The primordial need of every country is good roads and ample
transportation facilities. This is more especially true of Chile,
than of most countries, because the long strip of territory between
the Andean range of mountains and the Pacific is characterized by
narrowness and length, a configuration which is peculiarly lacking in
continuity between productive centers. The nitrate fields and other
rich mineral producing sections of the north are, by nature, completely
isolated from the agricultural districts of the central valley, where
the principal cities and towns are situated, and also from the timber
zone and grazing lands of the far south.
During the first half century of the Republic’s existence little
progress was made along the line of industrial development because
of a lack of railway communication. The first link in the chain of
Chile’s present, extensive railway systems, a line extending from the
port of Caldera to Copiapo, a distance of fifty miles, was built in
1851. Later other roads were constructed, chief among which was the
line extending from Valparaiso to Santiago, and from the capital south
through the central valley, the great agricultural district of the
country, into the coal producing and timber regions, connecting them
with the seaports and commercial centers. This section of the State
railways, which for many years had its terminus at Concepcion, was
in recent years extended to Valdivia, an important industrial and
commercial center, and in 1912 was completed as far as Port Montt.
Since the building of the first line, little more than half a century
ago, the railway system of Chile has grown until it now comprises over
four thousand miles of fairly well equipped roads, the ramifications of
which reach into every part of the country, with the exception of the
territory constituting the southern limits of the Republic, including
Patagonia. A little more than one-half of the railway mileage is
government ownership, the other portion being owned by individuals and
corporations.