In the present era of world-wide industrial expansion, the Balkan region retains its place as one of the most notable of international highways. So centrally is the peninsula situated with reference to Europe, Asia and Africa that its valleys afford the most convenient overland passage for the products of European ingenuity and science on their way to market in the populous centers of Asia and Africa. Even the air line connecting central Europe and India passes over the Balkans. The superiority of the Mediterranean-Red Sea route over the other avenues of traffic leading from west to east led to the construction of the Suez Canal. The advantages of this line still exist. With the march of events, however, the main commercial thoroughfare from Europe to the Orient is shifting gradually from the waters between the Eurasian and African continents to a more easterly and at the same time far speedier overland route. The tracks of the Oriental, Anatolian and Bagdad railroad companies form at present the northern section of the trunk of this system. Incidentally, it should be noted that nature’s provision for this world route is so well marked in the Balkan peninsula that the luxurious cars of the Orient Express roll over a steel-clad path which coincides remarkably with the trail followed by the first crusade--the one which Godfrey de Bouillon led along a path marked by nature. The prolongation of these railroads to Delhi and the shores of the Indian Ocean by junction with the railroads of British India advancing toward the northwest is now economically desirable. Through connection with the Cape of Good Hope by way of Ma’an and the Egyptian frontier, over the Sinai peninsula and the Cape-to-Cairo line, will probably be exacted by the requirements of trade. In that case railroad ferries over the Bosporus will enable the same car to be hauled directly from the coast of the Baltic Sea to the shores of the Indian Ocean or to cities at the southernmost points of Africa. There is reason to believe, however, the Bosporus will be crossed by a bridge over the half mile of sea that separates the European and Asiatic fortresses facing each other at Rumeli Hissar. [Illustration: FIG. 47--Communications in the Balkans. The gaps in the mountainous area are the connecting links in the land travel between Europe and Asia.]