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Report on Transcontinental Railways,
Secretary of War, 1883
(64 page report)


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1883 Transcontinental Railroad Map

"Map Showing Routes of Transcontinental Railroad as Explored and as Conducted 1883" (27" x 24")

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254 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
is of most importance to us, the case is very different. Taking the route from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Union, for example, the average cost by wagon per 100 pounds per hundred miles for the sixteen years from 1855 to 1870, both inclusive, was $1.77, whilst by rail it is now less than a tenth of that amount. This represents the relative cost of wagon and railway transportation, bearing in mind that any variation is always such as to show more strongly the advantage of railway transportation. In some cases transportation by wagon is twenty times more costly than by railway.
Hereto attached are four tables (marked A, B, C, and D) recently prepared in the office of the Quartermaster-General, which contain valuable statistics on this point, and a table (E) prepared in the same office in 1854.
The connection of the Army with the development of the system of transcontinental railways has been direct, and the assistance rendered has been of great value, a fact which has been always admitted by those engaged in the construction. The first exploring party sent into the field for the special purpose of ascertaining the feasibility of constructing a railway on a portion of the line of one of the transcontinental routes was that under charge of Captain Warner, of the Topographical Engineers, which was organized and set in motion by orders conveyed by yourself in 1849. All the explorations from that time on until 1855, including all time present transcontinental routes, were conducted by Army officers, with the single exception of the northern route, the exploration in that case being under the direction of all exofficer. however, all these explorations were in charge of graduates of the Military Academy, and the results of their labors prove how zealously and efficiently they were conducted.
Two of the leaders, Captains Warner and Gunnison, were killed by hostile Indians, and all endured every hardship. But it was not alone officers of the Army who gave efficient service to this work. Civil assistants were largely employed, and amongst them we find the names of many who afterwards became prominent in other directions because of the very qualities displayed by them in this work.
The explorations finished and the work of construction begun, the labors and privations of the troops were greatly multiplied. The Union Pacific (both branches), a considerable portion of the Northern Pacific, part of the Atchison Topeka and Santa F≥, and, to some extent, the Southern Pacific railroads, were built directly in the face of hostile Indians. An enumeration of the combats with this foe would be startling in its length. The loss of life which actually occurred was far beyond what is supposed. But it was not warfare with the savages that was most trying to the soldiers; it was the necessity for constant watchfulness, the subjection to every hardship, time generally unwholesome way of living, and the feeling that the lives of many unarmed laborers depended upon them, that told most severely. It is not to be inferred that without the aid of the Army the roads could not have been built, but the work was rendered much easier and the time shorter through the assistance of the soldiers, given without extra reward, or hope of reward, beyond the feeling of satisfaction in contributing their share to the advancement of time general welfare.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
0. N. POE,
Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers, Col., A. D. C.,
Brevet Brigadier- General U. S. A.
General W. T. SHERMAN,
Commanding United States Army.
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 255
REPORT.
HISTORY.
In 1830 there were 23 miles of railway in operation in this country. In 1831,72 miles were added; 134 miles in 1832; 151 miles in 1833; 253 miles in 1834; 465 miles in 1835, and 175 miles in 1836, when the total amounted to 1,273 miles. Of this total, 630 miles, or almost exactly one half, had been built in the two years 1S35-'36; and railroads and railroad matters had begun to somewhat prominently engage the attention of the people.
The tracks were composed of mere straps of iron, fastened to longitudinal string pieces, and quite incapable of heavy traffic.
The first locomotive used in the United States was constructed in England by Foster, Rastrick & Co., and imported in 1$2. It was called the '' Stourbridge Lion," and was intended for use upon the Carbondale and Honesdale Railroad, belonging to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. Though weighing but a small fraction of the weight of our present first-class locomotives, it was found to be too heavy for the track as then constructed, and was abandoned.
The first locomotive built in this country, and the second ever in use in it, was made at the West Point Foundry Works, in 1830, for the South Carolina Railroad, then in process of construction. It was named "The Best Friend of Charleston." It arrived at Charleston on the 23d of October, 1830, and was placed on the road November 2. The second engine constructed in this country was by the same establishment and for the same road. The third, also constructed by the West Point Foundry, was placed on the Mohawk and Hudson, now a part of the New York Central Railroad, in 1831. It weighed three tons, and was used on the summit between the two inclined planes. An English locomotive, weighing six tons, was imported for use at the same place, but was found to be too heavy for the track, and its use was discontinued.
Such were the engines, and such the character of the railroads in existence when the subject of their use, for military purposes, first engaged attention; and when their extension across the continent was broached.
It would now be impossible to ascertain who was the first to suggest the construction of a railway to connect the eastern portion of our country with the Pacific coast. It is probable that the idea in some form occurred to several persons. Very recently, Mr. E. V. Smalley, in his "History of the Northern Pacific Railroad," has presented the claim of Dr. Samuel Bancroft Barlow, of Granvihle, Mass., to this distinction, details the evidence upon which the claim is founded, and shows that as early as 1834 (possibly in 1833) Dr. Barlow advocated the construction of a railroad from New York to the mouth of time Columbia River, by direct appropriations from the Treasury of the United States. But in presenting this claim to priority, is it not possible that the fact has been overlooked that Dr. Barlow's paper in the Intelligencer (of Westfield, Mass.) was called forth by a series of articles upon the same subject, published in the Emigrant, of Wasshtenaw County, Michigan Territory? And is not, therefore, that unknown writer of those articles really entitled to whatever credit attaches to priority of suggestion?
In 1836 John Plumbe, a Welshman by birth, an American by education and feeling, a civil engineer by profession, at Dubuque, Iowa.
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 257
(December, 1845) he again presented a memorial in regard to the matter,
which was referred to the Senate Committee oil Public Lauds (Mr. Breese, chairman. Mr. Woodbridge, Mr. Morehead, Mr. Ashley, and Mr. Chalmers). The chairman prepared a report, which was it unanimously adopted by the committee 011(1 reported to the Senate, together with a 1)111 to carry out the project. (The proposition had gained much strength in the three years which followed the discussion of the "Oregon question.)
During the first session of the Thirtieth Congress (March 17, 1818)
he again presented a memorial, which was referred to a select committee
in each House. The House committee reported a bill to carry, the project into effect. A bill (not identical) was also reported by the Senate committee. In each case the action of the committee was unanimous. (Time favorable sentiment had increased.) But the Senate bill was laid on time table by the close vote of 27 to 21, and time House did not reach its bill. Mr. Pollock, from the house select committee, used the following language:
The proposition, at first view, is a startling one. The magnitude of the work itself ; and the still greater and more magnificent results promised by its accomplishment, that of revolutionizing, morally and commercially, if not politically, a greater part of the habitable. globe, amid making the vast commerce of the world tributary to as, almost overwhelms the mind. Bat your commitee, oil examination, find it a subject as simple as it is vast and magnificent, and see no insurmountable difficulties in the way of its successful accomplishment.
Time short session, beginning in December, 1848, was occupied with other matters, which were considered, at the time, of more pressing moment.
To Mr. Whitney undoubtedly belongs the credit of having first formulated a practicable scheme for the construction of a transcontinental railway. When he began his active work in connection with time project, our Oregon possessions were all we controlled oil the Pacific coast, and the location of the western terminus was limited accordingly. His eastern terminal point was at Saint Joseph, on Lake Michigan. Two and a half years afterwards, when he presented his third memorial, we were in possession of all the coast front the Straits of Fuca to San Diego, and time western terminus might be anywhere within those limits.
Mr. Whitney asked the aid of Government to the extent of a sale to him of public lands, at a reduced price, for 30 miles on each side of the located hue. The House bill fixed 10 cents per acre as the price to be paid by Mr. Whitney.
In the fall of 1849 "a Pacific railroad convention met at Saint Louis,
and was presided over by Stephen A. Douglas. * * * Whitney's last map, as shown to this convention, marked out a route from Chicago by way of Prairie (In Chien, Council Bluffs, and the South Pass, to Snake River, (howl! that stream to Fort Walla Walla, and thence across the Cascade Mountains to Fort Nisquially, on Puget Sound." J. Loughborough, a Saint Louis lawyer, presented, as a compromise, a project for a line "from Independence Mo., to the South Pass, and thence by way of the Humboldt River to California, with a branch to Oregon and termnini at Yaquina Bay, Fort Vancouver on the Columbia, and Fort Nisqually on time
The Saint Louis convention condemned Whitney's project-(Sinai-hey.)
About 1847 Dr. Carver also memorialized Congress. Be found Mr. Whitney already upon the ground, and actively pushing his views. Although the time was not ripe for the adoption of a national measure
4132 w-17
258 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
so grand in its scope, and statesmen regarded their schemes as the dream of enthusiasts, rather than file coolly-conceived project of great minds, yet their arguments were not fruitless. Constant and rapid accessions of support were gained, until the measure was defeated in 1848 by only a bare majority. The time had passed for men to ridicule such a proposition, and file defeat of the bill can only be attributed to the magnitude of the project. Legislators were timid, not unbelieving. The country did not yet realize the immensity of its resources, and the proposed national aid, if rendered, would make a serious drain upon them. A considerable number of our legislators, at that time, were of opinion, too, that the Constitution (11(1 not warrant such an application of the public domain. Not withstanding all this, the legislatures of nineteen States passed resolutions in favor of file adoption of Whitney's plan. In most of these cases the vote was unanimous, or nearly so, and in the others the favorable majority was large.
By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on the 2d of February, 1848, the war winch had existed between the United States and Mexico, for nearly two years, was terminated, and that portion of the Mexican province of California, comprised between the southern boundary of Oregon mid a point just south of file post of San Diego was ceded to the United States. Almost simultaneously with this, came the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, within this ceded territory. The fact soon became known to the world, and a vast number of the most earnest adventurers, and enterprising men from the rest of our own, and even from foreign countries, started in search of fortune. Some portion of this migration reached California in the latter part of 1848, but it was not until 1849 that the great influx arrived. By whatever route they came, much time was consumed, and every hardship endured. Thousands never lived to complete file journey. The difficulties and dangers of all the lines of communication with the outer world were so manifest to then), that almost with the first arrivals appeared a determination to secure improvement in this regard, and, as a consequence, on the 13th of Augrist, 1849, a party under the direction of Capt. W. H. Warner, Corps of Topographical Engineers, United States Army, under instructions conveyed to him by Lieut. (now General) W. T. Sherman, left Sacramento, Cal., intending to survey as far as Humboldt River, for the purpose of finding a practicable railroad route through the Sierra Nevada. While engaged upon this duty on the 26th of September, 1849, Captain Warner was killed by Red River Indians on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. His notes and other papers were preserved, however, and subsequently used. They extended as for as Goose Lake. He was accompanied upon this exploration by Lieutenant Williamson of the same corps.
The instructions by the Department of State, to the commissioner, for running and marking the boundary line between the United States and Mexico, under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo directed an examination of the country contiguous to the line to ascertain its practicability for a railway route to the Pacific. The boundary, as agreed upon by the two commissioners representing- the two countries, fixed the initial point in the Rio Grande in latitude 32¡ 22', instead of a point as laid down on the treaty map, about 8 miles above El Paso. This was disapproved by the astronomer and surveyor on the corn mission at the time, and was eventually repudiated by the Government. The boundary line, as finally determined and established under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, extended up the Rio Grande from its mouth to latitude 31¡ 54' 40" north; thence west along that parallel to tire meridian of 109¡ 37' west; thence due north to the Rio San Domingo; thence
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 259
down that stream to the Gila; thence down the Gila to its mouth; thence in a straight line to the point on the Pacific, in latitude 32¡ 32' north (Warren). This treaty, entered into in 1848, at the close of the war with Mexico, was made before the agitation of the s1ilject of a transcontinental railway had become so prominent, yet the question
received sonic consideration, as by Article VI it is provided that
If by the examinations which may be made, it should be ascertained to be practicable and advantageous to construct a road, canal, or railway which should in whole or in part run upon the river GiIa, or upon its right or its left bank within the space of one marine league front either margin of the river, the Government of both republics will form an a i reen eu t regarding its construction, in order that it may serve equally for the use and advantage of both countries.
The people of the southern portion of our country soon appreciated the necessity to them of a line as far south as the houndary would admit of a slight inspection of recent maps will show that the boundary adopted was such as to make the construction of a railroad within it, but in its immediate vicinity, a work of great difficulty, whilst just south of it, the mountains generally drop into the plain with easy passes through the remaining ridges, in fact, as we now know, affording the easiest route from the Rio Grande to the Pacific.
As soon as these facts became known, negotiations were instituted for the purchase from Mexico of additional territory, resulting in what is generally known as time Gadsden purchase. Under this it was agreed that the boundary line should leave the middle of the Rio Grande.
Where the parallel of 31¡ 47' north latitude crosses the same; thence due west 100 miles; thence south to the parallel of 31¡ 20' north latitude; thence along the said parallel of 31¡ 21' to the one hundred and eleventh meridian of longitude west of Greenwich: thence in a straight line to a point on the Colorado River 20 English miles below the junction of the Gila and Colorado Rivers; thence up the middle of the said river Colorado until it intersects the present line between the United States and Mexico.
All the other parts of the boundary line remained as provided in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. For this modification of the boundary, the United States paid to Mexico the sum of $10,000,000, and acquired the coveted Mesilla Valley route over which the Southern Pacific Railroad has since been constructed.
In 1846-'47 Maj. W. It. Emory, of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, United States Army, had passed over the region in question, from the Rio Grande to the Pacific Ocean, and gained much information in regard to its physical characteristics. Very early in 1849 be sailed for San Diego, Cal., to assist in running and marking the boundary line between the two countries, as established by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Whilst crossing the Isthmus (if Panama he scents to have had experience of such a character as to impress upon him the vital importance to its of a railroad to the Pacific. He was acquainted with the instructions of our Government to its commissioners and feared that the initial point of the boundary would not be located sufficiently low down on lie Rio Grande to secure a practicable railway route on out, side of the line. Consequently, upon his arrival at San Diego, lie wrote to the Secretary of the Interior, under (late of April 2, 1849, is follows, viz:
* * * "The inaccuracy of the maps upon winch the treaty was made, and which
thereby became a part of the treaty, is notorious. It is also known to all who have
been much in the frontier Slates of Mexico, that the. boundaries of those states have
never been defined on the ground, and are unknown. uThis is particularly the ease of
the boundary betwixt New Mexico and Chihuahua. In this condition of things the commissioners must negotiate, and they may adopt the thirty-second parallel of latitude until it strikes the San Pedro, or a more southern parallel of latitude. This would give what good authority combined with my own observations authorizes me to say is a Practicable route for a railroad."
It afterwards appeared that if this coin unuiiication had been promptly acted upon, it ''would have been the means of saving much controversy and expenditure of time and money."
Is it possible that it would have saved the whole Gadsden (or Mesilla Valley) purchase."
262 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR,
waters of the Pacific in Puget Sound, and in the Columbia River, the whole intermediate space being occupied by the Cascade Mountains, with but two passes reported practicable for a railroad, that of the Columbia River and that of the Vakima.
In the opinion of the officer who examined it, Capt. George B. McClellan, of the Corps of Engineers, United States Army, Yakitua Pass was
barely practicable, at a great cost.
The route by the pass of the Columbia followed that river from the
great plain, being generally located as far as the Dalles in bottom
lands, which presented no difficulties. From the Dalles to near Vancouver, 90 miles, the route was less easy, but deemed quite practicable.
The Columbia River is navigable for sea-going vessels to Vancouver, but because of the unfavorable character of the entrance, and the great superiority of the ports oil Puget Sound, it was deemed expedient to adopt one of the latter as the Pacific terminus of this route. Therefore the route was continued without difficulty down the Columbia to the mouth of the Cowlitz, then up the valley of that stream and across the intermediate country to Seattle, on the east side of Puget Sound.
The, principal favorable characteristics of this route were its low pro
file, low grades, the low elevation of the mountain passes, and its connection with the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. The principal unfa-vorable features were in construction; the tunnel required oil the Rocky Mountains, and the difficuity and expense of construction front the eastern approach of the Rocky Mountains to the Spokane River, and the expense of the construction along the Columbia River from the Dalles to near Vancouver.
The severely-cold character of the climate throughout the whole route,
except tile portion west of tile Cascade Mountains, was considered one
of its unfavorable features; and, strange to say, its proximity to the
dominions of a powerful foreign sovereignty was deemed a serious objection to it as a military road. (These views were advanced in 1855 by Hon. Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War. Could there have been any stronger argument in favor of this route as a military highway than its proximity to the dominion of a single foreign sovereignty fi-out the great lakes to the Pacific ?)
Governor Stevens estimated the cost of a railroad from Saint Paul to Seattle, by the Columbia River Valley and the Cowlitz, ,it $117,121,000. The Secretary of War thought it. safer to increase this estimate to $150,871,000, but added
Should Governor Stevens have included a full equipment, oin his estimate, $10,000,000
should be subtracted from this sum to bring tile estimate in accordance with those of the other routes, and the cost then becomes $140,871,000.
The, length of the route ti-omit Saint Paul to Vancouver was 1,864 miles, with sum of ascents and descents, as far as reported, of 18,100 feet, giving an equated length of 2,207 miles.
From Saint Paul to Seattle, by time Columbia mute, was 2,025 miles. with an equated distance of 2,387 miles.
TI-118 ROUTE AS OCCUPIED.
This route has been occupied by the Northern Pacific Railroad, which however, departs more from the route laid down by the exploring party than does either of I lie others. 'The fact most not he overlooked, however, that the Yellowstone Valley was examined. From time west end of Lake Superior two lutes, each of about 2-f miles in length, join at Northern Pacific Junction, and thence continue over the same track to
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 263
Brainard, where the hue is joined by a railroad proceeding from Saint Paul; thence continuing westerly it crosses at Glyndon a line of railway from Saint Panl to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and at Jaunestown scuds off a branch to the northwest (branches to the south, or southwestward are not considered), toward the southerly bend of Mouse River. Crossing the Missouri at Bismarck it reaches the Yellowstone at Glendive; then following up the south bank of the Yellowstone it crosses it but few times, and finally leaves it a short distance west of Shield's River, and crossing the mountain at Bozeman's Pass by a tunnel 3,610 feet long, at an elevation of 3,565 feet, descends into the valley of the Gallatin (one of the branches of the Missouri) through Rock. Ca¯on, and by a very direct route reaches the main chain of the Rocky Mountains at Mullan Pass, where it crosses by means of a tunnel 3,850 feet long, at an elevation of 5,547 feet, or 18 feet less than that at Bozeman's Pass. This pass is the 0110 referred to by Governor Stevens, in his report, as not explored by him, but likely upon examination to prove better than either of the two passes which lie (lid explore. It then continues down the Little Blackfoot to its junction with the Deer Lodge (the resulting stream being called the Hell Gate), thence along the Hell Gate to its junction with the bitter Boot (or Saint Mary's). Here it intersect,,; 0110 of the explored lines, and becoming coincident with it pursues that route through the Coriacan defile and along the Jocko to its Junction with Clark's Fork of the Columbia, thence down that stream, and passing the northerly end of Peud Lake continues to follow the
explored route via Spokane Falls and old Fort Walla \Vall't (110w
Wallula) to Portland, and thence via the Cowlitz Valley to Puget Sound at Tacoma.
Iii 1852 Mr. Edwin F. Johnson, an engineer of high reputation, warmly advocated the construction of a line of railroad along the northern route, In 1853, sonic years before the results of the Government explorations became generally known, lie published a map and profile indicating a line front Chicago, with a branch from the head of Lake Superior joining it at what is now Breckenridge, out the Red River of the North, "crossed tile plains to tile Missonri, followed the north bank of that stream and the 1)earborn River to the mountains, thence rail to Flathead Lake all([ Fort Colville, and ended at Bellingham Bay, on Puget Sound." This map had for its basis the results of the expedition of Lewis and Clark-c, and was remarkably accurate, in view of the fact that no instrumental data were available for its construction.
But it was mainly to Governor Isaac I. Stevens that the country is indebted for. the legislation that resulted in the building of the road. Being in Congress a a Delegate from Washington Territory, he had many opportunities to forward the interests of the project unavailable to others. lie was earliest and zealous in his advocacy, and his personal influence with his fellow members such as to secure him a respectful heating, thus enabling him to properly present a strong array of facts coming within his own knowledge. Except for his early death upon the battle-field, he would undoubtedly have taken a prominent part in the ultimate construction of the road.
The Northern Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated by an act of Congress approved July 2, 1864, entitled "Au act granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, on the Pacific coast, by the northern route."
By this act the company was empowered to build a line of road from some point on Lake Superior, in the State of Wisconsin or Minnesota,
264 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
west on a line north of the forty-fifth degree of latitude, to a point on
Puget Sound, with a branch to Portland, Oreg. It required the
company to commence work within two years to complete not less than 50 miles a year after the second year, and to finish the entire road by July 4, 1876. The land-grant was twenty sections to each mile of track in the States of Minnesota mid Oregon, and forty in the Territories; and a vicious section was added to the effect '' that all the people of the United States shall have the right to subscribe to the stock of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company until the whole capital named in this act of incorporation is taken up by complying with the terms of subscription, and no mortgage or construction bonds shall ever be issued by said company oil said road, or mortgage or lien made in any way, except by the consent of the Congress of the United States," only to be repealed in 1870.
The conditions of the net were accepted by the. company December 15, 1564, and oil the 17th the President of the United States was notified thereof. This notification was acknowledged by the Department of the Interior oil the 30th.
Omi the 9th of March, 1865, the Secretary of the Interior acknowledged receipt of a map. upon which was delineated the general line of the Northen Pacific Railroad, as adopted by the Board of Directors of that company, and a letter dated on the 6th of the, same month requesting that the granted lands along the line be withdrawn from market.
Meanwhile but little progress was made towards beginning construction. Edwin F. Johnson was appointed chief engineer of the road in May, 1866. Systematic surveys at both ends of the road were begun 111 the summer of 1867, and the first general report of time chief engineer was made in November, but it was not until April, 1869, that the reports of the engineers in charge of the surveys at the two ends were
ready for presentation, and no report was made to the Board of Directors until 1870, for the reason that there was no meeting between February, 1868, and February, 1870 (History Northern Pacific Railroad,
page 160). By joint resolution of Congress of July 1, 1868 the time
for beginning the work of construction was extended two years, and
for completion one year, 01 from July 2. 1868 tO) 3 July 4, 1877. Another
joint resolution, approved March 1, 1869, granted the consent of' Congress to the issue of bonds secured by mortgage upon the railroad and telegraph line, and defined the term I'uget Sound." Aim act of Congress approved April 10, 1869, authorized the "extension of its branch
line from a point at or near Portland, Oreg., to some suitable point on Puget Sound, to be determined by said company," &c., and required the construction of at least 25 miles of the extension before July 2, 1871, and 40 miles per year thereafter.
By joint resolution of May 31, 1870, the company was authorized to
issue its bonds, secured b mortgage 111)011 "its property and fights of
property of all kinds and descriptions, real, personal, and mixed, including its franchise as a corporation." It also authorized the location of the line via the valley of the Columbia River to connect with the branch line to Puget Sound; increased the laud grant, and required the use of American iron or steel in the construction of the road.
Time history of the financial operations of the company now becomes
interesting, but, being entirely foreign to the purposes of this paper, is
omitted, as it will be generally in speaking of the other roads.
Construction work upon the road began ill the summer of 1870. "Do
tailed surveys were completed during the spring from Thomson's
266 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
The Missouri Division extends from Mandan to Glendive, on the Yellowstone, a distance of 216 miles. Its construction was begun early in 1878, advantage having been taken of the ice-bridge in the winter to lay a track over it and transport a large quantity of materials in readiness for the season's work.
From Mandan to Fryburg, a distance of 136 miles, the work was light, except the construction of the numerous bridges across the Heart River and its tributaries. From Fryburg to Beaver Creek, a distance of 30 miles, the line crossed the Bad Lands, and some difficulties were encountered, arising principally from the distance from the base of supplies and the frequent presence of hostile Indian,,, in the vicinity. From Beaver Creek, down Glendive Creek to the Yellowstone, the route was easy. The chief engineer's affidavit of completion to the Little Missouri, 150 miles, was filed in the General Land Office September 3, 1880, and to a point about nine miles west of Glendive (near Iron Bluff), a further distance of 75 miles, on July 20, 1881, though the track had actually reached that point some time before. The end of the road was 110W about 700 miles west of Duluth, on Lake Superior, and was complete, except as to the bridge across the Missouri River between Bismarck and Mandaii.
