Interest in railroad construction in Chile in recent years has centred in the transandine railway via Juncal and Uspallata pass, the historic route by which General San Martin led his conquering legions into that country. Its completion in the spring of 1910 was a significant event, which was duly celebrated by both Chile and Argentina. Just a half century had passed since Wheelwright first suggested to English capitalists the feasibility of a railroad across the Andes to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific, when the first train passed through the two mile tunnel that pierced the international barrier of rock at this point. Trains are now running regularly, and the interruption caused by the winter snows is at an end. This is the first line to connect the two oceans, and, to the South Americans, it was as great an event as the opening of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. The distance from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires is eight hundred and eighty-eight miles, and the trip is made in thirty-eight hours. It is hoped by the officials, however, to reduce the running time to twenty-nine hours in the course of time. [Illustration: JUNCAL STATION.] The first practical steps in this undertaking were made by two English-Chilean engineers, John and Matthew Clark. They obtained the necessary concession from Argentina in 1872, and from Chile two years later. The Chilean government guaranteed seven per cent. on a capital of three millions of dollars. But this concession was unsatisfactory. In 1889 the actual work of construction was begun, but it was stopped after less than twenty miles had been completed. The old concession having lapsed a new one was granted in 1903 to the Transandine Construction company on a five per cent. guarantee for twenty years. In 1906 the road was opened to Juncal, and in 1909 to Caracoles, the mouth of the Chilean end of the tunnel. The entire distance from Los Andes to the tunnel is forty-eight miles. In that distance the altitude rises almost eight thousand feet. The grade in places reaches eight per cent. There are several miles of the Abt system of cogs. Tunnels and bridges are numerous, and a number of avalanche sheds have been built. The Chilean slopes of the Andes are much more abrupt than those on the Argentina side, and the work of construction has been correspondingly more difficult. It provides a grand scenic route for the jaded continental traveller that furnishes scenery as grandly picturesque as anywhere else in the world.