mainline or ANY transcontinental RR. It
didn't even exist 120 years ago.


Aspen was created as a silver mining town in the 1880s, almost became a
ghost town after the dual-monetary standard was withdrawn by the Feds in
the 1890s (remember William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold"), and then was
boosted into prosperity before WWII as a skiing village for the rich (who
drove and now fly in their private jets). The two RR *branch* lines that
were built in the 1880s to serve the silver mines have long since vanished;
one in 1918 when the railroads were nationalized as a war measure, and the
other in the '50s because of the advent of highways. The natives tell the
same silly story about Ashcroft and Aspen as part of local lore, but it has
the same credibility as the haunted houses in the ghost town for the
amusement of tourists -- it has little to do with reality.


The history lesson we get from Aspen is that national politicians can truly
screw up a locality's economy doing dumb _macro_ things, which, I suppose
does have a lot to do with telecom policy today.


Maybe somebody ought to check Gore's facts before he talks. There is a big
library at the other end of the street from the White House that they can
use. It closes early due to Federal budget cuts, but they might keep it
open late if he asks nicely.


Richard


PS. The original 1869 Union Pacific transcontinental mainline never even
got near Colorado, though it built some branches into that state in later
years. The mainline is 120 miles north of Aspen through Wyoming, a route
set by the Congress in the late 1850s to take advantage of known geographic
opportunities at the time. The line opened more than a decade before silver
was discovered in Aspen! Two other transcontinental rrs did pass in the
vicinity of Aspen in the late 19th Century, the long-abandoned,
narrow-gauge Colorado Midland (which was partly financed by the UP), and
the current line through the Royal Gorge (and later Moffat Tunnel) built as
the Denver & Rio Grande and now owned by the Southern Pacific. These routes
were built 50 miles east of Aspen because of natural, geographic obstacles,
not dumb mayors. To pass through Aspen on a main east-west route would have
required running over Independence Pass, a feat impossible 100 years ago,
and probably rediculous even today. The CM and DRG railroads crossed the
Continental Divide via the Hagerman & Busk-Ivanhoe tunnels, and the
Tennessee Pass, respectively. Much easier grades.


If it weren't for silver, and some gold, Aspen would never even have had a
branch line. Interstate 70 was built 20 years ago via Glenwood Canyon,
bypassing Aspen some 40 miles north, for similar geographic reasons.
Nothing to do with mayors who never existed. Even clout can't defeat
geography.


-rjs