The Yellowstone Division extends from Glendive to Billings, 225 miles,
the road ascending the Yellowstone by its south bank until within two
miles of the latter point, when it crosses to the north bank.
Work began on this division in the spring of 1881, and was pushed with great vigor, reaching Billings by midsummer. The chief engineer's atlidavits show the following results as accomplished:
Miles. April 17, 1882 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------100 July 11,182 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------25 July 24,18$2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------25 August 10, 1882 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------25 August 25, 1882 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------25 October 27, 1882 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------50 November 9, 1882. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------25 November 28, 1882 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------25 November 2s, 1882, bri'lge over the Missouri --------------------------------------------------------------4- 6
Total ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------304.6
The last-named item given above comprises time bridge across the
Missouri at Bismarck, a work of much difficulty. The site of the bridge
was fixed in July, 1880, and ground was broken for its construction in May, 1881, all([ it was formally opened for use October 21, 1882, though not certified until nearly a month later. The road was now continuous from Duluth westward a thousand miles. The season's work had carried the road well over into the adjoining division, to a point called Livingston, 115 miles west of Billings.
The lIontana Division is comprised between Billings and Helena, a distance of 239 miles. The road crosses the Yellowstone at a point 37 miles west of Billings, and recrosses to the north side at Livingston, where it leaves the valley of the Yellowstone and begins the ascent of time Belt Range, rising 1,052 feet, to Bozemimami Pass, in a distance of 12 miles, with maximum grades of 116 feet to the mile. It Crosses the Pass by a tunnel 3,610 feet long, at an elevation of 5,565 feet above sea-level, or 18 feet higher than the summit of the tunnel through the main chain of the Rocky Mountains at Mullan Pass. The descent westward from Bozeman tunnel is easily made by wily of Rock Ca¯on, with maximum grades of 116 feet for a portion of the distance, and thence proceeding
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 267
down the valley of the East (3allatiii, crosses the Missouri and reaches Helena.
Work was begun on Bozeman tunnel February 11, 1882, almost simultaneously with the commencement of work on the division at Billings.
To avoid delay in track laying vest of the Pass, a temporary track 2 1/2 miles in length, with grades of 220 feet, was laid across the divide, and the road carried forward steadily during the winter of 1882-'83, except when interrupted by short periods of extremely cold weather. The track reached Bozeinan on the 14th or March, 1883, and the first passenger train arrived there, amid great rejoicing, on file 21st. In June the road was completed to Helena, 1,132 miles west of Duluth, with the exception of Bozeman tunnel, which will probably be completed by the close of the year.
The Rocky Mountain Division extends from Helena to Heron, a distance of 274 Miles.
The route via Mullan Pass was adopted in 1881, but was not formally
approved by the Department, of the interior until May, 1853. Construction was begun on the division at Mullan tunnel (through the
main Rocky Mountain range) December 14, 1881, and is not. yet completed, but soon will be. It is 3,8.50 feet long, and at the highest point 5,547 feet- above the level of the sea.
From Helena the line follows the harrow valley of Seven-Mile Creek,
and up Greenhorn Gulch to time Pass, with maximum grades of IN feet, then descends the Little Blackfoot to its junction with the Deer Lodge, then down the Hell Gate to Missoula, and through the Coriacan Defile to the Jocko, down that stream to the Flathead River, and down that to its junction with Clark's fork of the Columbia, which it descends.
As far as the valley of the Little Blackfbot, about 30 miles west of Helena, the road was built flon, east towards the west, reaching that point on the 22d of August, 1883, and was there joined by the other portion, built eastward from Wallula on the Columbia, where it is joined by the main line of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company coming from Portland.
The Pend d'Oreille Division begins at Wallula and ends at Heron, a distance of 269 1/2 miles. It extends in a generally northeastern direction across the great plains of the Columbia, around the north end of lake Pend d'Oreille, and along the Columbia River until it meets the division to the eastward.
A small amount of work was (lone on time division in 1879, but it was
not until the spring of 1880 that operations were pushed with vigor.
During that year the grading was completed to Rathdrum 189 miles, and track was laid from Wallula to the south bank of Snake River, and from Ainsworth, on the north bank of that stream, 48 miles further, to Twin Wells At the close of the season the grade was 124 miles in advance of the track. ' The crossing of Snake River is at present effected by a transfer-boat.
A bridge is in course of construction, and its completion expected in
1884. In length it will be next to that at Bismarck.
The road was easy of construction until it approached Lake Pemid
when the country becomes much broken. Much trestle work is used, one stretch, being 8,400 feet long, and the aggregate amounting to nearly three miles.
The most difficult portion of the whole line to construct was that between Sand Point, on Lake Pend d 'Oi-eille, and the crossing of the Flathead, one of the principal obstacles being the density of the forests and the size of the trees. Most of the work through the woods and swamp along the lake shore was done ill the winter of 1881-'82. At
268 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
times thousands of men "were engaged in shoveling the snow from the
line in order that the grading and track-laying might proceed." Some blasting of rocks upon in enormous scale was done, and in the spring occurred land-slides, comparable with the one that formed the Cascades of the Columbia.
By the close of 1881 the road had been completed to Algoina, at the northwest arm of Lake Pettd d'Oreille, a distance of 225 miles. During 1852 work proceeded, but was included in the difficult portion referred to, and progress was slower. Still, 100 miles were added to the completed road, and it had reached Thompson's River. When the season of 1883 opened everything was in readiness to push the work forward to completion before its close. On the 27th of April the chief engineer's affidavit of completion to Jocko was filed, and by June the road had reached the summit of the Coriacan Defile, by way of Findlay Creek, with a maximum grade of 116 feet to the mile. The descent to the eastward, through the Coriacan Defile, involved some heavy work and maxinium grades of 116 feet, but the approximation of the two ends of the
road excited every one to the greatest exertion, and out the 22d of August,
1883, the rails were joined in the valley of the Little Blackfoot. The
formal ceremony of the opening of the route took place September 8, 1883.
In order to reach Portland, Oreg., 214 miles from Wallula use is
made of the Columbia River line of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, which, like the main line of the Northern Pacific, is entirely in the interest of the Oregon and Transcontinental Company. This road is on the south side of the Columbia, and, except the last 40 miles, lies upon the edge of the river. During its construction some blasting of extraordinary proportions was done, and the whole work was difficult, especially that portion between The Dalles amol the Cascades, a distance of about 45 miles. Between Wallula In(] The Dalles the work was much lighter, and below the Cascades the road leaves the river and finds level gron rid to Portland.
In order to utilize the navigation of the Columbia above the mouth of flue Willamette, a portage railroad, of 6 miles, had early been built oil the north bank around the Cascades, and another, of 13 miles, on flue south hank front The Dalles to Celilo.
To make the all-rail communication between Wallula all(] Portland, the work of construction was begun between Wallula and Celilo in 1880, and in the fall of 1881 the grade was completed to the foot of the Cascades, at Bonneville, and in the spring of 1882 the road was operated to that pout. The portion between Bonneville and Portland was opened in the following October.
The Oregon 1ailway and Navigation Company has under construction a branch from Umatilla 187 miles above Portland, to connect, via the valley of the Grande lomude and the Powder River Valley, with the Oregon Short-Line branch of the Union Pacific at Snake River.
This line is now in operation to the Blue Mountains, and its completion in 1884 is expected, thins giving a direct route from the Union
Pacific at Granger to the Columbia. River Valley. The main line continues eastward from Wallula, and by a system of branch lines, connected where practicable with steamboat navigation on the, Columbia and Snake Rivers, serves the rich country south of the Snake and between the Bitter Root and Blue Mountains.
The Pacific Division of the Northern Pacific Company extends from
Portland to Puget Sound, being linked to the main line as above de-scribed. It follows the Willamette from Portland to the Columbia, and
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 269
thence, by the south bank of the latter, to a crossing place about two miles above Kalama and 40 miles from Portland, where trains are to be ferried over the river. It is expected that this connection will be made before the close of the present simmer.
Next to the Minnesota Division the line from Kalama, on time Columbia,
to Tacoma, on Puget Sound, is the oldest portion of the Northern Pacific
Road. Time joint resolution of Congress of May 31, 1870, made the line
down the Columbia and thence to l'uget Sound the main line, and that
proposed across the Cascades a branch, provided that 25 miles of time road between time Columbia and the Sound should be built within a year from that time, and that the whole road should be opened to the Sound before the close of 1873.
The company began to build from Kalama, on time Columbia, 9 miles
above the mouth of time Cowhitz, in April, 1871, and 25 miles were completed that year. During the next year 50 miles were built. Work was resumed in time spring of 1873, but was much embarrassed by financial difficulties, and only reached Puget Sound at Tacoma, 105 miles from Kalama, twenty-four hours before time expiration of the time fixed by Congress.
Time road follows the (1osvlitz for about 40 miles, then across a divide
to a tributary of the Chehallis, and a second divide to time Nisqually whence it crosses level, gravelly prairies until near the Sound, and then sharply descends to tide-water. The grades are easy for the whole distance except the last 2 miles, where maximum grades of 116 feet to the mile are used. Time construction involved no difficult work.
ROUTE NEAR THE FORTY-FIRST AND FORTY-SECOND PARALLELS.
About one-half of this work, extending from the Missouri River to
Fort Bridger, was not explored with special reference to the practicability of constructing a railroad. Information furnished by time reports of Colonel Fremont and Captain Stansbury, of time Corps of Topographical Engineers, United States Army, sufficed for the tine consideration of this portion.
From Fort Bridger to Fort Reading, on the Sacramento River, the
exploration,,; we're conducted by Lieut. E. G. Beckwith, Third Artillery.
A route presenting favorable conditions might commence either at Fort Leavenworth. with connection with Saint Louis, or at Council Bluffs, connecting with Rock Island, ascend the Platte River and enter the eastern chain of the Rocky Mountains (the Black Hills) by time North Fork and its tributary, the Sweet Water.
Another route, by the South Fork and its tributary, Lodge Pole Creek, was suggested by Captain Stansbury as shorter and less expensive.
From the Missouri River to the entrance to the Black Hills, 30 miles above Fort Laramie, 520 miles from Council Bluffs and 755 miles from Fort Leavenworth, time route presented no o difficulties whatever. West of this it crossed many lateral streams, with deep ravines, and left time Platte just below Hot Springs Gap. 10 avoid these, it crossed a range of hills 800 feet above time river and descended to time Sweet Water, followed that stream to its source, where it attained the summit of the South Pass plateau at an elevation of 7,400 feet.
From the South Pass the route followed down Sandy Creek, a tributary of Green River, to time crossing of time latter, and thence to Fort Bridger. It then descended the divide between the waters of Green River and those of Great Salt Lake by the valley of Black's Fork or
270 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
one of its tributaries. The summit was found on a broad terrace at the foot of the Uintah Mountains, the elevation being 8,373 feet. From this point the line descended over the undulating country separating the Uintah and Bear River Mountains, crossed the head of bear River, and, entering the valley of White Clay Creek at its Lead, followed down that stream to its junction with Weber River.
The Wasatch Mountains intervene between this plateau country and Great Salt Lake, and it was found that the passage through them could be effected either by following Weber River or by ascending to near the sources of the Timpanogas and descending that Stream, both being directly or indirectly affluents of and equidistant from a common point on Great Salt Lake.
The valley of Great Salt Lake once entered, no obstacle was found to the construction of a railway passing by the south end of the lake to its west side.
From the western shore of Great Salt Lake to the valley of humboldt River the country consists alternately of mountains, in more or less isolated ridges, and of open level plain,,,, rising gradually 110111 the level of the lake oil the east to the base of tile Humboldt Mountains on the west; that is, from 4,200 feet to 6,000 feet above the sea. West of the Huml)Ol(lt Mountains the country is of the same character, the plains declining until at tile west shore of Mud Lake, usually called the foot of the Sierra Nevada, the elevation is 4,100 feet.
The mountains in this Space of 500 miles (600 miles by the route traveled) between Great Salt Lake and the foot of tile Sierra Nevada have a general north and south course. Occasionally crossspurs close in the valleys to the north and south, but more frequently this isolation is only apparent. The mountains are sharp, rocky, and inaccessible iii many parts, but are low and easily passed ill others. Their general elevation varies from 1,500 to 3,000 feet above the valleys.
The valleys rarely have a width east and west of more than five to ten miles, but often are of great extent north and south. They are irregular in form, frequently extending around the ends of mountains or united to succeeding valleys by level passages. It was found that a railroad might be carried over this series of valleys and around the mountain masses, at nearly the general level of the valleys.
In this manner the route reached the foot of the Humboldt Mountains and then crossed them by a pass nine miles long, about three of which are occupied b a narrow, rocky ravine. The descent was then made to the open valley of Humboldt River, which was followed for about 190 miles, then crossed two ranges of the general character of the Basin Mountains, and reached the toot of the Madlin Pass of the Sierra Nevada, on the west shore of Mud Lake, ill a distance of 119 miles, and at an elevation of 4,079 feet above the sea.
In this latitude the Sierra Nevada was the eastern boundary of the Sierra Nevada plateau. Thus far the pass was of a favorable character, the length of the ascent being 22.89 miles, the difference of elevation 1,172 feet, and the altitude of the summit 5,667 feet. Having gained the plateau, it was crossed by a nearly level line to the western boundary, the summit elevation of which was 5,736 feet, and the descent to the Sacramento was made in 15 miles, with a difference of elevation of 1,300 feet. Either a tunnel or au enormous cut with heavy grade would be required at the summit.
The route then followed the valley of the Sacramento, encountering many obstacles, to a point 17 miles above Fort Reading, where the open
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 271
valley was attained, and no further difficulty existed to the construction of a railroad to the Bay of San Francisco.
By the route indicated the distance front Fort Leavenworth to Fort Bridger was 1,02 miles; from Fort Bridger to Fort Reading, 1,012 miles; from Fort Reading to Benicia, 180 miles; and from Leavenworth to Beincia, 2,264 miles.
The distance from Council Bluffs to Benicia was 2,134 miles.
By a different location 103 miles could be saved in the Great Basin,
and the total distance reduced to 2,031 miles.
The coal-beds of Green River were noticed.
The winter climate along the greater portion of the route was known to be severe, but Lieutenant Beckwitli did not apprehend any unusual difficulty from this cause.
The features of this route, favorable to the economical construction of a railroad, are apparent from the description given in the detailed reports.
The unfavorable features were described, as time costly construction, for nearly 300 miles along the Platte and Sweet Water, in ascending to the summit of the South Pass; in time Ca¯on of the Timpanogas ; in the two caiions of time Sacramento, 14 and 9 miles in length, and in time sinuous course of this liver for a space of 96 miles, through heavily timbered mountains rising precipitously from time stream.
The sum of the ascents and descents was the next least after that of the forty-seventh to the forty-ninth parallel.
The cost of 2,031 miles of road, from Council Bluffs to Benicia, was estimated at $116,095,000.
The survey of the western portion of this route by Lieutenant Beckwith resulted in the discovery of a more direct and easier route than was believed to exist from the Great Salt Lake to time valley of the Sacramento. Subsequently, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe, commanding the troops in Utah, reported the discovery of a still more direct route from Great Salt Lake to San Francisco, passing to the south of Humboldt or Mary's River. and thence to the valley of Carson River.
It crossed the Sierra Nevada by the passes at time head of Carson River, and descended to the valley of time Sacramento. He stated that this route was, throughout, practicable for wagons.
'11115 ROUTE AS ACTUALLY OCCUPIED.
Practically this route begins at Omaha, Nebr., opposite Council Bluffs, on the Missouri River. The former town was not in existence when the explorations were made; consequently it is only the latter which is mentioned in instructions and reports. It follows the explored line to the mouth of the Lodge Pole, when it ascends that stream, as suggested by Captain Stamisbury, and keeping very close to time line as laid down on the map of the explorations, reaches the valley of Salt Lake. Instead of passing around the south end of this lake, how-ever, it passes around it by time north, and being then some 85 miles apart, the constructed gradually approaches the explored line for 250 miles, when they unite near Halleck Station. They now coincide for 200 miles and then diverge again, time explored line reaching Sacramento by way of the Madelin Pass and Pitt River, whilst the constructed line attains the same point by a much more direct line through 1)oiiimer Pass, saving 184 miles of distance. From Sacramento to the Bay of San Francisco the lines are coincident.
All things considered, the close agreement of the two lines is worthy
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 275
leasing from the Union this length of track so that the junction 5110111(1
practically be at that town.
The tracks of the two roads were finally made continuous by the driving of the last spike ; an engineer from the west met one from the east, and on the 10th of May, 1869, the entire route W35 thrown open to traffic, more than seven years ahead of the time fixed in the law.
The following statement will show the number of miles of road constructed annually by the Central Pacific Railroad Company on this line
To 1866 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In H6r ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------:15
In 1867 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iii 1868 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------:32 '243
Total -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------743
These, distances do not correspond with those given by the Commissioner of Railroads, because the latter states them for fiscal years while the foregoing table is for calendar years, in(] for the additional reason that the statement of the Commissioner is made up from the, dates of the affidavits of the chief engineer, and these are necessarily subsequent to the completion of tire sections to which they refer.
THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD.
This road was provided for it, the ';,title law (July 1, 1862) that authorized the construction of the Central Pacific, and is the one which appeals prominently in the act.
While the energy of the West was still engaged in penetrating the
secrets of the Sierra, a movement meaning work began to develop i
the East. In general terms there were two separate railway systems front east to west, one concentrating at Chicago, the other at Saint Louis. The capitalists of both these cities were alive to the vast possibilities, of the Pacific trade, and desired to secure it for their respective localities. With this view Chicago had I projected three hues across the State of Iowa, converging at Council Bluffs, and they all had a corporate existence and formed a nucleus for a distinct movement for the construction of a railway to the Pacific.
Our the other hand Saint Louis, aided by the State of Missouri, had, as early as 1851, begun the construction of the Missouri Pacific Railway, the terminus of which was fixed at Kansas City. Four years later the Territorial govern nrrent of Kansas incorporated the Leavenworth, Pawuree and Western Railroad, with authority to build from Leaven worth to Fort Riley, and thence westerly. It was apparent that the two companies might connect and thus form a rival grand trunk Pacific road.
For some years these enterprises remained in abeyance; but in
1860-'61 the discovery of gold and silver in Colorado and Nevada gave a great impulse to the carrying trade of the plains, and tire prospect of profit aroused capitalists. Rumors of the new line over the Sierra also found their way east; and the legislature of the new State of Kansas passed a joint resolution in March, 1862, urging on Congress tire creation of a National Pacific Railroad Company, and the representatives of all the interests concerned appeared at Washington. The result was the law of July 1, 1862. The rival interests of Chicago and Saint Louis appear in the fact that the law does not fix any special eastern terminus, but locates the initial point on the one hundredth meridian, at some
276 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
equidistant station to be designated by the President of the United States. As the more southerly line was already possessed of an organization, the charter modified this advantage by incorporating the northerly line under the name of the Union Pacific Company, and gave it a marked predominance in the act. Government aid was given in equal degree, however, to the road which was to cross the mountains from Sacramento, and to both the eastern lines, but required the eastern roads to each build 100 miles within two years after their acceptance of' the conditions of the law.
The commissioners of the Union Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company, named in the act of July 1, 1862, met in Chiicago on the 2d of
September, 1862, and organized by electing William B. Ogden president, Thomas W. Olcott treasurer, and Henry V. Poor secretary, and by resolution instructed the officers of the company to accept the, act of incorporation in behalf of the company'. Under (late of June 23, 1863, the Secretary of the Interior was duly, notified of this acceptance, and the receipt of this notification was acknowledged by him on the 27th. The act of July 2d, 1864, modified some of the provisions of the previous one. Its provisions were accepted by the company under (late of October 7, 1864.
The Levenworth, Pawnee and Western Railroad Company (southerly route). under (date of November 15, 1862, accepted the provisions of the act of July 1, 1862, the notification of acceptance being acknowledged by the Secretary of the Interior an the 23d of December, 1862. As early as 30th September, 1862, the company had constracted for an immediate and rapid construction of their line.
On the 17th of June, 1863, this company notified the Interior Department that, under the laws of the State of Kansas, it had changed its corporate name to the " Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division," and that it was their intention to construct the line flout the one hundredth meridian to the western boundary of the State of -Nevada.
On the 6th of July the Secretary of' the Interior acknowledged receipt of this communication, but declined to decide at that time whether the company had the power claimed. The conditions of the act of
July 2, 1864, were accepted on the 5th September, 1864, and the acceptance was acknowledged by the Interior Department on the 9th.
(It the 7th of March, 1864, President Lincoln, in accordance with the requirements of the act of July, 1, 1862, fixed a point on the western boundary of the State of Iowa, "cast of' and opposite to the east line of section 10, in township 15 north, of' range 1,3 cast, of' the sixth principal meridan in the Territory of Nebraska from whence the Union Pacific Railroad Company- was authorized to construct a line to connect with some point oil flu' 01W hundredth meridian. The terminal point as thus fixed was at Omaha.
During the season of 1864 five engineering parties were engaged for
several months iii preliminary surveys of the several passes through
the mountain ranges between the valley of the South Platte and Salt Lake, and the contract for the construction of the road to the one hundredth meridian was signed in August.
On the 3d November 1864, the company submitted a map of the route of the Union Pacific for the first 100 miles west of Omaha, and the location was approved by the President of the United States on the following day.
By the 29th of November time grading was in )mogrk'ss oil 40 miles of
the line. The inaugural ceremony took place on the 2d of December.
Meanwhile the organization for building the southerly line obtained
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 281
By September, 1869, the road was in operation from Topeka to Burlingame, 26 miles. By July, 1870, it had been extended 35 miles to Emporia, and in July, 1871, it began operating to Newton, 74 miles further, when building was stopped for a time. oil the 9th September, 1872, it was opened to Dodge City, 168 miles beyond -Newton and 303 from Topeka. During the month of April, 1872, the road had been opened from Atchison to Topeka, a distance of 50 miles, so that there was now a Continuous line for 353 miles from that point oil the Missouri River to Dodge City oil the Arkansas. On the 1st of January. 1873, the road was opened to the boundary line between Kansas and Colorado, about 470 miles front Atchison. Under the spur of the near approach of the time when the land grant would expire, the company had built 285 miles of road in nine months, or over a mile a day.
On July 10, 1873, the road began operating to Grenada, 481 miles
from Atchison, and 18 miles from the State line at Coolidge.
This company makes its through line from Kansas City, by menus of time Kansas City, Topeka ii mid \estomi Railroad, which is now owned by it, and runs froni Kansas City to Topeka, and by the Pueblo and Arkansas Valley Railroad westward from the State line to Pueblo, a mid southwesterly to the bon1idaI of New Mexico. nih5 southwesterly extension lois no Cifi inert ion v it ii this route, an! is t lieretore not considered hem e. (See I lurty -fifth a mmd t lui'tysecoiid parallel ron t es.)
The TonI! was Opened troni K a uisas ( i ty to Topeka, 66) in I les, on the
29t Ii of Aiit. rist, 1875, amid the western ext elision va s opened from Gin a (10 to West Las An immiiis, 55 ummi Irs, on Septemo her 17, 1875, and to Pueblo, 83 miles fum'tliem-, oii the 4th of I\lai'ehi, 1876.
At I 'imello t lie ii iute 011(1cm' coiisi(lei-a t ion is tali cmi ii p by the I )eii ver am! Salt Lake line ot the l)cmiver and ILo Giamnie Railway. The gauge of I los route is only 3 feet, while that of the Atchison, Topeka and Sa mita l't is the sfalt(l aid ga imge of 4 feet S inch os. The result is a break at l'neblo, and a. ronscq ueiit transfer of freighi I and pa ssengeis is ; e mideird m iecessa iv.
