Located at the junction of old commercial roads between Asia Minor, the Black Sea, the Danube and the old Europe, the port of Constanţa has always been one of the most important connection platforms between the West and the East. In 1856, once the Crimean War ended (a conflict with devastating effects in the region and which destroyed all possibilities of building commercial routes), the reassessment of an older project for developing the Danube (Rasova) – Black Sea (Tuzla) channel could be implemented, as well as the evaluation of a possibility to build a railway line on Rasova – Tuzla or Cernavodă (Boghas Keuï) – Constanţa (Küstendjie, Küstendjé) routes. On May 18, 1856, the British Thomas Wilson, the Count of Morny and the Count of Breda, obtained from the Turkish Government (back then, Doborgea was still a province of the Ottoman Empire) the concession for the construction of Rasova-Tuzla channel and for the establishment of two free ports to the Danube and the Black Sea. However, there were people supporting the construction of a railway line between the Danube and the Black Sea, which determined Wilson to ask the technical engineering company, Liddell and Gordon, to assess a rail project on the same route. After checking the soil properties, Liddell and Gordon established that the development of a channel was much more difficult and expensive than a railway line, which could be built on the respective route. Over the same period, another British entrepreneur, John Trevor Barkley, who used to be manager of the Heraclea mines, supported the construction of a railway line between Cernavodă and Constanţa. John Trevor Barkley and his younger brother, Henry C. Barkley, both civil engineers, elaborated the first line plans and sections in 1856. For the development of the new project, “The Danube and Black Sea Railway and Free Port of Küstendjie Company ” was established. The company included the British financial group, Thomas Wilson, S.Cunard, P.Price, G.B.Paget, J.Lewis and J.Newal in London. The convention on the concession of Cernavodă Port – Constanţa Port line, signed by D.B.S.R. and the Turkish Government entered force based on the firman issued by Sultan Abdul Medgid (1839-1861). All people living in the villages from Hârşova to Rasova were forced to work in the line construction and elevation of embankments carried out between 1858 and 1860. The line was inaugurated on October 4, 1860. In the beginning, the line in Doborgea had only four stations: Constanţa Port, Murfatlar, Medgidia and Cernavodă Port. Except for Murfatlar, the stations were equipped with warehouses for grain storage. The connection between Constanţa City rail station and Constanţa Port rail station, where the rolling stock work sites were also built, was quite difficultly provided through a zigzag line, 2.6-km long and divided on three routes. The entire route of Constanţa Port – Constanţa City – Cernavodă Port line measured 65.34 km. “The Berkley brothers and Co., with a capital of ROL 21,000,000, have established this “iron road”, now dedicated to trade and communication in just three years”, the famous Romanian economist and statistics specialist, Dionisie Pop Marţian, who attended the arrival of the first train on the Dobrogea railway line, wrote in “Illustratiunea, Ziurnal universal” newspaper.
by Elena Ilie
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