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Worcester, Dean C.

"The Philippines: Past and Present (Volume 1 of 2)"

05. This
includes not only the actual cost of maintenance, but very extensive
improvements, such as the metalling of the road from the so-called
zigzag to Baguio, the construction of five steel bridges, and the
replacing of all the original bridges on the road and of all the
original culverts except those made of concrete or masonry.
On my arrival in Benguet in 1901, I found that good progress had been
made on the upper end of the road, which had penetrated for a short
distance into the canon proper without encountering any considerable
obstacles.
On October 15, 1901, the commission stated in its annual report to the
secretary of war, "He [509] has been much delayed by the difficulty of
procuring the labour necessary for its early completion, and several
months will yet elapse before it is finished!" They did!
On August 20, 1901, Captain Meade was relieved, and Mr. N. M. Holmes
was made engineer of the road.
On February 3, 1902, a little sanitarium was opened in a small native
house at Baguio. During the following July I was sent to it as a
patient, and while in Benguet again inspected the road which had been
continued high up on the canon wall to a point where, on a very steep
mountain side, a peculiar rock formation had been encountered at the
very grass roots.


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