The I )emi ver and Rio U raiide Rail ay Coni oniy was incorporated Oct ii er 97, 1 871), U 11(1 ci' t lie in con io rat i on I a w 5 of t lie Tern! tIny of (Joloi'ado. By act of' Congress approved June 8, 1 579, right of way was gnat teil over the public domain, 100 feet in \Vi(ltll oii each side of the tm-ark, toget hmei' with such public lands ad,jaeeii t thereto as uiiay he needed for depots, shops, 00(1 other buildings for railroad purposes, and for yard roommi aIl(l Si(le tracks, not exceeding twenty acres at any station, ii ui(I 1101 more tliami omit' station iii every 10 mniles,t and the incorh)Oiatioti Omi(lt'1 Teiri tonal laws was ratified 0111! coii tinned. The coiuipamiv was required to eomlllilete its line to a point omi the Rio Gramide, as fiii- south as Santa F'( within five years after the passage of' the act. amid to complete 50 miles additional south of that point each year thereafter, the penalty for noncomill iai ice being a forfeiture of all rights and privileges granted li time act, so flu as concerned the unfiuiishied h)0i'tioui 01 the road.
Gnu tti mig all reteremice to such parts of' the line as (10 ilot toniri a part of thin thirtyeighth 00(1 thirt,y-uiimithi parallel route, time following is an a pproxi na Ic statemuent ot the progress 01 the construction
Time road was extended from Pueblo, up time A i'kansas Valley, to Cafiomi coal fields, 36 mmii hes, in 1872, and iii 1874 to Ca 6oui City, 8 iii iles. it was suhseq temi I ly opemied to Salida an il P ncii a, (10 ml les, and in 1881 to Giimimiisomi City, 69 miles farther, oi' 170 iidhes fioni Pueblo. 1)urimig 1889 the comistructioui westward to the !Jtahm boumidary, 171 mriiles, was completed, amid the force buihuimig eastward fromii Salt Lake City hind
284 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
line is almost exactly coincident with the explored line. The first (livergerice is at the mouth of Pajai ita ('reek, Where two hues have been slnv(y4(l, one along the explored fine ils(en4hiIlg tim t stream, and the other following the Canadian some 45 or .50 miles fm it hem-, and then deflecting to the southward until it intersects the explored line near Canon hilamico, when time surveyed amid explored hues cOilmille to isieta and thence forward as constructed across the greater part, of Arizona, to the vicinity of Aztec Pass, wheum the line diverges to time northward, and reaches time crossing of the Coioi ado near the Needles, by a route to time westward of that explored. From time crossing of time Colorado time line, as coiustrrieted, is imearly or quite straight to Mojave station, whilst time explored line ascended Pall-mite Creek, and crossed to the Sink of l\lojave. Ascending that stream it reached Los Angeles via San Bernardino Pass; with a route diverging from it, about :i.s miles north of Sami Bernardino Pass, which, after some iII(1irecti it, attained M ojave station. It caimumot but be rcnitrked how slight these (livergences are, the depam-tumes in mo case excee(i ing 25 miles, and these for only short (listailces.
The route of the thirty-fifth parallel so flu as constructed may, for all practical purposes, be considered as beginning at Saint Louis, 911(1 is composed of time Saint Louis and San Francisco aiiway time Atlantic and laeific Railroad, and the Colorado Division of time Southern Pacific Railroad.
A gap of about 600 miles now exists between Isleta and the western
end oft he track of time Saimmt Louis and San Francisco road. For the time being transportation is carried on by time way of time Atchmisoim, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, thus forming a through route from time Missis-sippi liver to time Pacific coast.
The Saint Louis and San Francisco Railway Coin )l iiv is successor to the southwest bra uclm of the l'acitic Railroad of Missouri, cii trtered December 25. 1832, which received a graum t of lands and the loan of $1,500.000 Missouri State bonds to aid in its eomistruictiomm. It was opened to Hohia, 113 miles, in December, 1860. Getting into financial difliculty, it was sold in 1866 to a new company which. failed to mueet its ell gagemmmemmts, and was again sold to J)nrchasers who were incorpo-rated as the South Pacific Railroad Company under aim act of the ("ell-oral assembly of time State of Missouri, of March 7, lS(N. This coum
l)iUIY completed the road to Lebanon, 7 L miles, iii 1869; to Spri umghiel(,
56 miles farther, iii May, 1870, and added another 5)) miles, to Pierce City, 290 miles from Saint Louis, in the following September. The road was then sold to time Atlantic 011(1 Pacilic Iliilruad Coampammy, winch had been chartered I by act of Congress of July 27. 1866, and empowered to construct a eonti I U0ii5 line of rail raid told telegraph fr mmii Springfield, Mo., to a point on the Cammadiamm River, thence via Albuquerque, N. Mex., along time thirty-fifth parallel. to time Pacific, with the right to construct a branch from the (1aimadiamm River "to a point in the western l)oulldary hue of Arkansas, at or near the town of Van iJureum." (This was to make time connection with Fort Smith.)
The act gives a hand grant of ten alternate sections of land oil each
side of time road in time States and twenty sections in time Territories, but 110 other subsidy.
Springfield was mnade time initial point to avoid conflict with a previous charter for building from Saint Lotus southwesterly, given to time South Pacific Railroad Company. As, however, Siiumt Louis was time natural eastern terminus of a transcontinental road on this route, 011(1 as the road frommi Springfield west could only be constructed ecoiiouimic
290 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR
lines from those explored. Amongst the more powerful of these were the grants of land by Congress in aid of the construction of several of the roads. Of course it at once became important in such cases that the lilies should be located through lands which would have the highest market value, and would be the first to induce settlement and improvement, with resulting local business. This was a perfectly legitimate transaction, and is mentioned, not for the purpose of criticising it, but merely to show why the lines actually built upon do not in every case conform more strictly to the explored lines.
ROUTE YEAR THE THIRTY-SE(OXD PARALLEL AS ACTUALLY OCCUPIED.
The close accord between the explored and constructed hues along this route is quite remarkable. The Saint Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad, as it now exists, starting from Saint Louis and joined at Little Rock by the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad, passes directly through Fulton, and at Texarkana joins the Transcontinental Division of the Texas Pacific Railway ; then proceeds westward to Sherman, less than 20 miles south of Preston. This division has not been extended any further to time westward, but using the track of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, reaches Fort Worth, at the eastern end of the Rio Grande Division of the Texas and Pacific Railway. The constructed line then gradually approaches the explored line until they are practically coincident at Colorado Springs, when they gradually diverge until they are aO miles apart at the crossing of the Pecos, to unite again at El Paso.
Starting at San Antonio, the explored and constructed lines coincide until the divide between Devil's River and the Pecos is reached, when they diverge, the -former following the Pecos until a junction is made on the boundary between Texas and New Mexico, whilst the latter pursues a more southerly route to El Paso, the greatest divergence being about 90 miles.
The explored route then followed the valley of the Rio Grande to Mesihla, and thence to the present Zuiii station of the Southern Pacific Railroad, where the constructed line direct from El Paso to that point (a distance of only 77 miles) joins it; and from there through to Tucson, Yuina., San Gorgonio Pass, Los Angeles, San Fernando Pass, and Tehachapa Pass, to Gosheim, a distance of 880 miles, they are almost absolutely identical. From Goshen the Central Pacific has occupied the explored line to San Francisco by way of the San Joaquin Valley; and the Southern Pacific Railroad of California has occupied a considerable portion of the other routes, by way of Huron and the Santa Clara and the Salinas and Benito Valleys.
There was no practical difficulty in the way to prevent the constructed line from occupying the explored line, and the divergences referred to have been caused entirely by other reasons.
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.
Because the railroad known under this name, and which occupies so much of both the thirtyfifth and thirty-second parallel routes, was mainly built from the Pacific coast eastward, the history of its construction is taken up at the western end.
From statements deemed trustworthy it appears that the Southern Pacific Railroad was commenced at San Francisco in the year 1865. It was chartered tinder the laws of California, December 2, 1865, and by
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 291
its charter and the act of Congress of July 27, 1866, was authorized to construct a railraod and connect with the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad near the boundary line of the State of California, and to aid in such construction it was to have grants of land similar to those of the Atlantic and Pacific. The terms of the act of July 27, 1860, were accepted November 24, and acceptance filed in the Department of the Interior December 21, 1866. About the year 1868 it was completed to San Jos≥, 50 miles. From San Jos≥ the line was pushed slowly southward for nearly 100 miles, along the Santa Clara and Salinas Valleys, a short distance from the coast, and practically along the explored line.
October 11, 1870, the Southern Pacific Railroad was consolidated with the San Francisco and San Jos≥ Railroad (chartered August 8, 1860), the Santa Clara and Pajaro Valley Railroad (chartered January 2, 1868), and the California Southern Railroad (chartered January 22, 1870), under the corporate name of "The Southern Pacific Railroad Company.
All these companies had been chartered by the State of California.
The object of this new corporation was to "construct and operate a line of railroad from San Francisco to a point on the Colorado River near the southeastern boundary of California, a distance of about 722 miles, with a branch from Tehachapa Pass to Colorado River at or near Fort Mojave, a distance of about 308 miles, and such other branches as the board of directors may decide to establish."
Soon after the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad that company sent out surveying parties on what is termed the Oregon Branch, and also into that portion of the State known as the Upper San Jongum 'alley. Oii the 13th of January, 1870, an engineering party was started from Lathrop, on the Central Pacific road, to locate a line to the southward along the San Joaquin Valley, the floor of which was found to have a remarkable uniform ascent from tide-water to the foot of the Sierra Nevada Range. The locating party continued on to Gosheii, a distance of 147 miles. The road was completed to Merced, 58 miles, on April 1, 1872, and in 57 (lays thereafter to Fresno, 113 miles from Lathrop. On the 25th July, 1872, the road was completed and in running order to (osherm, the point where the located line of the Southern Pacific Railroad intersects it.
Between the coast line and Goshen a formidable wall of mountains intervenes (mentioned in Lieutenant Williamson's report of his exploration), and the Southern Pacific Company deemed it advisable to coinmence construction at the latter point, leaving a gap of 100 miles via the San Benito route, or 160 miles via the Polonio Pass route, between the northern and the southern divisions of its road, the connection being meanwhile made over the San Joaquin Branch of the Central Pacific. On July 25,1872, the Southern Pacific was completed to Tipton, 21 miles; 21 miles more, to Delano, were added by July 14, 1873; then 29 miles, to Lerdo, August 1, 1874, and to Sumniier, 23 miles, October 26, 1874. On April 26, 1875, the road was completed 22 miles further, to the foot of the Tehachapa Mountains at Caliente, 336 miles from San Francisco. Meantime a heavy force was employed in penetrating the Sierra Nevadas through Tehachapa Pass, at an elevation of about 4,000 feet; in tunneling the Sierra Madre at San Fernando Pass, near Los Angeles, at an elevation of about 2,800 feet; and in recrossing the Sierra Madre by San Gorgonio Pass, 2,560 feet above tide.
The company was required to complete the line to Los Angeles within the year 1876, and to complete 50 miles yearly of the extension between Tehachapa and Yumna. To do this it was necessary to construct from the coast port of Los Angeles both ways. The section from Los Angeles
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 293
track reached Maricopa, 156 miles from Yuma, April 28, 1879, and then entered the valley of the Santa Cruz. May 19, the road reached Casa Grande, 183 miles from Yuina and 908 from Oakland. The desert had now been passed, and a rest was taken until January 26, 1880, when work was resumed and continued without cessation until on March 20 the track was completed to Tucson, 250 miles from Yuma. It then continued eastward, reaching Benson, 46 miles east of Tucson, on June 22, and Deiniug, 220 miles, on the 15th of December, where on March 18, 1881, it was joined by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, thus forming another through line across the continent.
The construction force kept right on from Denting, never having stopped a day after work was resumed at Casa Grande. On May 19, 1881, touching the northeast corner of the sister republic of Mexico, it reached El Paso, 1,281 miles from Oakland (1,286 from San Francisco), being the first railroad to that point and a year ahead of the requirement of its charter.
It is not a little remarkable that the first railway train to enter the isolated town of El Paso should have done so from San Francisco.
From the nature of the country traversed and the little-known con(litions of the rainfall and water-courses, it had been necessary to lay the rails with great rapidity from one point of convenient water to another, and leave the important structures, such as stations and watertanks, to be perfected afterwards. lit some cases artesian wells (so called) of great depth were sunk.
Continuing eastward, the Southern Pacific formed a junction with the Texas and Pacific Railroad at Sierra Blanca, 91 miles from El Paso,
u the 6th of December, 1881, and established another transcontinental line. The road was rapidly extended from Sierra Blanca towards San Antonio, to meet a westward extension of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway from that place, and largely owned in the same interest. Connection was made between the two on the 12th January, 1883, thus establishing a third transcontinental route through the system of railroads concentrating at San Antonio, and bringing the Gulf cities of Galveston and New Orleans into direct relations with the Pacific coast.
This road skirts our southern boundary for more than a thousand miles, and with the branch flue of time Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad south from the vicinity of Tucson (Benson) forms a complete line of military communication along nearly the whole of the Mexican frontier, and contributes immensely to our interest in our relations with that country.
TEXAS AND PACIFIC RAILROAD AS CONSTRUCTED.
For more than 800 miles westward from the Louisiana State line this road occupies the thirtysecond parallel route. The Texas Pacific Railroad Company was organized under act of Congress of March 3, 1871, and the general railroad laws of the State of Texas, and was authorized to construct a road from Marshall, Tex., via El Paso, through New Mexico and Arizona, to a point on the Colorado River at or near the southeastrn boundary of the State, thence to San Diego, pursuing in the location throughout, as near as possible, the thirty-second parallel of latitude.
It was granted forty sections of public land per mile in time Territories and twenty sections per mile in the State of California. By the laws of
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 295
The Texas and Pacific and the Southern Pacific had each graded its own line from Sierra Blanca to El Paso, the two grades being often only a few yards apart. They wisely concluded to put the superstructure upon only one of the grades, and to make common use of the road thus completed.
EFFECT OF RAILWAYS UPON MILITARY OPERATIONS.
Having traced the history of the construction of the transcontinental railways from their inception to the roads in their present condition, it remains to show what their effect has been upon military operations lip to this time, and what bearing they will be likely to have upon those of the future.
As early as August. 15,1836, General E. P. Gaines, United States Army' then at headquarters Western Department, Camp Sahine, writing upon the subject of internal improvements (see American Railroad Journal of October 15, 1836, page 642), expressed very broad and enlightened views, and advocated the use of railroads, canals, and steam-power for the purpose of developing our vast territory, increasing our wealth, and improving our means of defense. His idea seems to have been to construct railroads, owned by the Government, from the central portions of our domain towards its frontiers, for the purpose of the rapid transportation of men and inmiitions of war from points which from their position were perfectly secure from any attack to such points as might be threatened. He asserted that
The accomplishment of these works will render our whole country invulnerable in war and afford an increasing revenue in war and in peace that will insure to us in from six to twelve years an amount of money equal to the whole expense of their construction.
General Gaines supported his position by arguments which doubtless
seemed unduly enthusiastic at that time. These are too long to quote
entire, but, as indicating the scope of his mind, it may be well to reproduce a few of them:
The loss of a fleet at sea, or of several fleets in succession, added to the loss of our foreign commerce whilst threatened by victorious foreign fleets and armies arrayed against us from without, having our railroads and land forces held ready for action within, we should find perfect security and retain the sure elements of prosperity throughout our national domain. Whereas if we give up the proposed system of railroads, the loss of our fleets would, in effect, be nothing less than the loss of our national existence.
* * * ', * *
This process must and will create a revenue in time of war sufficient to meet the principal expense of the war, and expense be reduced, as it will, in the great item of transportation to a saving of $9 out of every $10, whilst the same cars will be occasionally employed in wielding the disposable force of all the Western States.
¥ * * * * * *
The proposed railroads, after affording every desirable facility for the most vigorous and successful defense of the country in war, and affording also a revenue sufficient to pay much of the expense of the war, will, on the return of peace, when all other of the most expensive means of national defense known to this or any other nation, such as grand fortifications, armories, arsenals, with cannon and most other military stores (however essential in war), become useless, or more than useless, during a state of peace, because they require constant repairs and an expensive force to take care of them-when these become useless or unprofitable, railroads, with steampower applied to vehicles of land transportation, taking, as they must take, precisely the direction which the, principal commerce of the country takes, viz, from the seaboard to the Central and Western States, they will afford a revenue that will grow with the growth of our population, and as bonds of union and concord to the States and the people will strengthen with our strength until every acre of our soil and every valuable niiueral of our mountains and every moment of our time and all our
296 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
attainments, with every effort of our labor and industry, will increase in value from 100 to 1,000 per cent. We shall then see and feel the value of practical science and of increased civilization with self-government.
We shall then have it in our power speedily to put an end to every description of war near us which tends to disturb the harmony of the civilized world, and we shall give civilization to our neighboring savages of all colors, and we shall give freedom to all whom we find capable of its enjoyment, or, in other words, capable of self-government.
General Gaines (lid not cease his agitation of the question with the publication of this letter, but urged his views in every direction in which he thought it possible to make an impression. In 1838 he wrote to the New Orleans Bulletin, presenting his project in some detail, as will appear from the following extract from the editorial columns of that paper
General Gaines has kindly furnished us with a diagram of a system of railroads, planned by himself; to extend over the United States. An inspection of the diagram shows Kentucky and Tennessee to be the center from which railroads branch out to all points of the Union, connecting, for instance, New Orleans with Portland, in Maine; Buffalo and Plattsburg, in New York; Detroit, in Michigan; Chicago, in Illinois; Charleston, in South Carolina; Fort Gibson, in Arkansas ; Saint Louis, in Missouri
and several other points still farther to the Far west. The Work, says General Gaines, is designed in time of war to enable its to wield our fighting men, with their arms and ammunition, from central and middle States to the most vulnerable points of attack on our seaboard and inland border in one-tenth part of the time and at onetenth part of the expense that movements would cost on ordinary roads. It is a work, moreover, rendered indissoluble by its great and imperishable utility to the States and people in general, giving safety to our national independence, encouragement to literature and science profitable extension to agriculture, and protection to the manufacturing and mechanic arts, thereby tending to make our beloved country prosperous and happy in peace and impregnable in var. This scheme, taken altogether, is grand and sublime, and if carried into effect would make the United States the greatest nation on earth.
Finally, under date of December 31, 1839, General Gaines memorialized Congress upon the subject of the utilization of steam-power for war purposes, and presented his project in detail. It involved the construction of (1) floating batteries for the defense of the seaports and harbors of the United States, and (2) a system of railroads radiating from the two central States of Tennessee and Kentucky, connecting our interior areas with our frontier.
We have nothing special to consider in connection with the suggestion of floating batteries beyond the fact that they were to be iron clad to such all extent as to make them invulnerable to the heaviest, guns then afloat.
The second proposition, however, is the one he had most at heart, and expresses the conclusions he had finally reached after some years of thought. His arguments in support of his views are given at length in. Report No. 86, house of Representatives, Thirty-seventh Congress, second session, pages 235 et seq. He was a bold man who would at, that early day so earnestly advocate the construction of 4,200 miles of railroad by the Government through an organization so entirely military as the one set forth, and at an estimated cost of 64,000,000.
General Gaines was so far ahead of his military contemporaries in his conception of the possibilities of railway transportation in war time, that it has been deemed proper to set forth at so much length his claim to priority. His first publication upon the subject (August 15, 1836) was made at a time when the country west of Missouri was almost unknown, when we barely touched the Pacific Ocean with our territory, and long before the most sanguine dreamed of the subsequent developnient of an empire beyond the then Far West.
That the Government did not adopt his suggestions does not at all
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 297
detract from their wisdom. Indeed, the rapid extension of the railroad system of our country, under the enterprise of private capital, rendered it quite unnecessary that the Government should take any active measures within the limits discussed by General Gaines, but the time did come when the General Government found it essential to its existence to seize and operate several of the very lines of road proposed by him, and a wise policy to give active as well as pecuniary aid to others which span the continent.
1. PAST OPERATIONS.
When the subject of the construction of a transcontinental railway was first proposed, the Mississippi River practically constituted our western frontier, and Texas was engaged in her war of independence. The matter had been broached in Congress before that State had come into the Union. When Mr. Douglas introduced his first bill for the construction of a railway the war with Mexico had not begun. When the Mexican war closed there was not a single mile of railroad west of the Mississippi; and it was not until 1859 that the railroad system of the country was connected with the Missouri River by the completion of the Hannibal and Saint Joseph Railroad.
The Army was small, and its operations were limited to movements against the Indians in Florida, and to garrisoning posts along our northern frontier, the Mississippi River posts, those upon the southwestern frontier, and the Atlantic seaboard. The outbreak of the Mexican war called most of these garrisons into the field, and when it terminated we found ourselves with a vast accession of territory and a rapidly increasing population, having a tendency westward. As immigrants pushed into the regions beyond the Mississippi, it became necessary, for their protection, to throw the troops further out, and at the same time a new frontier appeared in the Pacific countries and along the Rio Grande. This created a demand for all increase of the Army, which came in 1,855 by the organization of four new regiments, which, with the forces added to the permanent organization during the Mexican war, gave us as the organization of the regular Army 1 company of engineer troops, S regiments of cavalry, 4 regiments of artillery, and 10 regiments of infantry. The greater portion of this force was kept constantly n the frontier, moving slowly out as the settlements filled in behind them and grew strong enough to take care of themselves. The frontier on time western border of the Eastern States and Territories and the eastern border of those on the Pacific coast was still well defined. Military operations were carried on by small commands over limited areas, against badly armed Indian enemies, at great cost for transportation and tremendous labor for the troops. As late as 1857 the organization of a small army for what was called the Utah campaign taxed all our resources.
Then came the civil war, with a considerable increase of the regular Army and a subsequent disbandment of hundreds of thousands of volunteers, comprising the most adventurous spirits in the land, whose restless energy ill-fitted them for any but time most active life. From their number many found their way into the haunts of the Indians, and the pressure upon the latter became so great as to cause outbreaks all along the line. Although our Army had been trebled, yet the troops were all employed in guarding the settlers. Their operations were still limited by the difficulty and cost of transporting the requisite supplies.
Finally, the construction of the transcontinental railways was begun, and our frontier conimeuiccd its movement along the routes of the sev
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 301
B.-Statement showing rates paid in currency by the Quartermaster's Department for the transportation of United States military stores between New York City and San Francisco via Cape Horn from 1855 to 1864.
Year. Per 100 pounds. Remarks.
1855, . $2.00 60 cents per cubic foot.
1856 1,059,01821.18 per Heavy freight. Light freight, 371 cents per cubic foot.
ton.
1857-- 111.50 1.50 Fixed ammunition. -. 1. 20 Powder. 1858 I Subsistence stores, $260 per barrel; boxes, 10 cents per cubic foot.
1859 0.50 Ordnance stores. Miscellaneous stores, 25 cents per cubic foot.
1860 ∫ 2.50 Loose muskets. 0.50 ; Shells. Miscellaneous stores, 30 cents per cabic foot.
1861 stores, 30 cents per cubic foot.
1862 0.75 Miscellaneous stores. Ordnance stores, 32$ cents per cubic foot; per bar
- rel, $1.50.
1863 0.75 Do. ( Do. 1864 1.25 <Pig lead. Ordnan m stores, 40 cents per cubic foot; powder, 50 cents, and subsistence stores, 35 cents per cubic foot.
C.-Statement showing rates paid in currency by the Qnarterfliaster'8 Department for the transportation, by wagon, of United Slates military stores, between Fort Leavenworth, Kans., and Fort Union., N. Mex.,front 1855 to 1870.
o a
Remarks. 00 Remains.
a a I . .__ ..
1855 $2 24 Average April to $1 Average entire
December, in- 1863 84 year.
elusive. 1864 2 Average June to
03 December, icelu-
1856 2 32 Average entire year. Rive.
1857 2 15 Average March to 2 Average entire
December, in- 1865 Average 00 year.
, 1866 1 Do.
38
1858 2 10 Average entire year. 1 Do.
1861 40
1850 2 00 Do. 1868 1 Average April to
42 December, inclu-
1860 1 46 Average May to 1 sire. Average
December, inelusire. 1869 47 entire year.
