HENRY,JOHN Patrick Henry became the first governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia following the "unpleasantness" with King George III. We are here to talk about the Henry named John ,however, rather than this "Pat.
John was the railroading man.
After that same revolutionary event of about 1776, John
Henry got busy and helped this new nation built a fantastic railway system which brought the many types of people spread out over many miles of a wide variety of lands so different they were lost until he joined them together as a sturdy, fighting unit when the chose be be that. John Henry - that coal-burning chunk of national movement - put in untold hours of back-breaking labor; of pot-belly removing stress an strain, or brain-clearing competition with others of like mind set and temperament. He touched all social segments of the growing nation; he brought in new citizens from Europe;from the Orient ,as well,to help him build his vast network of tracks, bridges, tunnels all stretched together,it seemed at times, by miles of telegraph poles and endless miles of lines. Some critics can make a pretty good case of John Henry having overdone a good thing and pushed his railroads into areas of corrupt political and social scandals and skulduggery we are still attempting to define.
Our National Railway system - our John Henry scheme - "growed up," like Lil' Eva, into slave-conditioned circumstances. It showed its many faults;it revealed its own inner sinfulness and sottish tendencies and could not or would not could not abandon and decry its Gay 90's excesses.
Nostalgia took over and destroyed that quality core which had made it great. It lost it; national appeal hesitated too long until the steel network -the actual superstructure
was antiquated,inefficient, obsolete - backward an acronym and embarrassment.
Other aspects of wheeled wandering took over. Overactive enthusiasm for air travel drew many devotees-including grand dirigibles and blimps the family car took over to some extent, but it remained for the truck - the multi-tonned, big 'uns, the trailers, semi formed into one, two, even three units moving as one, the "articulated lorries"- if you are English.
That is what is here now. The system is here to b used. Even now we are, oft times grudgingly, we are allowing
modifications of existing highway system to accommodate those vehicles we still regard as "behemoths". Distribution systems are being drastically and dramatically changed to suit the needs of shifts of population centers and other vagaries of the fascinating international commercial world.
John Henry now rides a rig.
A.L.M. April 16,2006 [c444wds]
