The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1848-11-24

RAILROAD TO THE PAcIrIc.-Mr. Whitney Is
out with another long letter, which appears to be
intended as a message to Congress in support of
his project and route for railroad to the Pacific
From Lake Michigan to the mouth of the Colum-
bia river, the route proposed would include line
of three thousand miles. The first eight hundred
miles would run through fertile countryside
rest of the route is through desert. The slice
OF soil sixty miles WIDE, or the alternate parcels
of five miles by SIXTY, for the first eight hundred
miles, are intended, therefore, to pay the entire
costs of the road
What would the road cost AT the minimum
of $4,000 mile, the first eight hundred miles
would require an outlay OF sixteen millions But
after penetrating the great prairie, or American
desert, which stretches eastwardly near thou
sand miles from the Rocky Mountains, the
cost of every mile to the Pacific would
be increased, so that before striking the Rocky
Mountains, the timber for the superstructure, the
iron rails, and the provisions, and all the supplies
for the men, except buffalo beef, would be SUBJ
iected to the costs of an overland transportation of
thousand miles by the finished road The diff
culties, however, after descending the western
slope of the South Pass, would just commence, IN
entering labyrinth of mountains and sand plains
of a thousand miles extent. The grading Of the
mountains, the opening OF the gorges, halt filled
with volcanic debris, the bridging Of deep chasms,
and the transportation of supplies, would augment
the expenditures to at least 100000 per mile.
The road would have to be finished as it pro-
crossed westward, for the purpose Of procuring
materials and supplies from Missouri.
What length of time would be required to CON-
plete the work under all these disadvantages, lts
progress depending upon the gradual sales of the
lands east of the great desert? With fund OF
fiftv or sixty millions on deposite, any amount OF
force might be employed; but depending upon the
land sales, It Is not probable that at the maximum
anv greater progress could be made IN the work
than f;ftv miles per annum, under the most favor
able operation of the scheme. AT this average 1t
would require period of sixty years to open the
way for locomotive from Chicago to Astoria.
Such Is a mere glance at the more prominent
amendments to this enterprise We want commu'
ncation with our vast territorial possessions on the
Pacific; but the construction of railroad through
a region of two thousand miles of empty space,
without population, without timber, without re-
sources of any kind, except the salt of the Great
Salt Lake, is not the thing for the settlement and
development of the territories OF California and
Oregon. A railroad or ship canal across the
isthmus at Panama, Nicaragua, or Huasacualco:
or line Of Arabian camels and dromedaries from
St. Louis, via Santa Fe and the ella, to Monterey
or San Francisco, would far better subserve the
great primary object of coonzing the casts of the
Pacific, than any railroad project like that of Mr.
Whitney. When we shall have admitted into the
Union half dozen thriving States from the west of
the Rocky Mountains, a continental railroad Of
SEINE three thousand miles long may be undertaken
with some prospect of Its completion; but our pre-
sent want is the facilities for emigration, which
can only be afforded by steamers and railroad
portage over the isthmus, or by a line of drome-
danes from the valley Of the Mississippi to the
basin of the Sacramento