1861 1 40 Average entire year. 1 Do.
1870 43
1862 1 65 Do.
D.-Statement showing rates for passengers and freight paid Quar
in currency by the ter-
master's Department for the S. troops and military
transportation of U. stoics between
New York City and San Francisco via railroads from the open
the Pacific date of their ing
for transportation to 1883.
.,C&1 . . 0
w
Year. I Year.
a a
c-
Cd
0 0 cc
1869 $142 00 $5 77 1877 $139 00 $4
00
1870 144 95 5 30 1878 1871 139 00 140 00 4 00
140 00 4 70 1879 4 00
' 1872- 140 00 4 85 1880 1873 I 138 00 138 00 4 00
140 00 4 85 1881 4 00
1874 159 50 1 90 3882 141 80 4 00
1875 138 00 4 00 1883 13800 137 35 4 00
400
1876
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 311
Owing to the incomplete state of this road up to the last year, and the expenses attendant upon construction constantly to be met, no intelligent comparison can be made of its operations without going into details too voluminous for a matter of this kind.
The Southern ronto may be said to comprise the following railroads:
Miles.
Texas and Pacific, New Orleans to El Paso, Tex ---------------------------------------------------1, 1,163
Southern Pacific, of Arizona, New Mexico, and California; El Paso to Tulare,
Cal -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1,035 Central Pacific (leased line), Tnlare to San Francisco ----------------------------------------------251
Making a total of ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'2,439
TEXAS AND PACIFIC.
LINE OF ROAD.
Marshall, Tex., to San Diego, Cal., about 2,000 miles.
The Texas Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated by an act of Congress, March 3, 1871, "Au act to incorporate the Texas Pacific Railroad Company, and aid in the construction of its road, and for other purposes." (16 Stat., 573.)
By this act the company was authorized to construct a road from Marshall, Tex., via El Paso, through New Mexico and Arizona, to a point on the Rio Colorado, at or near the southeastern boundary of the State of California, thence to San Diego, pursuing in the location throughout, as near as possible, the thirty-second parallel north latitude.
A map of the proposed route of the read from El Paso, Tex., to San Diego, Cal., was filed in the General Land Office September 2, 1871. No p jint of the line between said points has been definitely located, and 110 evidence of construction furnished.
Maps of completed sections of read in the State of Texas have been filed with affidavits of the chief engineer, covering p of the line.
For the main line from the
Louisiana State Line to Dallas 169.12 miles, February 11, 1874. Dallas to Fort Worth 31.87 miles, January 1, 18 717.
The main line has been eoulpl)ted to a Janet mu with Galveston, i[arr!sllnrgil, and San Antonio Railway at Sierra Blanca. but no evidence of construction beyond Fort Worth has been furnished the Land Office.
By an act of Congress of May 2, 1872, the name of this company was changed to the Texas and Pacific Railway Company. (17 Stat., 59.)
Prior to the above the company was consolidated with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company (of Texas), March 21, 1872, and with the, Southern Transcontinental Railway, March 30, 1872.
The annual report of the president of the company for the year ending May 31, 1875, gives the following
Gross earnings ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------$1, 61,I83,313 33 Operating expenses ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------789, 789,803 85
Net earnings ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------393,509 48
Passengers carried -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------58,059 Revenue --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------$239, 017 02 Pounds of freigllt carried -----------------------------------------------------------------------------176, 699,000 Revenue ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------$479, 997 81 Locomotive elugiiles -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------29 Passenger ears --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------18 Baggage, ll(ail, and express ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 Freight ears ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------350 Stock ears ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------67 Average number of nllles road operated ---------------------------------------------------------------320. 22
On August ii, 1876, the company had in operation the following number of miles of road:
Shreveport, La., to Fort Worth, Tex -------------------------------------------------------------------------'221
Texarkana to Slier 111(111 154 Marshall to 'l'exarkalla ,J,uuletior( 69
Total .................................................................................................................
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 253
REPORT ON TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAYS, 1883.
BY COL. 0. M. POE, United States Engineers, A. D. C. and Brevet Brigadier-General.
LETTER 01' TRANSMITTAL.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
Washington, 1). C., October 1, 1883.
Sin: In compliance with your instructions, I have prepared the accom-panying paper upon the history and construction of the transcontinental railways, and incidentally referred to the past and future uses of the railway system of this country for military purposes. In the course of its preparation, I have obtained a great deal of information, which is now brought together for the first time. In its bearing upon military questions, the paper of General Gaines is one of the most interesting, because of the early date when his views were presented, and their adaptability to subsequent events. It was no ordinary mind that conceived the project proposed by him, small though the amount of his
64,000,000 may seem when compared with the $7,000,000,000 now invested in railway property in the United States alone.
Accompanying this paper, is one marked F, entitled "The Pacific Railway Lines," prepared by Mr. Thomas J. Walker, of the office of the Commissioner of Railroads, in time Interior Department, which contains, in a condensed form, information of munch value.
I also transmit a map, upon which the lines of "Explorations for a railroad route to the are shown in red, and the lines, as constructed, in black, thus affording a ready means of comparison.
Except expressions of opinion, there is nothing original in the paper I have prepared. The information has been gained from many sources, prominent among which are:
"Whitney's Project for a Pacific Railroad."
""Pacific Railroad Reports." (13 vols.)
"Our Pacific Railroads." (Atlantic Monthly, December, 1867.)
"The Building of the Iron Road." (Overland Monthly, May, 1869.)
"California Overland Railways." (Overland Monthly, January, 1875.)
"The Pacific Railroad." (North American Review, June, 1879.)
Railroad Manual."
""History of the Northern Pacific Railroad." (E. V. Sin alley.)
Various Congressional reports and papers.
Manuscript information from several railroads.
Reports of the Commissioner of Railroads.
And in many instances whole paragraphs have been used just aswritten by their authors. This has been especially the case with portions of the report of Secretary Davis to Congress, dated February 27, 1855.
The entire transcontinental system has grown up since 1862, and all
of it except the Union and Central Pacific line since 1869.
In 1854 heavy freight could be sent by sea from New York to San Francisco for $20 per ton.
From 1872 to 1879, both inclusive, the average rate per 100 pounds per 100 miles on through freight over the Union Pacific Railroad was 8 cents, and over the Central Pacific 10 cents. This shows that the transportation by sea was much cheaper.
But when the question concerns transportation by land alone, which
256 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
called the first. public meeting for the purpose of agitating the subject of building a transcontinental railway. From that time until his death, in California several years afterwards, lie was an ardent advocate of the project. When Pluinbe first broached his project at Dubuque there were scarcely any railroads, and in the States west of the Ohio only sparse settlements. Not one line of railroad had been finished between the Atlantic and the great interior basins. The population, business, and internal improvements of the United States were confined to a region from Canada to the Gulf, scarcely 1,000 miles wide; and west of that lay 2,300 miles of vacant territory, which must be traversed to realize the dream of a Pacific railroad; and our possessions upon the Pacific were limited to an inconsiderable portion of the coast, occupied by a feeble colony. So far as we can now ascertain, Plumbe's project had in view the development of the country, and the advancement of our commercial interests. It was not discussed with reference to its bearing upon military questions. But there were other minds which foresaw the important relations which railroads in the future would have to military operations.
The proposition must have seemed to most people chimerical in the superlative degree, but it produced fruit. In 1837 Dr. Hartley Carver published in the New York Courier and Enquirer, an article advocating the construction of a Pacific railroad. The discussion of the subject, limited though it was, gradually secured adherents, until we find the matter referred to in the Senate of the United States in the session of 1842-'43, whilst the 14 Oregon question" was under consideration, when Senator Sevier held that not only lands should be granted to settlers, and forts built and garrisoned for their protection, but if necessary a railroad should be made from the Missouri to the Columbia, over which immigrants might be conveyed in two or three days. Senator Unit dwelt upon the facility with which travel and transportation might be effected across the continent, "by means of ordinary roads at present and by railroads
Senator MclJuffie opposed these projects for the encouragement of settlers, and ridiculed the idea that steam could ever be employed to facilitate comimiunicatiomi across the continent between the Columbia countries and the States of the Union.
In the spring of 1844 Mr. Asa Whitney embarked from China for New York, under the determination to devote his life to the work of establishing a means of cheap and easy communication across our continent, between the 250,000,000 of European population on one side of us and all Asia with its 700,000,000 of people on the other, believing that it promised much good to all mankind, not doubting that in due time he could satisfy his countrymen of its feasibility and vast importance, and gain their assent to its accomplishment.
At the second session of the Twenty-eighth Congress (i. e., in the winter of 1844-'45) lie memorialized Congress upon the subject. His memorial was referred to a committee in each House, and it was favorably unanimously reported upon, the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas being one of its advocates in the House of Representatives.
In 1845 he examined on his own account and at his own expense, more than 800 miles of the route, as well as 1,500 miles of the Missouri River and other streams, to ascertain where they could be bridged, the facilities which the country might afford, and the value or availability of the lands; Colonel Fr≥mont in person and the statements of others had satisfied him of the feasibility of the whole route.
At the beginning of the first session of the Twenty-ninth Congress
260 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
.111 1850 William B. Ogden, of Chicago, convinced of the practicability of a transcontinental railway, gave the aid of his powerful influence to the agitation of the measure.
lii 1851 Senator Gwin gave notice in the Senate of the United States of a bill for the coil structioli of a Pacific railroad, and in 1852 Senator Stephen A. Douglas, chairman of the Committee on Territories, reported a bill on the subject.
With constant accessions of support from far seeing and liberalminded men, capitalists, statesmen, and soldiers the movement finally gained such momentum as to compel time Government to take action, and by making the necessary appropriation provide for beginning that inagimificeut series of explorations and surveys, which continued by subsequent appropriations, and aided by all the power of an enlightened executive, exercised through the military organization, was carried on for two years, and furnished so much valuable information. By this time time public mind was thoroughly aroused, and time publication of information was demanded. The result was that time publication of the thirteen quarto volumes known as time '' Pacific Railroad Reports" was ordered by Congress, at aim expense of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The lines covered by these explorations have since been practically occupied by constructed roads. Their connection with this desirable result has been so direct and so important, that it is deemed proper to give them in some detail.
EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS FOR A RAILROAD FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
The first appropriation for this purpose was made by time tenth see
tirni of the act inakimig appropriations for the support of the Army, ap
proved March 3, 1853. By acts of May 31, 1854, and August 5, 1854,
further sums were appropriated, aggregating in all $340,000. This was
exclusive of such aid as could be given, without special appropi intions, through time resources of the War Department, which must have more than doubled this aggregate.
The explorations and stirvevs covered five belts, usually referred to as: 1. The route near the forty-seventh and forty-ninth parallels. 2. The route near the forty-first and forty-second parallels. 3. Tile route near the thirty-eighth and thirty-imiiitli parallels. 4. The route near the thirty-fifth parallel. 5. The route near the thirty second parallel. And they disclosed the fact that all the routes were practicable for the construction of a railway.
The following brief description of these several routes is largely taken verbatim from the final report of lion. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, to Congress, dated February 27, 1855. In the endeavor to condense as much as possible much matter of general interest has been omitted, and only that used which describes the several lines. Those wishing to read the report itself will find it in the first volume of the Pacific Railroad Survey Reports.
For convenience the several routes will be given in their geographical order, beginning with the northernmost, and, in order to complete the history the account in each ease will be carried through to the completed road.
ROUTE NEAR THE FORTY-SEVENTH AND FORTY-NINTh PARALLELS.
This route "was to cross the Rocky Mountains at the sources of the
tributaries of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, and, in approaching
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 261
and leaving the mountains, to follow as far as practicable the valleys of these rivers and their tributaries." The general direction of the requisite explorations was intrusted to Governor Isaac I. Stevens, of Washington Territory, late of the Corps of Engineers, United States Army.
Beginning at Saint Paul the route passed up the Mississippi River
on its eastern side to Little Falls, 109 miles, where it crossed, and
gaining the divide between the waters of lludsoii's Bay and those of
the i\Iissoui-i, kept on this di ide, w id in longitude 1030 W¥ approached within a few mile,,, ott he forty-ninth parallel; then passed southerly between the one liii mired UI(l fourth a rid otie hiumnired and fi ftli mnerulian, and entered the valley of the Missouri River. which it followed to the mouth of Milk River; thence up the valley of the Milk River 17 miles, when it entered the prairies, continued along a line nearly parallel with the river across its tributaries, the Mants, Teton, arid Still Rivers, and entered either Clark's or Cadotte's Pass.
Thus far no portion of the route offered any great difficulty to the construction of a railroad. But from the Sun River to the Spokane, a distance of 365 mile,,;, embracing the Rocky MOuiit1AiiS proper and a secondary chain lying west of them (called Cur d'Xlene, and the Bitter Root Mountains), serious obstacles were encountered.
Seven passes were explored through the Rocky Mountains, but it was only at two of them (Clarks and Cadotte's) that the information obtained was sufficiently complete to enable projects to be made. They lie near each other in latitude 470 and connect the headwaters of Dearborn River, a tributary of the Missouri, with those of the Blackfoot, a tributary of the Columbia.
The route by Clark's Pass required a tunnel of 2- miles in length, at an elevation of 5.300 feet. with approaching gr tiles of 51) feet to the mile. That by Catlotte's Pass involved a tunnel 4 miles long, at an elevation 5,000 feet, with grades of approach of 60 feet. The former pass was the one considered in making- the estimate.
From either pass the route sought the Blaekfoot River in order to
reach Clark's Fork, and two route-i were examined. Tie tirst f dlo wed the Blaekfoot to its junction wi thi Hell Gate, it distance of 93 miles, then by the ilehl Gate to its junction with the Saint Mary's, c dIed below this junction the Bitter Root, and thence to Clark's Fork.
The other and shorter route followed the Blackfoot ; but a short dis
tance crossed to the Jocko, descended this to the Flathead, and the last to its junction with the Bitter Root, torturing Clark's Fork. It continued along Clark's Fork to Lake Pend d'Orcihle, which it left at the lower extremity, and without difficulty crossed to the Spokane. At the Spokane River the continuous mountain region and the forest terminate, and all great difficulties of location upon the route ceased.
Concerning the passes of the Rocky Mountains Governor Stevens remarked:
It is not doubted there are other passes in this portion of the Rocky Mountain range, even better than those explored; they are indicated by the general depression ofthe mountain range, with the greater frequency of the streams stretehing (nit to meet each other from the opposite slopes of the mountains; and I consider it important that in future operations a whole season should be devoted to their thorough examination, and that instrumental surveys should he uiad& of the pass found to be the most practicable.
Leaving the Spokane the route entered the great plain of the Columnbin and crossed it in a distance of 110 miles. At a distance of 140 miles from the Spokane, a suitable point for crossing the Columbia was reached. This point was about equally distant from the navigable
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 265
Junction to the crossing of the Mississippi River, where a town was laid out, and IIaIned
In April a controlling interest in the Saint Paul and Pacific Railway
Company was obtained.
This company had a considerable land grant, and was organized to h uI d a system
of roads extending tin,, Saint Paul to the British line at Saint Vincent, and also to
Breckenriuige, out the Red River, and to Braineid.
During the financial embarrassments of the Northern Pacific Com-pany they sold this stock the company went into bankruptcy, was re
organized under the name of the Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad Company, and now competes with its former owner for much of the traffic of the Red River region.
The Rest Minnesota Division ,tt the Northern Pacific Railroad extends 114 miles from Duluth to Braiiierd, where it joins the Saint Paul Division of 136 miles in length, the continuation of both lines being known as the West Minnesota Division. extending to Fargo, 138 miles. Ground was first broken oh this division on the 15th February, 1870, at a point about a mile west of the present town of Northern Pacific Junction, where the Saint Paul and Duluth Railroad (then called the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad) joins the Northern Pacific. The Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad was opened through from Saint Paul to iake Superior in the summer of 1870, and became the supply line for the construction of the Northern Pacific, which acquired a half interest in the 23 miles of road from the junction to Duluth.
The work of construction went bravely on, but it was not until November 21, 1871, that a map of definite location of a part of time main line was filed in the General Land Office, ''from a Junction with the Lake Superior and Mississippi River Railroad in Sec. 7, rJ¥ 48 N., R. 16 W., Minnesota, to the lied River of the North." The alhidavit of the chief engineer of the company, showing the completion of time road to the Red Rivet, 228 miles, was filed in time General Land Office October 5, 1871. Of this distance the portion from Northern Pacific Jiutictiolt to Brainerd, 91 miles, was built in 1870, and the remaining 137 miles in 1871.
It was not until August, 1871, that the location of the crossing of Red
River was finally settled. It was determined by the nature of the ap
proaches. A town was laid out upon either bank, that upon the east being named Morehtead; the other, Fargo.
The Dakota !)irision begins at Fargo and extends 2111) miles to Mait
daim, on the vest bank of the Missouri. The work of construction was begun in the spring of 1872, and by the end of the season the track had reached Jamestown, a distance of 94 niiles. During the spring and summer of 1873, the track, crossing the Coteaux at an elevation of 1,S50 feet above the sea, reached the east bank of the Missouri, 102.4 miles further, where a town was laid out and called Bismarck. The affidavit of the chief engineer, testifying to the completion of the road to the Missouri, 196.4 miles, was filed in the General Land Office October 7, 1873. The division was operated at a loss during the first winter, and during the second trains were only run as far as Jamestown.
The financial condition of the company now became so low that time road advanced no further until 1878. The connection with tile Alissouli River navigation was of great importance, however, not only to the road itself; but in greater degree to the people who were beginning to settle the country to the north and west of Bismarck, as well as to the Government posts and Indian agencies on the Upper Missouri mid Yellowstone, and even the remote muting towns in Montana.
272 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
of remark, especially in view of the fact that the eastern half of the route was not explored with special reference to the construction of a railroad.
THE UNION AND CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROADS.
These roads were built by two distinct organizations, now known as the Union Pacific Railway to Ogden. Utah, and the Central Pacific Railroad thence to San Francisco. The latter, having been first put under construction, will be first spoken of.
CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD.
With information gained largely through Government explorations and surveys, Mr. T. 1). Judah, an educated and accomplished engineer, early devoted himself to the advancement of the railway interests of California. In April, 1854, he began a survey for the location of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, and submitted his reports and estimates
on the 30th of May following. The section of the road between Sacra-mento and Folsom, 32 miles, was completed in two years. It was the first railroad on the Pacific coast, and now forms part of the Central Pacific Railroad system, although not on the transcontinental line. After the results of the Pacitie Railway explorations became known, he published, on the 1st of January, 1857, a pamphlet of much value entitled 'A practical plan for building the Pacific which inchided a plan for sleeping and restaurant cars. This was two and a halt years before the discovery of the Wasiroe silver mines, which event greatly increased the necessity for a railroad eastward from the Pacific coast. I-Ic took a l)rollrurent part in the Pacific Railroad Convention which assembled at San Francisco in September, 1859, and was accredited by that body to represent at Wasiriirgtoii the ideas of ' tile people of the Pacific coast upon the railway project. His report concerning his mission was published in 1860. Late in that year he explored the mountain passes through the Sierra Nevada with a view to finding, if possible, a better and more direct line than that surveyed by Lieutenant Beckwith by way of Mmlelin Pass, and the result was the discovery of the present route, which saves a distance of 184 miles and the corresponding cost.
Steps were now taken to organize a company wider the general rail
road law of the State of California, but the organization was not 00111
pleted until June, 1861, when it took the name of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, with Mr. Judith as chief engineer. In 1859 he had been associated with others in running a line from Sacramento to Rose-Yule for the American River Railroad Company. This survey was
afterwards used for a part of the Central Pacific line.
By a resolution of the board of dii ectors of 9th of October, 1861, Mr.
Jiidah was sent to Washington as the agent of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, to procure aid from the Government to construct the road. He was accompanied on the way by the Hon. A. A. Sargent, a Member of Congress from California, a young, ambitious, and indefatigable man, who, upon his arrival at the seat of Government, wasassigned by the Speaker of the House to the Special Pacific Railroad Committee, when he devoted his time and energy almost exclusively to the subject. He introduced the bill granting aid in lands and bonds, taking the ground that the road was a military necessity, illustrating his argument by the existing circumstances of the country, then in
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 273
vol ved in var. The danger of delay, the necessities of the postal service, the control of the Asiatic commerce, were all did arid forcibly set forth. The measure passed through all the requisite stages, the debate in the House extending front April S, IM(2, until it was 'losed by tire passage of the bill on the (ith of May following. After several rinsuccessfOl efforts to eat it itir, the bill carne before tire Serrate on the 11th of June, and, after a rrrerul men t, was imsSetl r rn the 200 1 by the derisive vote of 35 to 5. The amendments of tire senate were count i'ied in by the House, and on the 1st of July, 1862, the art was signed by Presi-dent Linnoin, arid beraroe the law of' the land.
Tire act related 1)I'!Iiiill'lly to tire Union Pacific Railroad, arid was en
titled "Air act to aid in the construction of ii rail road wind I elegi'apir
litre from the Missouri River to the, Paci he Ocean, arid to secure to tire
Government tire rise of tire satire for postal, tn iii tary, and other p
poses. It included, however, the Leaven vort Jr. Pr viree, arrnl \\estei'n
ailioid of Kansas, the Central Pacific Rail toad of California, the
Hannibal arid Saint Joseph Railroad, and the Pacific Railroad Company
of Missouri; thus recognizing existing companies at either ciii of the
route.
The act "'ranted bond subsidies of' these clauses, $1¥;,000 per mile over the plains sections, 1-S,OO pci mile over tire mountain sections, and $32,000 per turn Ic Over the it) tei'nrrenliatc portion, bet'.veenr the western base of the Rocky Mount ttti tis and the eastern ha se of tire Sierra Nevndas. These bonds were a first lien n on the roads and their fi xtrni es, and e\-or ttrally repayable. The grant of lands was for
live alternate sectiotrs on each side of the rail turd ( these being desig-nated by tire odd it urrrber's) witiri rr the ihirri t or to, miles on (orch side of
the road. By the act a irpt'oved July 2, 1864, these numbers were doubled, and the companies were au tlroi'ized to issue oot'tgrge morris to air amount equal to tirose issued try the Government, and they were giver) priority. Additional acts nrrodtfytnrg tire original law rave ireerr passed front titrue to time, but it is not deerured nreeessit r to specify these changes here.
The act required each ('Oti pa ny named I lrer'ei it, to file tirein' accci rt ance of its conditions, with or si mont tirs after its icr ssrge. It, re(inured tire Central Pacific Company to complete .iO rides of its road, within two years utter fi liii g srreh acceptance, and 50 miles per yetir thereafter, arid authorized it to build eastward rnurtih it nrret the raiiu'ncrrl cotrritrg front that (Urec'tioll.
By a en it til run tratitrir dated Noverriber I, 1862, the ('tt r t ral Pacific Railroad Company of California accepted tire conditions, the receipt of this ac cepta tree being acknowledged by the Secretary of the Iiutei'ioi' under date of December 24, 1862.
The final woi-ki rg surveys of tire first division of () miles \\'en'e ('Outpleted riuiinrg the tintrtmrnnr of 1862, arid the work of grading was bcg-tin with a good (teal or ecu'etrrorry hi Jarrrrary, 1863, (iovernmci' Lein riot Stanford, president of tire company, turning the first spar let iii of earth.
On the 12th of J anruan'y, 1864, Preside it Lincoln officially established ''tire point where the litre of the Cenrtu'al Pacific lhriir'oail crosses An cade Crock, iii tire Sacra in en to Valley, * * as Ire wt'st err r base of tire Sierra Nevada Mountains." The object of this was to (itt Ci' rut it re tire beginning of tire Sierra Mormnitaini section, to govern the issue or the Government bonds.
