[Collection of Documents Relating to the Compañia de Caminos de Hierro de la Habana and the Compañia del Camino de Hierro Entre las Ciudades de Puerto Principe y Nuevitas]

[Havana & Puerto Principe, 1846. Overall very good.. Two letters, totalling [23]pp., plus four printed forms completed in manuscript, each measuring approximately 12 x 8.5 inches. Letters previously folded, with small stab holes at left margin where previously bound. Contemporary ink stamps. Moderate, even tanning; scattered light foxing. Accomplished in a neat, legible script. In the earliest period of railroad technology, Cuban leaders became interested in a rail line to carry sugar and coffee to the port in Havana from inland. The first completed line from Güines to Havana began operation in 1837; it was one of the first substantial railroads in the world, and beat the arrival of rail transportation to Spain by over a decade. The project was initially approved by the Queen Regent, Maria Christina, in 1834, and civil engineer Benjamin Hall Wright, son of Erie Canal chief engineer Benjamin Wright, was hired to consult on the construction. The two lengthy letters present here were composed in fluent Spanish by the younger Wright during the first half of 1834, and were addressed to Wenceslao de Villa Urrutia, the Superintendent of the Treasury in Cuba and the overseer of the project for the Spanish government. They contain many salient details concerning the planning and construction of the railroad, including an assessment of the supplies and funds required for the building of the forty-eight-kilometer line, a report on the reconnaissance made of the potential track path from Havana to El Rincon, a description of the grading work necessary along the line, and much more.

The four printed documents here comprise completed stock certificates for a later project in the overall Cuban railroad plan, the building of a line from Nuevitas on the northeastern coast to Puerto Principe in the interior. Benjamin Hall Wright was also heavily involved in the engineering and construction of this railroad, which was completed in 1842. The certificates are issued to and signed by members of the Betancourt family, who were prominent supporters of and deeply involved with the development of early railroads in Cuba. Each certificate represents an investment of one hundred pesos, and were issued across the life of the project. A fascinating group of materials on early railroad construction in Cuba.