Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: VP Gore on Telecom Reform
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 18:26:10 -0400
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Aspen was created as a silver mining town in the 1880s, almost became a ghost town after the dual-monetary standard was withdrawn by the Feds in the 1890s (remember William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold"), and then was boosted into prosperity before WWII as a skiing village for the rich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
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- VP Gore on Telecom Reform David Farber (Oct 19)
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- Re: VP Gore on Telecom Reform David Farber (Oct 25)