By June, 1861, 31 tunics of track had been laid, but because of adverse cireritits tairces it was not until Septunrrber, 1866, I hat the road was completed to Al ta, TO mules east of Sacramento, and 5,625 feet above 4132 w-I8
274 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
the level of the sea. In November the tract reached Cisco, 22 miles
farther, at ;in elevation of 5,911 feet. (lie last 2,286 feet having been
overcome in a distance of 23 miles. It was still 1:1 miles to the still] Init of the Sierra, and to pass it a tunnel was necessary. However, the hardest part of the work oil this section was already (lone. The deep snow of the winter 110W put a stop to further operations ii tid nothing was done 111)011 the work of grading until (lie following spring. It was then esunicd, with, thiousaiids of hi luorers to 1)11511 it along. By midsummer of 1 67, the road was completed to the suiniiiiit, and the force was at work on the I iinnel there, and dawn the tastern slope. On the 30111 of November, 1867, the fist passenger train i atla (1 tile sumniit, and in December the road had crossed if, at in elevation of 7,042 feet, and had reached the Lower Truickee, iiiai'ly 140 miles east of Sacra-mento.
Iii going 10.5 miles east of Sacramento the road overcame an eleva-tion of 6,986 feet, or in average of 69), fiat to the mile, while much of
the mountain grade was from 1)0 to 100 feet. Beteeui Colfax and Cisco, a distance of 3$ miles, it was necessary to rise 3,463 feet, or an average grade of 91 feet, while for short distances it was from 105 to II 6 feet, the latter beiii g the legal maximu in.
The woi k was ilcaili delayed by the storms of waiter. Both the
Central and U ii iou Companies wei e now about equidistant froin file head of Salt Lake, a imd as the season of 1868 opened the race between the two for that point, which had really been going out for a twelvemonth, was pushed with the utmost vigor, with a resulting speed in railroad building such as was before unknown. Literally an ai niy of workmen were employed (25.000 nan and I ,0)0 teams), and tile 1,100 miles of route between the Sierra in(] Rock y \lonii taiiis presented a busy scene. The woods laig with the strokes of I lie ax and the quarries with (he click of steel. The streams were bordered with lumberincus' en 1111)5 and cliola d with floating logs, and inateri ils, supplies, and equipment for the Central Pacific were scattered from New York, via Cape Iloin and San Francisco, to the very end of the track advancing eastward. Track was laid at the rate of 2 to U miles a day by each eonipaiiy, and 1)11 one day even 7 miles by the Central Pacific. It is m fact that on soil e days a greater distance was laid than the ox teams of 1849 averaged for a tla '5 Jolirmicy.
By September 30, 1868, the Central Pacific track extended 350 miles
eastward, and the graders were 50 miles ahead, and another grading party, starting at the head of Salt Lake, were coining westward 100 miles
As the two roads approached each other the competition between theni increased, and the whole country watched the race with the greatest interest. Sm ely no other of equal importance or grander in its restilts was ever run oil the face of the earth.
The winter of 1868-'69 operated to delay work oil the Union Pacific,
but the Central Pacific, being now in the Great Basin, was interrupted
but one week. It had no difficulty with snow, except in the Sierras, where but 22 miles of the 40 or 50 of snow belt had been protected by snow-sheds. It was found necessary before another winter set in to protect the whole of this distance.
During the progress of the couistriictioui some controversy arose between the two companies in interest in regard to the point where they should join. It was finally agreed that the junction should be made at a point 5 miles west of the town of Ogden, Utah, the Central Company
278 REPORT OF THE, SECRETARY OF WAR.
By act of Congress of May 31, 1868, the name of the company was again eliaiiged, and it became "The Kansas Pacific." The road was Completed to Denver, 639 miles front Ka iisiis City, on the 1st of Sep-tember, 1870.
The Denver Pacific Railroad, connecting the Kansas Pacific with the
Union Pacific at. Cheyenne, a distance of 106 miles, was constructed by
the Kansas Pacific Company tinder a charter dated November 19, 1867,
and was opened January 1, 1671, and on I lie, 24111 of' Jaiiuiii'y it, together with its parent company, was consolidated with the Union Pacific, Railroad Company, the resulting organization being I hereafter know n as the. Union Pacific Railway Coiii pa ny.
ROUTE -YEAR THE TJII1'1Y-.E!(JIT1I AND 'I HJIITt'-XIIt'TlI PARALLELS'.
The general consideration which determined the position of this route was its central position geographically, it. being about midway between Canada in the noi Iii and Mexico oil the. s uth, and connecting Saint Louis and San Francisco, which are respectively oil latitude 390 u1i(l 3$O itearly. Moreover, it seems probable that it would prove the shortest road from the ba of Saii Francisco to the navigable waters of the Mississippi.
The exploration was conducted by Capt. .1. W. Giiiiiiisoii, Corps of
Topographical Engineers, United States Army. It coiflulieiIce(l at the month of the. Kansas River (present Kansas City) uuand followed that river and its branch, called the Smoky Hill Fork, to a coii veiiieiit point for erossiii g to the Arkansas, the valley of which it entered just vest of the Great Bend, near the ninety-ninth meridian. It ascended the Arkansas to the month of' Apislipa Creek, 50 wiles above Bent's Fort, then crossed to the entrance of the Rocky Mutiiitains (here called the Sierra Blaiika) at the Iluei'fano Butte, 654 wiles from the starting point., and at an elevation of 6,009 feet.
Of the several passes through the Rocky Mountains, connecting the tributaries of the lluerfiino with those of the Rio (lei Note, only the Sangre do Cristo was reported practicable for a railroad. By side location the summit, 9,219 feet above the sea, was attained at 692 miles from the mouth of the Kansas, and the descent was made to the valley of the Rio Giande, with practicable, though heavy grades. The line thence to the vicinity of Fort. Massachusetts was more favorable.
The route then, with easy grades, ascended the valley of the San Luis
to Sahi watch (01' Saguachie) Creek, one of whose ailments rises in a pass
of the Rocky (here called the Sahwat.chi) Mountains, known as the Cochetopa Pass, the elevation of which was 10,032 feet.; 816 miles from the starting point.
To cross the sninmit, a grade of 124 feet to the tulle, for several miles,
and a tunnel nearly 2 miles long would be required.
The descent from Cochietopa Pass, with grades varying from 41 feet to 108 feet to the mile, was by way of Pass Creek to itjuiictioii with Coclietopa Creek, and thence to the valley of Grand liver, which it followed for 173 miles, and then crossed the divide to Green River, a distance of 68 miles, and approached the pass through the Wahsatch Mountains by the tributaries of Green River. Here a. tunnel three-quarters of a mile long would be required, with eastern grades of approach of 125 feet to the mile for 6 miles, and a descent to the westward of 131 feet to the mile for 5 miles. thence westward for 18 miles the route, with heavy grades, pursued the valley of Salt Creek, and then entered the valley of
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 279
the Seviei, and 86 iiiiles further oii the exploration terminated, at a distance of 1,318 miles from its beginning.
From the mouth of the Kansas to the Sin-re de Cristo Pass the route
presented no peculiar difficulties nor au vaiitages, but quite was similar to the two iiioie northerly ones.
The Samigre de Cristo and Coelietopa Passes were deemed practicable, but at great cost.
Upon the whole the route ' aS considered 1111 practicable because of the engineering di theulties and the cost of construction involved in overCOllii mig them. (It may not be amiss to remark here that a railroad has bevml built, and time cams are now running over this very route.)
Aside from the ditlicuit nature, of this route the following considerations \% ere urged in regard to the cost of operating a railroad in case one were constituted. Fro 0 the mnoImtl! of the Kansas Rivet to the west base of the LIII ktik-oo-ap Mountains is 1,523, miles; the siiiii of aSCeiltS, 23,190 i feet; of 'descents, 19,052 feet; length of equivalent horizontal line for the route, 2,123 miles.
Of the direct route 11(1mm! the western base of the lJim-kuk-oo¥ap Mouimt
urns to the entrance to the Tay-ee-chay-pali (TcllacllIpi) Pass there
there
was lii) survey nor positive imlformnatioui. It was believed to be, for tile most part, a desert similar to other portions of time (3 teat Thisn. Supposing this part of the route to be a straight line, with lmmliforill descent to tile entrance of the Tay-ee-cilav-pa]l Rmss (110 practicable pass was known to the north of it), the distance would be 4,30 1111115 and time descent 1,830 feet; the eq noted horizontal distance, 464 miles.
Froumi the entrance of the 'Pav-ee-chay-inthi Pass to San Francisco was
326 iimiles; Stimli of ascents, 1,308 feet; stun of descents, 4,608 feet; equated
length, 410 miles.
Adding all these together. the sRnl,3,027 miles, represented tile equated distance ltouim the month of the Kansas to Sail Francisco, the length of a straight, horizontal line between the teiimmiimal points being only 1,500 miles.
Time distance fromli Sevier River to Great Salt Lake was 120 miles; Stun of ascents and descents, 1,60() feet; equated distance, 150 nules; thence to Beimecia, by the route near time forty lust parallel, explored by Lieutenant Beckwith, 872 miles; Still! of ascents and descents, 15,20() feet; inakimig the equivalent horizontal line i,i0 miles; which, added to time equated distance fionm the mouth of time Kansas to Sevier River, 2,050 miles, gave a total of 3,360 miles as the equated distance between the terminal points.
When Captain Gullilisoil reached Sevier Rivet lie was killed by In
dians, and the charge of time exploration devolved upomi Lieut. IE. G. Beekwith, who made an examination from the Great Salt Lake, to connect that position with the line of time forty-first parallel; then returned to Salt Lake 011(1 continued the survey westward to the waters of the Pacific, as related in the account of the, route near the forty-first aild forty-second parallels.
ROUTE NEAR THE THIRTY-E, IGWrH AND 'E'IIIRTY-NiNTlI PARALLELS AS ACTUALLY OCCtl'IED.
Practically, all of the explored portion of this route huts been occupied
from Kansas City to Pueblo, 635 miles, by time Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, and fmoin Pueblo to Great Salt Lake, at Salt Lake City, by the Denver and Rio Graimde Railway, although certain portions have been more exactly occupied by other lines. For instance, the
280 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
Kansas Pacific is coincident with the explored line fiotn Kansas City
to Ellsworth, a distance of 223 miles, bitt nowhere very distant from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. At Ellswortli, time explored line leaves the valley of the Smoky Full, and in a distance of about 40 miles crosses to the valley of the Arkansas, at time Great Bend, a little east of the 99th Meridian, when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe road becomes coincident with and follows it for 310 miles to the mouth of Apishpa Creek, a short distance west of Bent's Fort. At Apislipa Creek the routes diverge again, the constructed line reaching the valley of Cochetopa Creek by a direct route through Pueblo, the Ca¯on of the Arkansas, and Tomachi Creek, whilst the explored line attained the same point via the Sangre de Cristo Pass. (The Denver and Rio Grande has built through this pass in order to reach the valley of the Rio Grande, but not in connection with the through line.) The constructed and explored lines now coincide again for about 350 miles, but instead of passing to the southward of Great Salt Lake, the line, as built, passes to the eastward of it, and at Salt Lake City makes connection for Ogden, on time Union Pacific, and becomes lost in the fortyfirst and forty-second parallel route.
A comparison of this statement with the brief of the description of the explored route will show how closely the constructed line has followed it, until Salt Lake Valley is reached. It is not probable that the line westward from that point will ever be built.
ATChISON, TOPEKA AND SANTA FE RAILROAD.
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company was originally incorporated under time name of the Atchison and Topeka hiailroad Company, by an act of the legislative asseiiibly of the Territory of Kasisas, approved February 11, 18,59, and the name was subsequently changed in accordance with the Territorial laws, by a vote of the stockholders, November 24, 1863, to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company.
By the second section of time Territorial act the company was
Authorized and empowered t survey, locate, construct, complete, alter, maintain, and operate a railroad, W itli tine or more tracks, from or near A tehisi oi, oil the
TM i s,
souri River. iii K nsas Territory, to the town of Topeka in said Territory, and to ci cli point, n the. southern or western bonhi(l ary of said Territory, in the direction of Santa, F, New Mexico, as may be niost convenient, suitable for the con strocti ni of said road, niitl also to construct a branch ol sa iii 111 lriii to any point on the southern boundary ((1 said Ten itory of Kansas, in the direction of the Gulf of Mexico.
By all act of Congress, approved March 3, 1863, certain lands were
granted to the State of Kansas for the purpose of aiding in the con
struction of railroads in that State. The following is so much of that act as relates specially to this road, viz
Second, of a railroad froni the city of Atchison via Topeka, the capital of said State, to tim west. rn tile of the State, in the direction of Fort Union and Santa Fe. New Mexico, with a bran iii front where this 1 act-nut tied road crosses the Neosito valley to the point where the, said firstn awed road clii ems the Ne ishio \a I Icy ; every 81 ttrn;iti, seetioji of land designated h odd numbers, for ten sections in width on each side, of said road and each of its branches.
This grant wac conditioned 111)011 time completion of the road within ten years of the, date of the act.
By an act of the legislature of Kansas, approved February 9, 1864, the State of Kansas accepted the grants made by Caigmess and gm ted to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company such of the lands granted by Congress to the State as were applicable to that road.
282 REPORT OF 'I HE SECRETARY OF WAR
reached a point 150 miles from that place. The ends of the track were joined in 1883, and connection made with the Union Pacific at Ogden.
ROUTE NEAR THE THIRTY-H1,711 PAR ILLEL.
The general features which determined the position of this route were
tile extt-iisioii west and east of the interlocking tributaries of the Missis-sippi, the Rio Graiide, and the Colorado of the West. Its exploration was conducted by Lieut. A. \V. \Vhipple, of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, United States Army.
Coiniiiencing at Fort Smith, about 270 miles from the Mississippi at Memphis, time route, as far as the Antelope [tills oil the Canadian, a distance of -tOO iiilts, was hound practicable, either l)y the valleys of the Arkansas and Cinadiami or over a ii lie south of time Canadian ; this latter route 1)1-alielmimig again, and following either time valley if the Wash i ta Or tile dividing ridge between it and tile Canadian.
From the Antelope hills the route continued for 250 miles along time right ha uk of time Canadian, to the mouth of Tucumneari Greek; ascended by the va1ey of this stream, or by that of Pajarito Creek, attaimmimig the dividing ridge between the Canadian and the I'ecos Rivers, at an elevation of about 3,5-13 feet, and entered the valley or tile latter. It followed this valley until, by meamms of a tributary, it rose to tile high land lying east of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of about 7,000 feet; crossed the, elevated Salinas basin, 30 miles wide, tile lowest point being 6,7-ti feet, amid gainel the divide in the Rack y iIotimitains at an elevation of about 7,001) feet from there it either descended through the San Pedro Pass to Albuquerque or Istetu oil the Rio Grande, or to the Rio Granite by time valley of time G-alisteo River, north of Sandia Mon mm ta iii. A third route was i imdictted along time valley of the I'ecos to its mieadwaters ; thence to in affluent of the Galisteo, and thence, as before, to the Rio Grande.
The elevation of isleta was stated to be 4,94i feet above tile sea, and its distance from Fort Smith 554 miles.
Crossing the ridge separating the Rio Grande from tlm Pmierco, the route followed the valley of the Sami Jos≥, to one of its sources in a pass of the Sierra Madre, known as the Camnino de Obispa; passing the summit at an elevation of 8,250 feet, where a tunnel three-quarters of a mile long at an elevation of 8,000 Ibet would be required; then descending to the Zulu River near the Pueblo of ZulU ; and then, over undulariimg ground to Navajo Spring, oil the Puerco of time Vest.
Another route was examined across the Sierra Madm'e, about 20 miles north, which was thought to be more favorable. The elevation of the summit was about 7,750 feet. The Puerco of the West heads in this pit,", and time route followed time valley of this stream to Navajo Spring, where it joined time other line, and thence down the valley to time jimmietioum of time Puerco with the Colorado Cluiquito ; then down the valley of the latter to time foot of the southeastern slopes of the San Francisco Mountains, elevation 4,775 feet; distance from Fort Smith, 1,182 unites. Here it ascended to time dividi mug ridge between tile waters or the (tila and time Colorado of the \Vesf, and commtimumted upon or near it for about 200 miles, to Aztec Pass, elevation 6,281 feet ; distance front Fort Smith. 1,350 miles. Time highest point reached oil this undulating ridge, was 7,742 feet, at Lemouxs Spring. at the foot of time Simm Francisco Mountain. From Aztec Pass time descent to time Colorado was made by a circuitous route along the valleys of its tributaries, the largest and last being Bill Williams Fork, the junction of which with the Colorado was
GENEIIAL OF THE ARMY. 283
stated to be 1,559 miles from Fort Smith, and at an elevation of about
208 feet above the sea.
The route their ascended the Colorado, about 34 miles, to the Needles, where it left the river by the va 1ev of a ,;treat]) (dry at the tithe) whose source was in an elevated ridge. The summit was attained at all elevation of 5,262 feet, and the route tliei i descended, with an average grade of 100 tiet to the wile, for 41 miles to Soda Lake, at an elevation of 1,117 feet. From Soda Lake the ascent to the suiuiiuiiit of Cajoui Pass, in the Sierra Nevada, elevation 4,179 feet, was made by followillp. tile Mojave River. The summit of this pass, following the line, was [(laud to be 1,798 miles from Fort Smith and 2-12 miles from the point of crossing' the Colorado. 1-1 ere a tunnel, about 3 miles long, %vas reported as necessary, (lesceulding to the westward with a ".1-ade of' 100 feet to the nii le, which would be the average for 22 miles, to the valley of Los Angeles, the natural grades varying from 90 feet to 171 feet per mile. Thence to the port of San Ped o, 1,892 in iles from Fort Smith, the gronud was favorable.
Between Fort Smith and Saui Pedro the suuii of the ascents was 24,171
and of descents 24,611 feet, which was estimated as equivalent to an increased horizontal distance of 924.5 miles, or a total equated distance of 2,816 miles.
The general features of the country indicated lines for examination
at more thami one point which Would probably greatly improve the route
by reducing the ascelits and shortening- distances. The exploring party was, however, unable to examine them. The impression giveim by the description of the route iii the report. produced in the Secretary of War an opinion that the ground was more favorable tliaii Lientemman t. \Vhiipple reported. (Subsequent events have justified this Opinion of the Secretary. The wellknown characteristics of Lieutenant W lii11 de caused him to avoid any overstatement of the advantages of the route which he had himself examined. He always kept within the facts.)
The estimated cost of a railroad from Fort Smith to San Pedro by this route, was 169,210,265, and the Secretary believed this estimate to be excessive.
To reach San Francisco by the Tulares and San Joaqmiimi Valleys, the
route left the Mojave Valley some 30 miles before reaching the entrance
to the Cajon Pass, 1,768 miles from Fort Smith, elevation about 2,555 feet, and proceeded across the southwest corner of the Great Basin towards the Tay-ee-chay-pahm Pass, reaching its entrance at an elevation of 3,300 feet in a distance of about 80 miles. From this point the route was coincident with that hereafter described for file thirty-second parallel.
The sum of the ascents from Fort Smith to San Francisco by this
route was stated as 25,100 feet; of (lescents, 25,570-esthimated as equiv
aleuit. to a horizontal distance of 963 miles, or a total equated distance of 3,137 wiles.
ROUTE LVEJ B THE THuR TY1'JPTII PARALLEL, .48 ACTUALLY OCCUPIED.
This route has only been completed from Isleta, in Mew Mexico, to Mojave station of [lie Southern Pacific Railroad, just south of TehahIalcI (Tav-ee ciiay-pah) Pass in California. It has hmeemi located frolil Isleta, to Red Fork in the Indian Territory, 4 miles west of tire Arkansas River, whence there is a completed line via Vinita, Indian Territory, and Springfield, Mo., to Saint Louis. From Fort Smith a branch is pro jected to intersect. the main line 100 miles west of Tulsa.
Considering the branch fiomn Fort Smith, the located and completed
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 285
ally after the completion of that portion between Saint Louis and Spring
field * the corn i ci mir, i mnmttedi atelv after receiving its charter, turned its
attention to securing the construction of thti eastern division. For this purpose, and that there nuigli t be no delay the stockholders of the Atlantic and Pact th Company purchased the stock of the South Pacific, and the two comitpanies became tints substantially identical in ownership and miianageuteiit. The work was rapidly prosecuted front Saint Louis to 5pm n field under the i tame of the South Pacific, and thenceforward under the name of the Atlautic ii ad Paci lie to the State line. Oil the 1st of July, 1872, the South Pacific was formally and legally merged in the At lanic and Pacific by a lease for 19919 years, so that tile latter company became nominally, as during the construction it was practically, the owner of the ontire line front Saint Louis west. By the 14th of October, 1871, the road was fully completed, fully equipped, mid iii successful operation to Venita, a town in the Indian Territory, about 35 miles vest of the western border of Missouri, a total distance of 365 miles.
The foregoing shows what the coitupammy had (toile up to December, 1871, when time last section of its road in the Indian Territory \V as itccepted by the President of the (Jttite(l States.
About this time unseen (lifficull ies arose to prevent the continuous prosecution of the work, and Congress was appealed to by the coat pany to extinguish the India it title to the hinds embraced within the grant
so as to allow settlement to be fbrtuied along the road to give it a butsi
ness in the Indian Territory, but without effect. These ci met untstam ices
and conditions hindered the progress of construction from 1871 to 1873,
when flit financial panic or crash occurred, (fit jug the continuance of which the building of railroads throughout the coumutiy was generally suspeitded.
The money for completing the South Pacific Road, between Saint
Louis and Springfield, and for building; the Atlantic and Pacific, from
Springfield to Vinita, had been raised upon mortgage bond, but owing
to the circuttistaices above stated, iletauilt was made in the payment 01 interest amid the mortgage was foreclos'd, amid all of the company7s road and property in the State of Missouri was 501(1 under the foreclosure on the 8th if September, 1876, leaving the company with a cimisiderable debt of various kinds and only 35 miles of road in the Indian Territory, with no rolling stock to operate it.
The commi pami,v remnaimied in this batikru pt or crippled Condition limit ii
January, 1880, when an agreement was entered into between it and the Saint Louis and San Francisco, amid time Atch isoim, Topeka and Santa Fe, for the resumption of the work of construction from Vinita westward, amid westward from Albuquerque out the Rio Grande River.
Under the agreement referred to, the two companies named assumed
and paid all of the imuilebtedmiess of the Atlantic and Pacific road, ex
cepting a smimahl anioun t, the paymfient of the interest, upomi which they
also provided for and ply as the stone Oils d tie.
The Atlantic and Pacific being thus relieved, and having its credit
restored by the immdorsemneiit of the two companies, commenced time work of construction westward from Albuquerque, on the Rio Grande River, ill 1880.
In the antumiumi of 18,131 time company begait all exploration and survey
of its line westward from Viutita, with a view to the rapid construction
of its road from that point to Albuquerque. Emigimieei parties were or
ganized, equipped, amid sent into the field, but were hindered from doing any work for several months, and were eventually recalled. In
286 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
1889 the work of construction was resumed on this portion of the road,
and it it is now completed, 011(1 111 operation to Red Fork, a short distanee beyond the Arkansas, 68 miles west of Vinita, and 432 from Saint Louis.
It is the purpose of the company to extend its road westward to the Rio Grande, a distance of some 600 miles, in the shortest practicable time. There is less necessity, however, to[- the immediate construction of this pot tion, because the Atchison, Topeka and Santa W Railroad now furnishes a coiiiiectioii between Saint Louis and [sleta, N. i\Iex., through its southwest erli extension from La Junta, upon which grading was be-tin in May, 1873, and the road opened to Trinidad September 20, 1878, and to the boundary line between Colorado and New \iexieo July 10, 1879. On April 14, 1880, it was opened to Albuquerque, and shortly thereafter to Isleta. By this route via Kansas City and La Junta, the distance from Saint Louis, to [sleta is 1,211 miles. By the link yet to 1)0 constructed between ii'(l Rock and Islctii, it will be nearly 200 miles less.
The work of construction westward froth isl eta was begun in May,
1880, jointly by the A tcliisoii, Topeka and Santo F, and the Saint Louis and San Francisco railroad coiIuluuiies ; to Which was afterwards joined the OutiIerIi Pacific of Caiforiuia, which was tu1t1l(u1izeul by act of Congress .1 uly 27, 1866, to construct the San Francisco COil iiectioii. With the exception of al)Ouit six months' delay at Ca 1(011 Diablo, during which the grading was carried 150 miles to the westward of that point, track laying continued without iilfcrrul)tiolI until the Colorado River was reached, at the ''
By the close of 1880 the line 110(1 been completed to a point .50 miles west of i sleta. During 1881 it was extended I 63 miles to Navajo's Spring, Oil the Puerto of the West, and early ill 1882 to Cai'ion l)iablo, 302 allies front Isleta.
