150 
Modern Business Geography 
Fig. 131. Duluth, at the western end of Lake Superior, is a meeting point for the railroads 
ply to the industrial cities of Chicago. Detroit, 
hence, it pays to build railroads among the rough Adirondacks, or 
even expensive cog-wheeled roads up mountains like Washington in 
New Hampshire, Pikes Peak in Colorado, and the Rigi in the Alps. 
In plains quite as much as among mountains the presence of natural 
resources, especially the possibilities of agriculture, cause the build- 
ing of railroads. On the map of the railroads of North America 
(Fig. 128), notice all the little railroads branching from the main lines 
in the Dakotas, for example. Their chief purpose is to collect wheat 
from the fertile farms of the Red River valley. Other railroads have 
been built to collect milk in northern New York, beets in Colorado and 
central Germany, and sugar in Cuba. In fact, more railroads are 
built to collect the products of regions of gentle relief than for any 
other single purpose. 
Why railroads are expensive. People often wonder why it costs 
forty or fifty thousand dollars to build a mile of railroad even in a 
plain, and hundreds of thousands among the mountains. They also 
wonder why, when once a railroad is built, it constantly needs new 
capital. Let us consider some of the chief expenses. 
(1) Surveying. When a railroad is planned, the route must be 
surveyed most carefully. This is easy in a plain, but among moun- 
tains or even hills it is a long, expensive process, and mistakes are 
frequent. For example, the Union Pacific Railroad — or, as it is 
now called, the Southern Pacific — from Cheyenne to Sacramento, is 
only one of many roads that have spent millions of dollars in re- 
locating tracks because the first surveys were not sufficiently full and 
accurate.