As soon as the viad net across Cation I)iablo was completed so that
rails could be sent forward, track laying was resumed early iii July,
1882, and before the close of the year the road was ill operation to Ash
Fork, 391 miles from Isieta. The track viS completed to the '' Needles,"
565 miles from I sleta (575 miles from Albuquerque) on the 15th of June,
1 883.
The Southern Pacific Railroad Company of California commenced the coiistiuictioii of its 1)O1tioll of the road, in 1880, at Mojave station, at the foot of Tehtlchapa Pass, and pushing it forward with a view to reaching the Colorado at the 11 Needles 11 at tile Same time with the track from the eastward, accomplished it about the last of April, 1883, tile distance being 243 miles. Some delay occurred ill making the connection by the earl big away of the tellipolary bridge across the Colorado, so that the tirucks were not actual ly joined until some months later, but it is now complete, and trains are now running through the entire dis
tui'a, a little nor,,, tieui SIE) in iles, front Isleta to \htjave.
ROUTE NEAR THE T[[[RTY-SEC0_'\TD PARALLEL.
Among the considerations which determined the general position. of
this route for exploration were the low elevation of the mountain passes and their favorable topographical features, the favorable character of the surface generally, the shortness of the line front the navigable waters of the Mississippi to the Pacific, 011(1 the temperate climate on the elevated portion,,.
The explorations from Preston, on Red River, to the Rio Grande were
288 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAK.
Fort Fillmore, ¥.i tides from Molaio, and enter the valley of the Gihi
near the Pi was villages, the elevation above the sea being 1,365 feet;
thence hollow the GO to its junction with the Colorado, a distance of 223 miles, with an easy slojtÛ' and no difficulties to impede construction. San Diego would then be the nearest i tort in U itod States territory, but the difficult character of the intervening coil lit IV would force tite route northward to fit(- San Uorgonio Pass, considered to be for this route the most favorable of the passes cx pioi-ed by Lieuteita n t \\i hamson it, the (Joust Range. The entrance to this piss is 133 miles from the north of tile Gila ill U straiuhit line over the desert. with 110 difficulty in the way.
Fi-olil San Got-gotiio Pass Suit Diego all(l Sati Pedro could be reached by lilies of nearly equal length. The route to Sail Pedi o would be somewhat iiioie tavoralib, am! for that reason was preferred.
The length of this route from Fuli oil to San I 'euro was stated to be
1,618 miles, the sunt of ascents and descents 32,7S-1 feet, equivalent in the working of a railroad coto a horizontal distance of 621 miles, thus gi Vi it 2,239 miles as the equated distance. Tile esti mate of the cost was 6,970,000.
For a connection with the bay of San Francisco ti host direct route front the San (1 oigoli ii) Pass would be through one of the passes leading, 110111 the plain of Los Angeles to the valley of Sa Has River. But the practicability of these passes had not been detennined, ;mid will the i iiloimnatioii ill possession the bar of San Francisco must be reached
by crossing the Coast Range to the Great Basiti, passing over its south-western extremity! thou crossing tile Sierra Nevada and descendilig, to
tile Wares Va] her. The roim te suggested was to descend front the 511111
nti of the Sail ( orgomi II) Pass to the town of Sail Bert a id i no, then to
the M issiomi and Low Pass of San Feriiando, about 100 in iles from San Gorgonio.
The Sail Feliiailtl() Pass is about miles through. Its summit, was found to be 1,941) feet above the sell, and there a tunnel of one-third of a mile ill eiigtIi would be required. After descending for about 4 miles the ascent to the New Pass would be begun and the sum mit llttlIili('(l in 21) tiiies. at all eievatioiu of 3,164 feet. Thence tile ulesceit t to the Great I3asii would be immllde, the lowest level being, 2,901) feet. After that the, route would lie through the Ta Il-ce charpub (Tell achia iii Pass to the Tmiiares Valley, a distance 01 () miles.
The rf.Lhi cc ehay-paii Pass, first explored by Lient. 1. S. \Vilhia itisoim, was ton tid to be the most favorable ill this pail of the Sierra Nevada, its suuuiuuiuit being a nearly horizontal prairie for 7 miles, with -all easy ascent for 21 miles front the W eat Basin. The elevat iou of its entrance is 3,31)0 feet.
The descent to the Wares Valley by the tiatuia.l slopes was made ill
]5- miles, which could be extended to 21 miles, giving easier grades and etiteri mlg the valley at an it elevation of 1 ,4,0 feet.
Front the Tiihaies Valley it was practicable to reach the navigable
waters of Sail Francisco ill several ways.
The eastern side of the Tit lures and San Joaqu in Valleys is itt tei-sected by numerous streams from the Sierra Nevada. The westeimi is bounded by the Coast (Jhta itt, and has butt few streams. Along that part of the Tulaies Valley between Kern and San J oaqn in Rivers, a space of 150 miles, it would be advisable to keep near the foot slopes of the mitonilta ins. The distance between Tab ee-cltay-pali Pass and Marl iiiez Straits would be 88 miles.
The nlostdirect route Rein Tat ee-chay-pali Pass to San Francisco would
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 289
be through one of the passes in the mountain range separating the Tulares and San Joaquin Valleys from those of the Salinas and San Jos≥ Rivers. The distance through it is about 10 miles. The route should cross from Tah-ee-chay-pah Pass to the western side of the Tulares Valley, around the head of the lakes, and enter the Salinas Valley as soon as practicable.
From Fiilton to San Francisco the distance was stated to be 2,039 miles; the sum of the ascents and descents 42,008 feet, equivalent to 795 miles; the equated length 2,834 miles; and the estimated cost $93,120,000.
The survey of a route from the bay of San Francisco to the junction of the Gila and Colorado Rivers, connecting with the ports of San Pedro and San Diego on the one side, and on the other with time most practicable mountain passes, was intrusted to Lieutenant Williamson, assisted by Lieutenant Parke, both of the Topographical Engineers, tjnite(1 States Army. The examination of time middle section was made by Lieutenant Parke, and the eastern by Captain Pope, assisted by Lieutenant Garrard, of the cavalry. All these examinations, though made with small means, under disadvantageous circumstances, proved highly satisfactory.
It was remarked that the estimated influence of ascents arid descents upon the expense of operating a road would be subject to increase when the minor undulations of the ground came to be measured, and would be greatest where the features of the country were least regular. The equated distances would also affect the cost of working a road only under certain circumstances, which might or might not exist upon a particular route.
Upon the whole, the Secretary was decidedly of opinion that the socalled thirty-second parallel route was "the most psacticable and economnical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific
How far he was influenced in this opinion by local proclivities we have no means of ascertaining. It was known to be a favorite proj ect of his, and the results of the examinations certainly tended strongly to confirm this opinion. However, the fact now is that each of the routes explored has been occupied by a completed road, in some cases the difficulties have practically disappeared under close and accurate surveys, and in all have been greatly ameliorated. A comparison of time routes as explored with those actually built upon is made on the accompanying map, and the accordance of the two cannot but be considered remarkable in view of the fact that time preliminary examninations were completed in so short a time, at so little comparative cost, with limited appliances, and over so much unknown territory. Never was money better expended by our Government, and the results have been a complete reply to the criticisms made at the time by those who opposed the expenditure (a considerable faction) and the ri(hicule which partisan writers and speakers sought to cast upon the so-called '' picture-books" comprising the elaborate reports of the exploring parties.
The results attained never could have been accomplished except through the enthusiastic interest felt in the work by all connected with it, and it is a matter ofjust pride that the Army contributed in so great a degree to the direct development of these great improvements, and, through them, to the welfare of the country.
Other reasons than easier lines have also had their weight in fixing the final location of the different roads. Between the time when the explorations were made and actual construction begun many interests had arisen the tendency of which was to more or less divert the located 4132 w-19
29 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
northward to San Fernando, 20 miles, was finished by the 15th of April, 1874, and that from Los Angeles eastward to Spadra, 29 miles, was completed on the same day. By the lot!! July, 1875, the road lla(l beeti extended from Spatha to Coltoii, 28 miles, and on January 1, 1876, northward from San Fernando to the tunnel. May 26, 1876, the road was opened from Caliente to Keene, 13 miles, and on the 9th of August to Mojave, 32 miles further. (At this station was subsequently started the branch to connect with the thirty-fifth parallel route.) There was now a gap of 73 miles to close before the connection with Los Angeles was complete, and this was done on the 6th September, 1876, or in less than one month. The line was then in running order to Coltoii, 57 miles east of Los Angeles, with branch hues from Los Angeles west to the coast at Santa Monica, 16 miles, and south to Wilmington, 21 miles, as well as southwest to the town of Anaheim, 31 miles. Everything was in excellent shape for a rapid extension of the road from Colton southeastward to Yuma, and this was done with the greatest energy.
Upon leaving San Gorgonio Pass the route entered the "Colorado Desert," where the road for 160 miles traverses a region so dry and hot that no trace of vegetation is found except a few scattering cactus plants, and at "Flowing Wells" descends 266 feet below the sea-level. Potable water is to be had at only one or two places in the entire distance. One of these was reached at Dos Palmas, 102 miles from Colton, early in 1877; and on May 23, 1877, the road reached Ynma, on the Colorado River, 191 miles from Colton, 248 miles from Los Angeles, 490 miles from Goshen, and by continuous rail 725 miles from Oakland, opposite San Francisco.
In addition to the foregoing, 40 miles of road from Goshen to Huron were completed on February 1, 1877. It is intended to eventually extend this to a connection with the lines of the Southern Pacific Railroad, thus closing the gaps which now exist and which have been already referred to.
The country east of Yumna is part of the same Colorado Desert, and for 150 miles is destitute of water, except that found in the Gila River.
The sufferings of troops, emigrants, and travelers in crossing these wastes have been teirible, and form the refrain of all who have written or told of them.
In pushing the road forward it was incumbent upon all concerned to make every possible preparation to meet the dreaded difficulties. It was necessary to organize water-trains for the use of engines, men, and animals, to accumulate materials and supplies to such an extent that time work once begun should be completed in the shortest practicable time, and to have in readiness as large a laboring force as could work to advantage. From Yuma eastward the road had no charter from Congress, and no aid from time Government, except such as could be rendered by the. military authorities in the way of protecting the workmen from Indian raids.
During the year 1877 the bridge was built over the Colorado at Ynina, and two new corporations were organized for the purpose of forming eastern connections with this road, one under the laws of the Territory of Arizona and the other under the laws o
the Territory of New Mexico.
On the 7th of October, 1878, the Southern Pacific Railroad of Arizona was incorporated, and on the 19th of November ground was broken at Yuina, and half a mile of track was laid the same day. By January 8, 1879, the road was completed and opened to Adomide, 30 miles; on February 1, 35 miles further; on March 3, 20 miles beyond;
on March 31, to Gila Bend, 34 miles, or 120 miles from Yuma. The
294 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
Texas it became entitled to a land grant of sixteen sections per mile of road constructed in that State.
It acquired the properties of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company (of Texas), March 21, 1872, the Southern Transcontinental Railway Company, March 30, 1872, and the Memphis, El Paso and Pacific Bailroad Company. The Southern Pacific Railroad Company (of Texas) was a consolidation of the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas, chartered in Louisiana, and the Southern Pacific, organized under the laws of Texas. That portion of the line in Louisiana, about 20 miles, was built by the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas Company; the section from the east line of Texas to Longview, Tex., about 40 miles, by the Southern Pacific Company. The rest of the line in Texas was built by the present company.
By act of Congress of May 2, 1872, the name of the company was changed to the Texas and Pacific Railway Company.
A map of the proposed route from El Paso, Tex., to San Diego, Cal. was filed in the General Land Office September 2, 1871, but the occilpation of so much of this line is lies between El Paso and Ynmna by the Southern Pacific Railroad of Arizona and New Mexico having been first accomplished, that portion of the original project seenis to have been abandoned for the present.
The road so far as built has been located upon a. remarkably direct line, with very moderate grades and curves.
In 1871 the route was opened for a distance of 30 miles west of Marshall, Tex., that place being also connected with Shreveport, 40 miles to the eastward. The work of construction was pushed with considerable vigor until the company became embarrassed from lack of means. However, by the 11th August, 1876, 444 miles of road were in full operation, viz, Shreveport Division, from Shreveport to Marshall, 40 miles; Southern Division, from Marshall to Fort Worth, 180 miles; Jefferson Division, from Marshall to Transcontinental Junction, 69 miles and Transcontinental Division, from the Junction to Sherman, 155 miles. (The names of these divisions were afterwards changed.)
By the 30th of June, 1880, the road was in operation from Fort Worth westwardly, on what was then called the Rio Grande Division, a distance of 40 miles, with 56 miles yet to he built under the same contract; and the company had contracted for the building of 575 miles more, viz, on the Rio Grande Division, 520 miles, to El Paso, and from Slierman, via Whitesborough, to Deuton, 55 miles.
During the year ending June 30, 1881, the road was extended westwardly 24 miles, or 289 from Fort Worth, and the entire line constructed from Sherman, via Whitesborotigli and 1)eiiton, to Fort Worth, a distance of 89 miles, the whole of this 338 miles being put into full operation.
By deed dated June 21, 1881, the Texas and Pacific was consolidated, under its own name, with the New Orleans Pacific Railway, extending from Shreveport to New Orleans, a distance of about 335 miles, and with the Shreveport Division added became the New Orleans Division. The names of the other divisions were changed, so that the Traits continental Division became merged in the Eastern Division, via. Sherman
the Jefferson Division and the Southern Division, consolidated, became the Eastern Division, via. Marshal. Westward from Fort Worth to El Paso the name of Rio Grande Division was retained.
On December 6, 1881, the road joined the Southern Pacific at Sierra Blanea, and the railroad route by the thirty-second parallel was coinplete.
298 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
eral roads, and continued until it became a series of lines extending across the continent, each having a frontier looking to the north and to the south. It became easier to supply the troops, and rapid movements characterized all military operations, until Indian outbreaks were reduced from wars to mere raids of short duration, and the Army was reduced to half its previous number. With the aid of the railroads it is now practicable to accomplish more with a hundred men than was formerly possible with a thousand. But we have meanwhile been going through a series of conflicts, growing out of the encroachment of the settlements 111)011 the hunting grounds of the Indians, that taxed every facility and made necessary every soldier we have had. Upon time part of the Indians it was a struggle for existence after the traditions of their race, but the struggle is about ended, and they are face to face with the question whether they shall adopt the white man's methods or perish. Numbering probably not more than 300,000, they occupied an area capable of supporting many millions, and claimed their right to do so, without recognizing the rights of others to equal existence. They added nothing to the sum of human happiness, made no progress in civilization, built no churches, opened no schools, cultivated no ground. If the Army, aided by the railroads, has brought this state of affairs to an end, so much the better for all concerned. The Indians are not decreasing in number; they are only more restricted in their habits. They are on the way to a higher civilization, and with the help that is due them from the white man will accomplish it. This has been attained by a wise policy upon the part of the Government in extending material aid to railroads. Suppose it has cost us large sums in bonds and grants of lands, the investment has been a good one; an opposite course would have cost much more. Estimate the cost at $400,000,000, the saving in mere money in forty years, supposing the same ends could have been gained without the railroads, would amount to as much or more.
Whilst the uses of the westward extensions of the railway system have been of such great importance in dealing with the Indian question, the railroads existing in the settled portions of the country had the most vital bearing upon military operations during the civil war of 1861'65. It enabled both parties to that conflict to put into the field armies of such magnitude as had been theretofore unknown in civil wars. This was due to time fact that it was possible to supply them over distances which would have otherwise been impracticable with such wagon-roads as then existed. The immediate effect of railway transportation was observable in the highest degree during the Atlanta campaign, when more than a hundred thousand men, with a due proportion of animals, were kept fully supplied at a distance of four hundred miles or more from its base on the Ohio River. All who took part in the campaign will remember with what solicitude that long, slender line of rails was guarded, and what conspicuous gallantry was exhibited on several occasions when guards defended their charge to the utmost, well knowing its importance. But the delivery of supplies from the base was only a small portion of the work done by the railways, since they served to collect them from every imaginable quarter and afforded ready and rapid transportation to the point of concentration. It is not too much to say that without the railways such a campaign with so large a force would have been impracticable.
The foregoing is given as the most prominent illustration in our own history. Neither our policy nor our experience indicates such elabo
GENERAL OF THE ARMY 299
rate preparation for the military use of railways as obtains in foreign countries.
During the civil war the military authorities operated fifty railroads having au aggregate length of 2,630 miles, with 433 engines arid 6,605, cars.
2. FUTURE OPERATIONS.
It is not so easy to point out the effect which our extensive railway system will have upon future military operations, nor would it perhaps be wise to go into a comprehensive discussion of the subject. But there are certain considerations which may well be presented. The first of these relates to the numbers which our country in ease of need can put into the field and supply.
Our population is now sufficiently great to admit of the forinatioii of armies of any size that may be desired. Our railway mileage is in the neighborhood of 115,000 miles, penetrating every part of our vast domain, and especially those regions from which supplies would he drawn. It is not probable that a foreign foe will ever undertake an invasion of our country, but should such an event occur we would not be called upon to organize forces at all comparable in number with those used during the civil war, and the ease with which they could be supplied goes without saying. With our great extent of vulnerable coast it would be a simple matter for an enemy to land an invading force, but before it could he prepared to move inland it would be opposed by an army amply sufficient to destroy it, drawn from every direction and concentrated by means of the railways. With harmony existing among our people, as at present, a successful invasion of our territory may well be considered impracticable.
Second, our aggressive power has been magnified almost beyond conception. We now have a completed railway along each of our land frontiers, and these will serve to prevent any invasion by land into the sparsely settled portions of our country, whilst they afford us the means of invading the neighboring territory at any point we please. In case of a war with a foreign power, involving either of our neighbors, our true policy would be to take the offensive at once, with armies sufficient to overwhelm our enemy in the shortest time and overrun his country. This condition of things must grow more favorable to its with each mile of railway constructed to an intersection with either the Northern Pacific or the Southern Pacific Railroad, the two great military lines, and it is the part of wisdom to encourage all such constructions, as well as all roads leading from these two main lines to our frontiers.
God forbid that we should ever find it necessary to use these railways for war purposes. Far better that they always bear the burdens of peaceful commerce, and thus serve to improve the cordial relations now existing. But if the time should come when their use as auxiliaries is required, their value will he inestimable.
All reference to the railroad systems of our neighbors is purposely omitted.
Third, the extension of railroads into the regions heretofore occupied by the Indians indicates a different distribution of our small Amy, which should be concentrated at comfortable posts of considerable size, located in the vicinity of the railroads. Distributed in this manner, the troops can be more readily instructed and disciplined, they can be supplied and maintained at a great reduction of cost, and will always be ready in sufficient numbers to be transported by rail to the best point without waiting for concentration. By this course an Indian campaign ought
300 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
to be completed in as many weeks as it formerly required months. And with the same army a larger force call take the field, or if the force now used in the field be considered sufficient, the aggregate of the Army can be reduced. The localities where troops may be iieeded are diminishjug in number from year to year, and it will not be long before a mere guard to look after the public property will be all that will be required at most of them.
Fourth, by a free use of railroad rather than wagon transportation the cost of this large item of Army administration will be largely reduced. This is practicable only when the troops are stationed oil or near the railroads. Celerity of mnovementbeing of the first importance, it is desirable to obtain it even if the cost be not reduced. When it call be obtained, and at the same time at less cost, so much the better. The way to do this is to concentrate the troops at posts in the vicinity of the railroads.
Those whose duty it is to attend to the matters of supply and transportation should make a special and continued study of this subject, with a view to the readiest and most complete utilization of the facilities afforded by the railways.
A-Statement showing rates for passengers and Ji'eig/tt paid in currency by the Quartermaster's Departniesttf'or the transportation of United States troops and military stores between
New York City and San Fran1jisco cia the Isthmus of l'auuma, from January 1, 1855, to
June 30. 1883.
Year. Officers. Soldiers. stoles. Remarks.
18 $300 00 $125 00 No payment for freight found -------
55. -------------
.
18 300 125 00 ---------------do
56. 00 ..........................................................
.
- - ∫30 100 00 125 00 1 - - - ------ - - - - - - - - -
000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
275 - - - - - -
00
18 300 145 00 Baggage in excess of 50 pounds 20 cents
58. 00 125 00 1 pound.
.
18 120 per , 57 00 Baggage in excess of 50 pounds 10
59 00 cents To Vancouver Officers, $140
per pound. soldiers, $65.
18 190 75 00 ¡ji::::::::::::: Stores,
60. 00
. i
00 100 00 tOo New York to San Francisco.
18 122 125 00 Ordnance stores, $3.50 per cubic foot San
61 - 5 Francisco to New York.
. 250
00
Merchandise, $3.50 per cubic foot .... ..........
18 250 125 00 Merchandise stores, 10 cents per pound . -
62 00 San Francisco to New York.
Fast freight, 10 cents per pound
125
0 00
223
00ji
'"
18 250 {175
64 00
(37 20000
500
18 100 100 00.
05 00
18 (19 5250 100 00 $2.70 currency per cubic foot For a
80 250 portion of this year $250 soldier.
100
00
per officer and $75 per
18 250 75 00 10 cents per pound for all in excess of 50
07 00 .
pounds. 4 10 cents per pound in excess of 100
pounds
18 100 ............ Merchandise, $1.65 per cubic foot .
08 00
Merchandise, fast freight, $3.50 per cubic
Premium gold, 381 per cent.
foot. Merchandise, slow ft-eight, $1.50 per cubic
Premium gold, 381 per cent.
18 225 75 00
60 00
Merel;andise, slow freight, $1.00 per cubic
Premium gold. 131 per cent.
foot.
18 150 60 00 60 00 Merchandise. slow freight, $1.00 per
70 00 cubic Premium gold, 11 per cent.
18 150
71 00
- foot.
18 () Ordnance stores, dist freight, $1.50 per Gold,
72 $1.14.
18 (t) cubic foot. 60 00 Merchandise, slow freight, $1.00
73 per cubic Gold, $1.171.
foot.
* No payment found. No payment.
302 REPORT OF THE SECRETORY OF WAR.
E.-Cost of tronsporting troops, 5c., reported by the Quarterrnaster-eneral 17oventher 16, 1854.
To San Francisco, via the Isthmus: *
Transportation (cost):
Each commissioned officer ---------------------------------------------------------------------------$225 Each enlisted man, laundress, &c ----------------------------------------------------------------150
Subsistence The whole subsisted by contractor.
Baggage (allowance)
Each person on the steamer 100
Each person across the isthmus do 25
All over the 25 pounds across the isthmus to be paid for at 15 cents per pound.
From San Francisco to Vancouver, or Oregon, in June, 1853: Transportation (cost): Each commissioned officer $75 Each enlisted soldier, &c 40 Stores (cost): Per ton (in June, 1853) 30 In December, 1853, per ton $15 In February, 1854, per ton 20 From New Orleans to San Francisco: Transportation (cost): For each officer $300 Each enlisted soldier 150 Including transit of isthmus. Baggage: Extra baggage, 15 cents per pound. Provisions to San Francisco or Fort Vancouver, via the isthmus: To Aspinwall, per ton $14 Across the isthmus, per ton 300 From Panama to San Francisco, per ton so Say, $394 a ton of 2,000 pounds.
Agents of the line think that when the railroad across the isthmus shall be completed the freight across will not exceed one-fourth of the above, $75 a ton, say, $169 for the whole distance via Cape Horn to San Francisco or Benicia.
From Baltimore, 90 cents per cubic foot, $4.50 per flour barrel.
From New York, f3-70 per barrel for flour, 60 cents percubic foot forother packages.
Same rates apply to camp and garrison equipage and clothing, as all such freight by sea-going vessels is charged for by the cubic foot.
ORDNANCE AND ORDNANCE STORES.
From New York via Cape Horn:
Heavy ordnance:
In June 1854, per pound 2
cents.
In August, per ton $28
00
In October, per pound 2
cents.
Ammunition:
Ammunition, and other boxes, &c., per cubic foot 60
cents.
(None sent via the isthmus.)
CONTRACTS FOR TRANSPORTATION OF MILITARY STORES OF ALL
KINDS.
From Fort Leavenworth to El Paso, per 100 pounds $14
00
From Fort Leavenworth to Fort Filliiioro, per 100 13 75
pounds
From Fort Leaveiiwoitli to Albuquerque, per 100 pounds 10 83
From Fort Leavenworth to Fort Union per, 100 pounds 7 96
Transportation to Albuquerque estimated at about $Th
per man.
* In May, 1854.
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 303
TRANSPORTATION OF ARTILLERY AND SUPPLIES.
From Albany to the different points on the frontier at rate of $5 each ton (tile daily cost of a .wagon and team) for each ten miles, when roads were in best condition -double this in spring and fall of the year-say from 50 cents to $1 a mile for each ton transported. Heavy freight can now (November 16, 1854) be soot to San Francisco at about $15 a ton, and l0 cents per foot for nieasllrenient goods, and that a vessel could be chartered for Fort Vancouver at $20 per ton.
F.-Pacific Railroad lines.
[An abstract of the history of the construction of the four great routes.)
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF RAILROADS,
Washington, Angust 9, 1883.
Sin: In answer to a communication addressed to the Commissioner of Railroads, July 10, 1883, by Brig.-Gen. 0. M. Poe, aid-dc-camp to the General of the Army, in which he requests there be furnished him certain information touching thehistory of the construction of the ''transcontinental lines of railroad," I have the honor to submit the following statement, and to request the same be transmitted to mm.
The railroads treated of are the Union Pacific and Central Pacific, the Atlantic and Pacific and Southern Pacific, the Texas and Pacific and Southern Pacific of New Mexico, Arizona, and California, and the Northern Pacific. I have endeavored to confine the matter as far as practicable, to that concerning the main lines only, so far as the construction is concerned. In the account given of the business progress the figures represent the operations and equipment of the entire line, unless otherwise specified, as the reports of the companies are made upon that basis.
RAILROAD GRANTS.
On March '2. 1827, Congress granted to the State of Illinois certain lands in aid of the construction of a canal to "connect the waters of Illinois and Lake Michigan." (4 Stat., 234.)
The above act was amended March 2,1833, and "railroad" substituted for "canal." (4 Stat., 662.)
The first right of way through public lands for a railroad was granted to a Florida company March 3, 1835. (4 Stat., 778.)
The first important railroad act was that of September 20, 1850, "An act granting the right of way and making a grant of land to the States of Illinois, Mississippi, and Alabama, in aid of the construction of a railroad from Chicago to Mobile." (9 Stat., 466.)
Between the date of this act and 1862, when the first Pacific railroad company was incorporated, Congress passed several railroad-grant acts similar in tenor to the act of 1850. (II. H. Ex. Doe. 47, part 4, page 274, Forty-sixth Congress, third session.)
CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE BUILDING OF PACIFIC RAILROADS.
As early as 1838 a public meeting was held at Dabuque, Iowa, for the purpose of expressing opinions favorable to the construction of a railroad to the Pacific coast. (H. H. Ex. Doe. 47, p. 265.)
Public attention was again directed to it, and interest revived about the time of the settlement of the Webster-Ashluirton treaty. (H. H. Ex. Doe. 47, p. 265.)
In 1845 Senator Douglas made an address favoring such a project, and prepared bills to promote it by governmental aid. (El. U. Lx. Doe. 47, p. 266.)
A number of like measures were introduced in Congress between the years 1850 and 1862.
Government surveys were authorized by an act of Congress of March 3, 1853, for the purpose of ascertaining the most praticable and economical route for a railroad to the Pacific Ocean. (10 Stats., 219.) These surveys were made under the direction of the War Department during the years 1853 to 1856.
POLITICAL ACTION.
Pending the campaign of 1856 mass meetings were held amid legislatures petitioned, so strong was the popular desire to have Congress take some definite action to promote the building of a railroad across the continent.
Both the Republican and Democratic parties adopted resolutions ill their conventions of 1856, and again in 1860, pledging themselves in support of it, The Presidential candidates favored it in their speeches, and Presidents Bachauan
304 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
and Lincoln in their messages to Congress recommended legislative aid. (El. R. Ex, Doe. 47, Part 4, pages 266-7, Forty-sixth Congress, fined session.)
All these forces bearing upon Congress led to the enactment of a law entitled ''Au act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes."
This act was passed July 1, 1862, and was the charter act of time Union Pacific Railroad Company. (12 Stat., 489.)
UNION PACIFIC 1131 I,IIOAI),
Main line, Omnitlia. Nebr., to Ogden, Utah, 1,032 miles.
The act of incorporation was formally accepted by the company September 2, 1862, and the acceptance filed in the Department of the Interior June 26, lti3.
For important aniendmnents to original act see act of July 2, 1866 (13 Stat., 356), and et of May 7, 1878 (21 Stat.. 56). See also table on page 274 of If. I. Ex. Doe.. 47, part 4, for other acts bearing upon this railroad.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE ROAD.
The chief engineer of the road, in his reportto the president of the company, dated December 1, 1869, says:
"In 1863 and 1864 surveys were inaugurated, but in 1866 the country was systematically occupied, and day and night, summer and winter, the explorations were pushed forward through dangers and hardships that very few at this date appreciate. As every mile had to be run within the range of the musket there was not a moment's security.
"In making the surveys numbers of our men, sonic of them the ablest and most promising, were killed, and during the construction our stock was run off by the hundreds, I might add by the thousands. Each day taught its lessons by winch we profited the next, and our advances and improvements iii the art of railway construction were marked by the progress of the work, forty miles of track having been laid in 1865; two hundred and sixty in 1866, two hundred and forty in 1867, including the ascent to the summit of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of eight thousand two hundred and thirty-five feet above the ocean; and (luring 1868, and to May 10, 1869, five hundred and fifty-five miles (were built), all exol isive of side and temporary tracks, of which over one hundred and eighty miles were built in addition.
11 The first grading was done in the autumn of 1864, and the firsi rail laid in July,
1865. * a All the material and supplies for construction had to be transported
hundreds and thousands of miles by teams, or at best by steamboats."
He says further that the lack of confidence in the pioject, even in the localities to be the most benefited, was so great that the laborers demanded their pay in advance before they would perform a day's work.
The map showing the definite location of the first one hundred miles of road was
tiled in the General Land Office October 24, 1864; it was amended December 14, 1864.
The map showing the location of the last, or thirteenth hundred mile west from Omaha, was filed January 8, 1869.
Maps showing location of routes between Promontory Summit and Monument Point.,
Utah, May 10, 1869.
The dates of acceptance of completed sections by the President, are as follows:
Omaha to 40th mile-post .........................................................
40th to 65th mile-post ..........................................................
65th to 105th mile-post ........................................................
105th to 125th mile-post . -------
1-o . C,, 160+h mile )ost
Distance. Date.
Miles.
40 Jan. 24,186(3
'1. 5.1, - 1 18G6
205th to 240th mile-post ..................................................................................... 240th to 27001 mile-post ..................................................................................... 270th to 305th milepost ................................................................... 305th to 345th utile-post ..................................................................................... 345th to 165111 mile-post .....................................................................................
:185th (0420111 mile-post I
420th to 455th mile-post . .................................................................................... 455th to 450th mile-post .....................................................................................
490th to 510111 mile-poet ..................................................................................... 510th to 540th mile-post ..................................................................................... 540th to 560th milepost ..................................................................................... 560th to 590th mile-post ..................................................................................... 580th to 600th mile-post .....................................................................................
40 Jumie
25:
1866-
20 July 12,
1866.
35 Aug. 8,
1866.
43 Sept. 5,
1866.
35 Oct. 12,
18 66.
30 Nov. 6,
18 66.
35 Jan. 2,
18117.
40 June 10,
1867.
40 July 5,
1867.
35 Aug. 27,
1867.
35 Oct. 1,
1867.
35 Nov. 4,
1867-
20 Dec. 11,
1867.
30 Jan. 25,
1868.
20 May 25,
1868.
20 May 16.
1868.
20 Juime 1,
1868.
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 305
Distance. Dote.
Mile
s.
60 620th mile- 20 Ju 16,
0th post ne 18
to 68.
62 640th mih- . 20 Jul 21,
0th post y 18
to 68.
64 600th utile- 20 Jul 21,
0th post y 18
to 68.
65 680th mile- 20 Jul 21,
0th post . y 18
to 68.
68 700th mile- . 20 Au 8,
0th post g. 18
to 08.
78 720th mile- 20 Au 27,
0th post g. 18
to 69.
72 740th mile- 20 Se 5,
0th post pt. 18
to 08.
74 700th mile- ------------------ Se 5,
0th post ------------------ pt. 18
to ------------------ 68.
------------------
------------------
---------20
76 780th mile- ------------------ Se 28,
0th post ------------------ pt. 18
to ------------------ 08.
------------------
------------------
---------20
78 800th mil,- ------------------ Oct 21,
0th post ------------------ . 18(
to ------------------ 18.
------------------
------------------
---------20
80 820th mile- ------------------ No 10,
0th post ------------------ v. 25
t" ------------------ 08.
------------------
------------------
---------20
82 880th toils- ------------------ De 5,
00 pest ------------------ c. 18
1 to ------------------ 68.
------------------
------------------
---------40
86 880th mile- ------------------ De 12,
0th post. ------------------ c. 18
to ------------------ 68.
------------------
------------------
--------20
88 900th mile- ------------------ De 16,
0th post ------------------ c. 18
to ------------------ 68.
------------------
------------------
---------20
00 020th tulle- ------------------ De 23,
0th post ------------------ c. 18
to ------------------ 68.
------------------
------------------
---------20
02 040th mile- 20 De 23,
0th post c. 18
to 68.
94 060th mile-post 20 Ju 28,
8th n. 18
to 09.
96 980th mhlo- 20 Fe 0,
0th post b. 18
to 69.
08 1000th mile-post----------- Fe 0,
0th ------------------ b. 18
to ------------------ 69.
------------------
------------------
------------20
10 1083.88 85.88 15,
00t mile-post July 18
h to 69.
By a joint resolution of April 10, 1869 (16 Stat., 56), it was provided that the cornmutt terminus of the, Union and Central Pacific Railroads should be at or near Ogden, Utah, and that the Union Pacific Railroad Company should build, and the Central Pacific Company pay for and own, the road from Promontory Summit, 53 miles west from Ogdeu, from which place said roads should form one continuous line.
The number of miles of road constructed and occupied during each governmental fiscal year was as follows:
Year ending June 30:
1866 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------105 1867 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------240 1868 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------275 1869 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------30 1870 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------85. 88
OPERATIONS OF THE ROAD.
Up to April 1, 1867, the road was run by the contractors for the line. Since that time it has been run by the company. Its earnings for the quarter ending July 31, 1867, were as follows:
From passenger business $160, 526 92 freight business 672 39
transporting mails ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------13,556 23
Material, &c., for construction 479, 23 41
Total 1,203,03895 Expenses for same period . 395, 530 92 Net balance 807,508 03
(See Poor's Railroad Manual, 1868-'69, p. 47.)
According to the annual report of the company for the year ending December 31, 1870, its earnings were from
Passengers $3, 818, 627 55 Freight 3,058,514 71 Mail 274,513,58 Express 281,691 76 Miscellaneous 191,929 53
Total 7, 7,625,277 13 Expenses (operating) 4,677,414 84 Net earnings 2,947,862 29 Number of passengers carried one mile 74,917, 335 tons of freight carried one mile 71,779,106 71,779,106 4132 w-20
306 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
ROLLING STOCK BELONGING TO COMPANY.
Locomotive engines ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------150 Passenger-cars --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------25 Passenger-cars, emigrant, and caboose ------------------------------------------------------------------------84 Baggage-ears ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------11 Mail-cars ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8 Express cars -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8 Freight cars ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2,319 Stock cars --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------48 All others ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------58
The following tables, from the company's reports, show
compiled annual the opera-
tions of the road for years:
several different
Earnings. 1873. 1876. ' 1079 1882.
.
Passengers --------- 887, 48 5 $4 34
----------------- 204 $43076 3 406, $5,197,
----------------- 02 797 730 01
--------------$3,
Freight ------------ 58 5 12,'0 26 15,
----------------- 7:304:1 0 67,3 402.
----------------- 23 95 167 57
-----------------
--5,516,907
Mail -------------- 410,1 00 0 685, 70 746
----------------- 90 574,13 0 712 515 61
----------------- 9 76 4 406, 28
----------------- 502 T8 2 218 748:032
---------283,855 30
Express ................ I 167, 84 3 384, 50
set, 4i 'llaneous . . 1 945 198:25 9 142 728,538
........... 5 95
Total 10, 66 12, 8 18, 08 22,
266,1 886, 4 040, 821,
03 818 266 884 24
Expenses (operating) 4,974 02 2 8,36 96
,861 5,268,2 0 8,83 10,727,
11 6 049 48
Net earnings 5,291 64 6 9,67 12 12,
,242 7,618, 4 1,42 098,
647 9 834 76
Number of passengers carried one n ile:
1873 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------95, 709,054
l$76 128, 128,032,924 1879 100,151, 148 1882 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -157,527, 336
Tons of freight carried one mile
1873 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------223,361,542 1876 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------292, 002, 076 1879 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------436,054,149
1882 732,791,054
Equipment.
Locomotive engines ................................................................................... Passenger cars ........................................................................................... Sleeping cars ............................................................................................... Baggage ears .............................................................................................. lllail ears .....................................................................................................
Express ear9 .............................................................................................. Freight ears ................................................................................................ Stock cars ................................................................................................... Combination-mail, baggage, and express .............................................
(Figures for 1873 are from Pear's Manual
1873. 1876. 1879. 3882.
151 168 I 178 344 97 128 126 121, 92 13 21 21 ¥34 9. 0 9 8 9 9 9 20 2,310 2,940 2,931 6,201 107 120 287 739 20
The Union Pacific Railroad Company, the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, and the Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company were consolidated oil January 24, 1880, and formed the
UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY.
The number of miles of railroad acquired by this consolidation was as follows
Council Bluffs to Ogden (including Omaha Bridge and approaches) 1,037.4 4 Ogden to Junction Central Pacific Railroad 5
Kansas City to Denver --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------638.5 Denver to Cheyenne -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------106 Leavenworth to Lawrence ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------34
Total -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1,820.9
S
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 307
For the number of miles owned arid operated at last report see Report of Conintissioner of Railroads for 1881, page 37. (No change was made sip to time of 1882 report.)
The records of the General Land Office show the following number of acres of land as having been certified or patented during each of the years given below (act July
1,1882): For the year ending June 301871 6:19,024 1873 15,395. 2 1874 50, 733. 3
1875 919, 771.41 1876 219,344.09 1877 39,211.58 1878 1, $42.47 1881 640 1882 67,921.03 188:1 640 Total up to June 30, 1883 1,954, 523. 08
For condition of the bond and interest and sinking fund accounts see Report of the Commissioner of Railroads for 1882, pages 10 and 11 to 16. Reports of inspection of this road for sante year will be found on pages 28 to 36, and 71 to 75.
The reports of the Auditor of Railroad Accounts for 1878, 1$79, and 1880, and those of the Commissioner of Railroads for 18'l and 1882, containing matter collected from the reports of the conipany and inspection trips taken by nienibers of the loircan, will furnish ninch additional niatter of interest.
CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD.
Main line of road: Sari Francisco to Ogden, Utah, 883.06 miles.
The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California was organized nuder the general railroad law of California, with authority to construct a railroad front Sacramento to the eastern boundary of that State.
By the act of July 1, 1862 (12 Stat., 489), it was authorized to construct a line from the Pacific coast, at or near San Francisco, or the navigable waters of the Sacramento River to the eastern boundary of the State, upon the sante terms and condition granted the Union Pacific Railroad Conipaty ; and it further provides that it nta.y continue in constructing, under same conditions, after eonipleti ig its road across the, State,throngh the Territories, until it shall meet and connect with the last-named road.
The conditions of tIns act were accepted October 7, 1862, and acceptance filed in the Department of the Interior, December 24, 1862.
Construction was commenced in February, 1663, and by January, l8;5, :11 nnles of road had been opened; September 4, 1865, 66 miles; November 10, 1856, 94 nn les
July, 1867, 105 miles, and by January, 1838, to the eastern boundary of the State, or 138 miles.
In 1868 362 nnles were constructed, and the line was opened to Ogden, May is, l69, thus, in connection with the Union Pacific, making a continuous line of railroad across the continent.
The Sierra Nevada mountains are crossed at an elevation of 7,012 feet above the level of the sea, the grade averaging from 75to 105 feet.
The first map of definite location of the line of this road was filed the General Land Office October 20, 1864, '' From Sacramento, Cal., to a point 50 miles east thereof." The sixth and last map was filed October 20, 1868.
Maps of construction have been filed with affidavits of the chief engineer of the company, bearing the dates following:
- -
T)tstaut'e. Date.
Mite
s.
Sacramento. Cal., to the 31st mile post 31 Oct. 19,
1s65.
31st to 74th milepost ----------------- 43 Sep '28,
--------------------------------- t. 1566.
--------------------
74th to 94th mite post ----------------- Oct. 1
--------------------------------- ,186
--------------------------------- 7.
---------------------------------
20
94th to 114th tints past ---------------- Jun 16,
--------------------------------- e 1565.
---------------------------------
-------------------------20
114th to 130th mile post --------------- Nov 1-
--------------------------------- . 1,18
--------------------------------- 67.
--------------------------'24
138th to 155th mile past --------------- . '2,
--------------------------------- Ma 1868.
--------------------------------- y 2,
--------------------------20 ---- Jnl 1568
--------------------------------- y ,
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
---29
158th to 178th mite post.
178th to 215th mile post --------------- Jul 28,
--------------------------------- y 1116
--------------------------------- 1,
---------------------------37
215th to 255th mite post --------------- Ats 8,18
--------------------------------- g. 68.
---------------------------------
--------------------------40
255th to 290th tulle post --------------- Aug 29,
--------------------------------- . 1868.
---------------------------------
--------------------------
290th to 310th mile post --------------- Sep 7,18
--------------------------------- t. 68.
---------------------------------
--20
310th to 338th mite post --------------- Sep 10,
--------------------------------- t. 1868.
---------------------------------
--------------------------20
330th to 350th mile post --------------- Sep 26,
--------------------------------- t. 1868.
---------------------------------
--------------------------20
308 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
Distance. Date. Miles. 350th to 370th mile post 20 Oct. 16, 1068. 370th to 3001 It mile post 20 Oct. 16, 1868. 300th to 410th mile post 20 Nov. 12,1868.
410th to 430111 mile post .......................................................................................................... 20 Nov. 13, 1868.
430th to 450th inih post 20 Dec. 28, 1868. 450th to 470th to ile post 20 Dec. 24, 1868. 475th to 400th mite post 20 Jan. 5, 1869. 400th to 5100 matte post . 20 .Tan. 28, 1869. 510th to 5.10111 mile post 20 Feb. 6, 1869.
530th to 550th mite post 20 Feb. 16, 1869. 550 h to 570th molts post 20 Mar. 12,1869. 070th to 01011, motto post 40 Mar. 30, 1869. 610111 to 630th mile post 20 Apr. 0, 1869. 650th to 050th nuts post 20 A pr. 13, 1869.
610th to 670th mile post .......................................................................................................... 20 A pr. 28, 1869.
670th to t00.3th simile post 20.3 May 6, 1869.
From the 690.3 mile post to Ogden, Utah, a distance of 53 miles, the road was cola
strtacted by the Union Pacific Railroad Company. The number of miles constructed during each fiscal year was as follows: Year ending June 30: 1866 31 1867 43 1868 84 1869 532. 3
On August 22, 1870, the Central Pacific Railroad Company, the California and Oregon, the San Francisco and Oakland, the San Francisco and Alameda, and the San Joaqniu Valley railroads were consolidated under the title of
THE CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY.
The following statement from Poofs Railroad Manual for 1871-'72, page 385, shows
the operations of the road for the year 1870, also the equipment: Gross earnings Passenger $4,044,372 05 Freight 3,508, 3,508,892 09 Other 367, 367,446 84 Total 7,920, 7,920,710 98 Operating expenses (including taxes) 4,060,564 95 Net earnings 3, 860, 146 03 Equipment:
Locomotive engines 179 Passenger ears 172 Sleeping ears 21 Mail and express cars 9 Ba'eage cars 24 Freight cars 3,200 Other cars 445 Snow-plows 7
The following tables are taken from the annual reports of the company: - -
Earnings. 1873. 1076. 1879. 1882.
Freight $7, 462, 804 02 $10,773,618 34 $10,934,573 39 $16, 302, 882 72 Passenger 4,418,417 42 5,008,021 58 4,019,254 63 7,474,216 12 Express 213, 036 90 266, 805 73 208, 500 79 350,288 21 Mail 269, 269,014 28 250, 638 34 417, 347 23 613,180 88 Miscellaneous 500, 589 40 947,060 38 673,487 12 922,191 19 Total 12, 063, 12,863,952 92 18, 146, 944 37 17, 153, 163 16 25, 602, 757 12 operating expenses 4,969,271 4,969,271 52 8,732,074 00 11, 126. 208 10 16, 067, 183 67 Net earnings 7,894,681 46 9,414,869 47 6,026,865 06 9,593, 573 45 Passengers carried 3, 280, 171 5,772,659
6, 842, 307 7,868,614
Pounds of freight carried 2,057,204,628 2,886, 171, 174 3,750,087,240 6,219,392,940
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 309
Equipment, owned and leased. 1873. 1876. 1879. 1982.
Locomotive engines 188 228 264 314
Passenger ears ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------147 100 262 465
Freight ears --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3,709 4,668 5,344 9,767
0E g ~e cars 21 27 48 69
g 11 `md express cars ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------19 22 20 35
Sleeping cars ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------23 41 41 53
Earnings and expenses for 1873 are given in aggregate, gold and currency. Averago premium on gold, 12.92 per cent. Currency receipts were sold at a discount of $592,814.97. Net earnings in currency were $8,245,302.54. Figures for the other years are given in currency.
In addition to the ear equipment shown above, the company owns a complement of construction, wrecking, and baud cars, and snow-plows.
For their ferry at San Francisco they have a fleet of nine steanrers, having an aggregate tonnage of 12,982, besides four river steamers and three barges.
The records of the General Land Office give, as the number of acres of land certified or patented during each Governmental fiscal year, the following figures:
Year eiidin~ June :30:
1866 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------45,510.54 1867 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------77,257.46 1868 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------21, 618. 63 1870 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------117,1:38. 70 1871 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9,480.52 187-2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------160 1875 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------70,247.39 1876 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------82.79 1877 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------352,662. 96 1878 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------14, 70:3.18 1881 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12,57-2.51 1883 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------59,444.72
Total (Central Pacific proper) ------------------------------------------------------------------780,879.40
For condition of the bond and interest and sinking fund accounts, and other matter of interest, in connection herewith, see reports of the Cnuriuissiouer of Railroads and Auditor of Railroad Accounts, as cited for the Union Pacific.
The foregoing matter frrrnislres an abstract of tire history of construction of the main stein of what might he called the central transcontinental line. The figures showing operation, equipment, &c., are those for the whole lines, owned and leased.
The next hue to he considered property as transcontinental is the
ATLANTIC AXI) PACIFIC.
LINE OF ROAD.
Springfield, Mo., along the thirty-fifth parallel to the Pacific Ocean, about 2,000 miles.
The Atlantic arid Pacific Railroad Company was chartered by an act of Congress passed July 27, 1866: ''Air act granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line frorrr the States of Missouri and Arkansas to the Pacific Ocean." (14 Stat., 232.)
This act was accepted November 22, 1866, and acceptance filed in the Department of the, Interior November 27, 1866.
On October 25, 1870, this company was consolidated with the South Pacific Railroad Company (originally the Southwest Branch of tire Pacific Ra.ilroad of Missouri), which was Organized under provisions of an net of the general assembly of Missouri Mrrelr 7,1868. The South Pacific received a grant of lands under an act of Congress approved July 10, 1852. (10 Stat., 8.)
The Pacific Railroad of Missouri and all its leased lines NN-ere leased to the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company July 1, 1872, for a term Of 999 years.
A tripartite agreement between this company and the Saint Louis and Sau Francisco and the Ateirisou, Topeka arid Santa i'd Companies, January 31. 1880, provided for the immediate construction of that portion of tire road frorrr the Rio Grande River to the Pacific Ocean-or tire Western Division.
The Work of construction was commenced at Albuquerque, N. Mex., in May, 1880 track laying was begun in July of thame year, and with the exception of six months'
310 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
delay in the first half of 1882, caused by the impossibility of getting material across Canon Diablo, has continued without interruption.
The first map of definite location was tiled in the General Land Office December 10, 1870, "From Springfield, Mo., to Noosho, Mo." The last map for main line was filed August 15, 1872.
CONSTRUCTION.
Affidavits of the chief engineer of the company, on file in the General Land Office, give dates of completion of sections as follows:
Dista Date.
nce.
Mile
s.
First 25 miles west from Springfield -------- Se 27,
---------------------------------- pt 187
---------------------------------- . 0
------25
Second 25 miles west from Springfield ------- Se 27,
---------------------------------- pt 187
---------------------------------- . 0.
---25
Third 25 mii's west from Springfield 25 D 29,
ec 187
. 0.
Fourllr 25 miles west from Spriirgtield 25 Oc 14,
t. 187
1.
Fifth 25 nib's west from Springfield 25 Oc 14,
t. 187
1.
Sixth 15 miles west front Springfield 25 N 20,
ov 188
. 2.
Seventh 25 miles west from Springfield 25 N 20,
ov 188
. 2.
First 25 miles west from Islets, N. Met 25 N 10,
ov 188
. 0.
Second 25 miles west from Islets, N. Met 25 N 10,
ov 188
. 0.
Third 25 miles west front Islets, N. Met Fourth 25 Fe 28,
25 miles west front islets. N. Met 25 b. 188
Fe 1.
b. 28,
188
1.
Filth 25 wiles west fin,,, islets, N. Mot 25 M 25,
ar 188
. 1.
Sixth 25 miles west front leleta, N. Met 25 A 22,
p 188
r. 1.
Seventh 21 miles west front Islets, N. Met 25 J 9,
u 188
ne t.
Eighth 25 n,iles west from islets, N. Met 25 J 5,1
ul 881
y .
Ninth, 25 miles west from Islets, N. Met 25 D 1,1
ec 882
. .
Tenth 25 miles west from Islets, N. Alex. 25 D 1,
ec 188
. 2.
Eleventh 25 miles west fr"nr Islets. N. Met 25 D 1,1
ec 882
. .
Twelfth 25 miles 'rest from Islets, N. Met 25 D 1,1
ec 882
. .
Thtrtr-'nth 22 sites nest from islets, N. Met 25 P 1,1
ee 882
. .
Fourteenth 25 miles west from Islets, N. Met 25 D 1,1
ec 882
. .
Fifteenth 25 miles west from Islets. N. Mex 25 D 1,
ec 15e
. 2.
Sixteenth 25 miles west from islets, N. Mex 25 D 1,1
ec 882
. .
Constructed during the year onding June 30:
Miles.
1871 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------75 1872 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------50 1881 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------175 18t-2 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------25
1883 250
Total ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------575
This road has been coast rnt't"tl west from Springfield, Mo., as far as the Arkansas
Rivet', in Indian Territory, arid from Islcta, N. Met., to the Colorado River, but as yet
is not a matter Of record in the Department, and dates cannot be given further.
REFERENCES.
Report Auditor of Railroad Accounts, 1880, palge 51.
Report Conrntissioner of Railroads, 18i, pages 28, 46.
Report Commissioner of Railroads, 1882, pages 53, 85.
By an agreement, the Southern Pacific is to meet the main lino of the Atlantic and Pacific will, its Mojavr' branch at the crossing of the Great Colorado River, at a point near the Needles; when completed, the whole litto will be. operated through via Albttqtterqnr and the A tehison, To1tekrt, and Santa Ed Railroad, upon an agreed traffic basis for a term of years. (Poor's Manual, 1882.)
The following figures show the number of acres of land certified or patented up to June 30, 1S83, tinder act incorporating this road:
Year endim, June 30:
1871 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------491,912.79
-1872 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3,131.71
1873 3, 669. 01
1874 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------941.13 1875 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3,648.78 1876 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------642.94 1881 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------23, 037. 36
Total -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------526,991. 12
312 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
Below are given figures taken from the annual reports of the company; the year ends May 31:
Earnings. 187 1878. 1880.
6.
Passenger ------------------- 426 8 $592, $466,
-------------------------- 2 694 054
-------------------------- 12 82
-------$307,
Freight --------------------- 7 1,660, 2,053,
-------------------------- 0 645 018
-------------------------- 14 35
--------1,113,043
Express -------------------- 12,3 7 24,27 22,27
-------------------------- 42 1 3 83 0 77
--------------------------
------------12,
Mail ----------------------- 30,5 9 30,97 41,62
-------------------------- 74 0 9 65 2 36
--------------------------
---------------30,
Telegraph 8, 4 17,43 10,92
8,54 1 7 61 0 31
3
Miscellaneous 2, 4 5,280 5,335
693 4 00 09
Total 1,56 8 2,331, 2,589,
4,62 8 310 221
4 15 61
Operating expenses 091, 0 1,448, 1,543,
891, 2 439 517
882 38 75
Net earnings 672, 9 882,8 1,045,
672, 0 70 97 703
742 86
Passengers carried 129, 245,1 194,
035 12 788
Revenne $32 6 $592, $456,
6, 2 694 054
832 12 82
Tons freight carried 118, 388,9 525,0
138,5 67 93
96
Revenue $72 2 $1,66 $2,
9, 3 0,645 023,
866 14 018
35
Locomotive engines 2 49 52
8
Passenger cars 1 32 32
9
Baggage, mail, and express cars 7 11 II
Freight cars 410 813 798
Stock cars 8 164 160
2
Average number of miles operated 325
Total number of miles operated 333 443.8 ¥
6 443.8
6
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.
(Leased and operated by the Central Pacific Railroad Company.)
Line of road-San Francisco to El Paso, Tex 1,286 miles
The Southern Pacific Railroad Company was chartered under the laws of California December 2, 1865, and by its charter and section 18 of the act of July 27, 1866 (14 Stat., 299), it was authorized to construct a railroad and connect with the Atlantic and Pacific near the boundary line of the State of California, and to aid in quell constrnction it was to have similar grants of land to those of the Atlantic and Pacific. The terms of the Congressional act were accepted November 24, 1866, and acceptance filed in the Department of the Interior December 21, 1886. October 11, 1870, this company was consolidated with the San Francisco and San Jo.sd, the Santa Clara and Pajaro Valley, and the Califhrnia Southern Company, all of which companies were chartered by the State of California.
The object of this new corporation was to constrnct and operate a line of railroad from Still Francisco to a point on the Colorado River, near the soul beastern boundary of California, a distance of about 722 miles, with a branch front Telsacisapa Pass to Colorado River at or near Fort Mojave, a distance of about :308 miles, and such other branches as the board of directors inay decide to establish.
A map of the main line of road, from San Francisco to the Colorado River, was
filed in the General Land Office, January 3, 1867.
CONSTRUCTION.
The report of the president of the company, dated Angnst ''Wh
12, 1873, says: en
the present company was organized there were only 80 fro
onmics of road, extending m
San Francisco to Gilroy, constructed and in operation."
Mile
s.
On August 12, there were 2(1
2.5
September, 1874 278
June 30, 1875 342
June 30, 1876 711
.51
Made up of the following lines:
Mile
s.
San Francisco to Trcs Plans 100
. 49
Huron, via Goshca, to west bank Colorado River 528
.56
Los Angeles to Wilmington 22.
06
Caruadero to Solcdad 60.
40
The records of the General Land Office show affidavits of construction of sections, front which time foll'' '''ring is, as near as can be determined, the number of attics constructed during each fiscal year and reported to the Department.
GENERAL OF THE ARMY.
313
Miles.
Year ending June 30:
1871 30.26
1872 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------20 1873 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------20 1874 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------70 1875 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------20 1876. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------140 1877 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------118.59 1'78 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------160.03
Total -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------578. 88
The following figures showing the number of acres of land that have been certified or patented under grants of July 27, 1866, and March 3, 1871, during each governmental fiscal year up to June 30, 1883, as taken from the records of the General Laud Office:
Act Act
1866, 1871,
14 16
Stht.
Stat., 573,
292, see.
Sec.
13.
23.
1874 -------------------- 5,866. ...........
------------------------ 33 ...........
------------------------ .
------------------------
------------------------
-------'
1875 -------------------- ...----
------------------------ ----
------------------------
------------------------
------------------------
-------------394,447.09
1876 -------------------- 705. 41,
------------------------ 07 178.2
------------------------ 3
------------------------
------------------------
-------------285,
1877 -------------------- ...........
------------------------ ...........
------------------------ .
------------------------
------------------------
------------------------
-22,910.48
3878 -------------------- ...........
------------------------ ...........
------------------------
------------------------
------------------------
-------------230,540.30
1879 -------------------- 34,31
------------------------ 5.42
------------------------
------------------------
------------------------
---------------11,297.71
1880 1,720.
80
1881 85,31 5,737
3 .11 .85
1882 3,500
.85
1883 2,519. -----
92 ----
Total H 089, 104,7
430 32.35
03
The tables given below are from reports of compan
the annual the y:
Earnings. Expens Net
Earnings. es. earn-
1, 1870, to June 30, 1871 $428, $222, $207,
097 50 427 670
06 44
Year ending June 30, 1872 721, 376, 347,
723,856 278, ii 577
01 90
Year ending June 30, 1873 1,035,31 418, 576,5
1 56 7,39 72 43
14
TRAFFIC AND EQUIPMENT.
Passengers carried .................................................................................................................. Tens of freight carried .......................................................................................................... Average number of miles operated ...............................................................................
Locomotive engines ................................................................................................................ Passenger cars ....................................................................................................................... Baggage ears ............................................................................................................................ Mail cars .................................................................................................................................... Express ears .................................................................................................................... Freight ears ..................................................................................................................... Sleek cars ......................................................................................................................... Other ears .........................................................................................................................
1872. 1873. 314,150 370,475 120, 861 182,661 100 121.6 14 19 28 27 6
227 301
15 18 55
314 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
Earnings. 1874. 1878. 1881.
Passenger $512, 617 51 $477,924 94 $475,443 06 Freight 504, 504,256 42 471,262 72 628,858 30 Mail 13, 13,682 62 10,175 19 12,400 56 Express 18, Hi 55 17, 515 79 12,822 28 Telegrsph 2, 400 00 P 3, 000 00 3,000 00 Miscellaneous 111, 111,650 22 34,007 94 25,490 58 Total 1, 162, 738 33 1,013,886 58 1,118,014 78 Operating expenses 463, 674 14 514,542 55 587,125 26 Net earnings 099, 699,063 99 499,344 03 570,889 52 Passengers carried 352, 352,544 423,917 480,133 Tons or freight carried .
................................................................ 192, 192,567 185,402 278,350
Locomotive engines 19 28 , 30 Passenger ears 27 51 p 62 Baggage ears 6 6 11
Mail eats Not given Not given - Not given Express ears do do do
Freight ears 306 560 581 Stock ears 14 19 18 Other ears 55 p 87 66
During the year 1877 the bridge across the Colorado River was completed and two new corporations were organized for the purpose of forming eastern connections with this road, one under the laws of the Territory of Arizona, and the other under the laws of the Territory of New Mexico. These companies began immediately the work of construction. Front Yuma, east to Casa Grande, i distance of 182 miles, was in operation by July, 1879; by August, 18e0, the road was constructed to within 53 miles of the eastern boundary of Arizona, and March 18, 1881, to a junction with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad at Deming, N. Mex.
During the same year it was extended to El Paso, when the same construction force was transferred to the extension east of that point, and by December 1, 1881, the Texas and Pacific track was met at Sierra Blanca, 91 miles east of El Paso.
The line from the Colorado River through Arizona and New Mexico being built and operated under charters from the Territorial governments, accounts for no record of its construction being flied in the General Land Office.
For the sane reason no report of its operations is made to the Department, but may be found partly in Peer's Manual.
The Colorado division has been completed from Mojave to the Needles, 240 miles, but no evidence of construction is on file in the Department.
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.
LINE OF ROAD.
Lake Superior to Puget Sound and Portland, Oreg., about '2,000 miles.
Mileage of main line, August 1, 1883
Mile
s.
Duluth to Brainerd, Minis 114
Saint Paul to Brainerd 135.
5
Brainerd to Helena, Mont 1,01
8.5
Helena to Missonla (under construction) 131
Missoula to Wallula Junction, Wash 412
Wallula Junction, to Portland, Oreg. (Oregon Railway
and Navigation
Company 214
Carbonado, Wash., to New Tacoma, Wash 34
New Tacoma to Kalama, Wash 105.
5
Kalama to Portland (under construction) 41
Total (including Oregon Railway and Navigation 2,20
Company) . 5.5
Branch lines, total ,. 416.
1
Northern Pacific Junction, Minn., to end of track (main 25.5
line)
RECAPITULATION.
Main line in operation 1, 1,845
Main line under construction 172
Oregon Railway and Navigation Company 214
Branch lines in operation._
Branch lines under construction 54
Total mileage 2,207. 1 226
=2,6
47.1
(Traveler's Official Guide for August, 1883.)
GENERAL OF THE ARMY.
315
The Northern Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated by an act of Congress
approved July '2, 1864, entitled "An act granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, on the Pacific Coast,
by the northern route." (13 Stat., 365
By this act the conipany was empowered to build a line of road from some poiutoa
Lake Superior, in the State of Wisconsin or Minnesota, west on a line north of the
forty-fifth degree of latitude, to a point on Puget Sound with a branch to Portland, Oreg.
The conditions of said act were accepted by the company December 17, 1864, and
acceptance filed in the Department of the Interior, December 30, 1864.
The first map of definite location of a part of the main line was filed in the General Land Office, November 21, 1871, "Front a junction with the Lake Superior and Mississippi River Railroad in Sec. 7, T. 48 N., R. 16 VT., Minnesota to the Red River of the North."
The sections of the main line completed, and the dates of time affidavits of the chief engineer of the company showing construction, as filed in the General Land Office, are as follows:
St
ci Date.
Miles.
First. From the 'unction with the Lake Superior
and Mississippi River Rail-
read to the Ecu River of the North 228 Oct. 5,
1871
Second. From Kalama to Tenino, Wash 65 Aug. 15,
1873
Taint. From the Red River of the North to the
Missouri River in Dakota
Territory 156. 4 Oct.
7, 1873
Font th. From 'l'onino to Tacoma, Wash 41.1 Mar. 5,
1874
Fifth. Missouri River to a point 150 miles west 100 July
12, 1880.
Sixth. From point last named to the Little
Missouri River, in Dakota Terri-
tory St Sept. 3,
1880.
Seventh. From rite 150th to the 225th mile 75 July 20,
west of Missouri River 1881.
Eighth. Fm-em the 225th to the 258th mite 25 Oct. 15,
west of Missouri Silver 1881.
Ninth. From Wallula Junction, Wash, to the
288th tulle-post, near Eight-
Mite Prairie, Idaho 280 Aug. 24,
1891.
Teeth. From the point shove to the 125th mile- 25 Nov. 16,
post 1881.
Eleventh. From the 250th to the 550th mite- 100 Apr. 17,
pest west of the Missouri River 1882.
Twelfth. Fm-out the 11th to the 175th mile- 25 July it,
post west of the Missouri ltivr'r Thirteenth. 1882. 24,
From the 375th to the 480th mile-post west of 1882. 25
the Missouri River.,
Fourteenth. From a point in section 0, township July
48 north, range 17 west. Mitt-
nesota, to a point in section 32, township 40
north, range 13 west, ill the
city of Superior, Wis ------------------- July 24,
--------------------25 1882.
Fifteenth. From the 400th to the 425th tulle- 25 Aug. 10,
post west of the Missouri River ', 1082.
Sixteenth. From the 425th to the 450th tulle- 25 Aug. 2S,
pest west of rite Missouri River. - 1882.
Seventeenth. From the 225th to the 275t 1m 50 Sept. 10,
mile-post east of WollnioJnnetion. 1982
Eighteenth. From the 275th to the 750th mile- 25 Sept. 20,
post east of Wollula Junction ! 1002.
Nineteenth. From time 4SOtlm to rite 500th 50 (let 27,
tulle-pest west of the Missouri River 1082.
Twentieth. Fremo the 500th to the 525th nil- 25 Nov. 0,
post west of the 5-lisseori River - 1082.
Twenty-first. From the 200th to the 325th wile- 25 Nov.21,
post east of Wallula Junction. .. 1882.
Twenty-second. From time 525th to the 550th
wile-post west of the Missouri
River 25 Key. 28,
1083.
Twenty-third. From a point in file city of
Bismarck, Dok., to a point on the
west hall], of the Missom-i Rivet' in time
southwest quarter of section 211,
township 170 not-tlt, range St west ttf the fifth
principal meridian, being the
bridge across the Missouri River and the
approaches thereto (connecting
Nos. 5 sods) 4,584 Nov. 28, 1882.
Twenty-font'th. From the 550th to the 600111
mile-post west of the Missouri
River, about one mile west of Gshistin River, Mar. 20,
Metttsns ---------------------------- 1883.
-------------50
Twenty-fiftit. Front tltc S2Silt to the 3501h 25 ' Apr. 5,
mile-post east of Wollumis ,Tmtnctiou.' 1881.
Twenty-sixth. 1"tomtt the 600th to the 625th
mile-post west of the Missouri
Silver ------------------------------ - Apr. 21,
----------------------------------- 1883.
-----------------------------------
--------------------------25
Twenty-seventh. From the ISotho to tltel7sth
mile-pest east of Wsllnls Junc-
tion, or to a point oil the Fend d'tlreihlle River
near the month of the Jeeko -
Riverr ----------------------------- 25 Apr. 27,
----------------------------------- 1083.
-----------------------------------
---------------------:-
Twenty-eighllm. From the 625th to the 050th -
mile-pest west of the Missouri
Ricer 25 June 4,
1801.
Twenty-ninth. From the 650th to this 675th -
mile-post; west of the Missouri
River. or to a point shout six miles east of 25 June 4,
f{eletto, MonL 1801.
Thirtieth. From the 375th to the 400th tulle-
post cost of Wallnta Junction, or
to a point oboist two and a Itoh' miles west of this -
sitnmtuit of the Col-iaeao
defile, where the line of the road crosses the
boundary of the Flathead In-
dian Reservation 25 June 4,
1883.
316 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
Taking the foregoing dates, the following statement shows the number of miles of the main line constructed each fiscal year:
Year ending June 30:
Miles.
1872 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------228 1874 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------302.5 1881 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------150 1882 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------425 1883 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------529.584
Total -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1,635. 084
A large construction force is at present employed, and it is expected that the gap between Helena and Missonla will be built and in operation some time this mouth.
Under the act of July 2, 1864, the following number of acres of laud have been certified or patented:
Year ending June 30:
1873 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------374,885.76 1874 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------368,607.68 1881 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2,896.78
Total to June 30, 1883 --------------------------------------------------------------------746, 390.22
A general description of the route of this road as proposed at that time may be found in Poor's Railroad Manual for 1873-'74, pages 393 to 396.
Rolling stock. 1873. 1574. 1575. Locomotive engines -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------72 75 '77 Passenger cars ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------20 23 21 Bagrage and mail cars -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------6 6 25 Freight cars -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1, 1,525 1,639 1,583 Other cars -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------25 25 132
The road being in course of construction, no report of the operations was given for above years.
''On the first of January, 1874, the company defaulted on the interest on its bonds, and in April, 1875, the entire property was placed in the hands of a receiver. During the year the road and franchises were sold under a decree of foreclosure, and purchased by a committee of bondholders. On the 29th of September, 1875, the assentin- bondholders organized, elected a board of directors, and agreed to convert their bonds into stock." (Poor's 'Manual, 1876-'77, page 394.)
The first report of the directors of the road after the reorganization of the company
was made September 27, 1876, and from it and reports made since that time the for -
]owing matter has been collected
The property in possession of the company September 27, 1876, consisted of the cornpleted road, its equipment and working materials, being 2:10 miles in Minnesota from Fargo to Thomson Junction, and one-half interest in the track of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad, from Thomson .Jnnet iota to Dnliiih. 25 miles, and 195 miles in Dakota, from Fargo to Bismarck, and 105 miles in Washington Territory, from Halama to Tacoma; in all, 555 miles of railroad in operation.
The equipment of the road was 48 locomotive engines, 22 passenger ears, 34 express, baggage, and caboose ears, and 1,196 freight cars, besides hand, construction, and tool ears.
The lands acquired up to ihnt date and to be acquired, aggregated some 10,000,000 acres.
In addition the company held a controlling interest in the stocks of the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad Company, the Lake Superior and I-'nget Sound Company, and the Tacoma Land Company; also extensive docks and properties in Duluth.
The gross earnings for the. eleven months ending August 31, 1875, were $739,745.51; operating expenses, $149,719.2? : net earnings, $290,026.24.
For earnings and expenses of this road for several years see reports of the Auditor of Railroad Accounts, 1879, page 277, and 1880, page 325; also see reports of the Commissioner of Railroads for 1881, page 271, and for 1882, page 272.
Rolling stock. 1879. 1880. 1881. 1882. Locomotive engines -----------------------------------------------------------------------------55 71 154 358 Passenger cars. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------23 20 48 70 Baggage, mail, and express ------------------------------------------------------------------11 15 15 29 Freight cars ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1,262 1,470 2,716 4,269
Stock cars 41 41 205 489
GENERAL OF THE ARMY. 317
besides special cars, construction cars, pile-drivers, &c.
The following statement for the eastern division is for the company's fiscal year ending August 31, 1882:
Average number of miles of road operated -----------------------------------------------------------------797 Increase over last year -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------213 Gross earnings per mile of road -----------------------------------------------------------------------$6,318 85 Number of passengers carried ------------------------------------------------------------------------------297,680 Average distance traveled by each passenger (miles) ---------------------- ------------------115. 3 Average fare per passenger. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------$3 84 Thus of freight carried -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------655, 655,075
Average haul per ton (miles) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------267.60
The records of the General Land Office show ihnt the following number of acres of land have been certilieil or patented under the act of July 2, 1864, during the several fiscal years specified:
Year ending June 30:
187:1 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------374, 885.76 1874 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------368,607. 68 1880 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2, 896. 78
Total to June 30, 1883 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------746, 390. 22
A thorough inspection of the properties of the company was made last year, an account of which will be found in the report of the Commissioner of Railroads for 1882, pages 36 to 42, inclusive, and 80 to 83, inclusive.
CONCLUSION.
Reference to amendments to the original laws incorporating the Pacific railroads, and subsequent acts affecting said reads, will be found in Appendix M, page 58, of the report of the Auditor of Railroad Accounts for 1878.
The total number of acres of land certified or patented to each of the reads under all acts up to June 30, 1883, is as follows:
Union Pacific -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1,954,523. 08
Union Pacific, account Kansas divisions 963,714.03
03 Union Pacific, account Denver Pacific ------------------------------------------------------------164,721.51 Central Pacific ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------780,879. 40
Central Pacific, account Western Pacific 446,230.65
65 Atlantic and Pacific ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------526,991.72 Southern Pacific -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1,040,430. 03 Southern Pacific, branch line -------------------------------------------------------------------------104, 732. 35 Northern Pacific ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------746, 390. 22
A full statement of the entire line owned and operated by the above railroad companies will be found in the reports of the Commissioner of Railroads as referred to in the body of this statement.
By direction and in the absence of the Commissioner, Very respectfully, THOS. J. WALKER,
In Charge af Office.
Hon. H. 31. TELLER,
Secretary of the Interior.


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