New-York daily tribune., 1859-12-24
THE pAcRfc RAILROAD.


briefly, but frankly.
T. Az To practicabihty, there n DO room for hes
taton or doubt The Massachusetts Western,
the Erie, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and
Ohio, have each encountered difficulties as formi-
Ssble ss any TO be overcome by Pacific Railroad
this aide of the Sierra Nevada. Were the Railroad
simply 10 follow the principal emigrant trail up the
Platte and down the Snake and Columbia to Ore
gon. or south westTardly from the South Pass to
the foot of the Sierra. it would encounter no ser
Gus obstacle.
III. The dearth Of Timber on the Plains is the
chief difficulty to be overcome; and this, with the
prevalence of deep SHOWS in and about the South
Pas. zylprobably send the Road considerably north
or south of that famous and facile Pass. We pre-
sumo the shortest, most feasible, and best wooded
route for railroad from the Mississippi to the Pa
sifc il one from Minnesota to Puget Sound, leay-
ing the Rocky Mountains, save some low spurs, on
the south, and encountering less formidable SHOWS
than those of the North Platte, South Pass, aud
Green River. Another pretty well timbered
direct route, with but moderate elevation at the
pass of the Rocky Mountains, strikes westward
from Dubuque to the Yellow Stone follows one Of
Rocky Mountains, and thence down q similar stream
TO the Columbia, and 90 through Oregon to Astoria
BS taking this route, the timber of the Rocky
Mountains could be cheaply RATED or hoated to
every part of the track on either side at which tim
her !, naturally deficient. The routes which turn
the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada by the
south are necessarily longer than those above indi
Gated eearth circumference being grestertOward
the Equator than near the POle), traverse in good
part parched and sterile desert, and must encoun-
ter serious obstacles in the dearth of water and in
crossing the Rio Del Norte and Colorado. They
would, however, rarely or never be formidably OBJ
strueted by snow.
In our Judgment, however, the preferable, though
not the easiest route for a Pacific Road traverses
the valleys of the Kansas and its Smoky Hill fork
crossing thence TO the nOrtherly of the
Arkansas and passing with one Of them through the
Rocky Mountains, not far from the South Park
thence winding down some tributary to the Colo
Tado, thence up a western fork or valley and down
tie Tmpanagos or some such stream into Utah,
and through that Territory on or near Capt. Simp-
sons new road to the valley Of the Carson, True
kee, or whatever stream should be found to profer
the least difficult way the Sierra Nevada TO
San Francisco. railroad on this route would at
once command large and lucrative traffic from the
Kansas Gold Region, from Utah, and from the |
newly discovered but rich and growing Gold Region
Of Carson Valley or Western Utah-sOOn, we trust, |
to DO the Territory Of Nevada. Thousands have
recently been drawn to Carson Valley by the fame
Of these Mines, and the fact being established that
Gold, Silver and other valuable metals are found
In CsrsOn Valley, il is at least strongly probable
that they w;l be found elsewhere along the eastern
base of the sierra SeyGda A railroad on this route
would have an immediate aud large local traffic,
both in passengers and goods, fro.% California to
Carson Valley, from Missouri and Kans>s to the
Rocky Mountain Gold Region, and from each 20
Utah. Its Mails, too would be heavier and far
far more bcneGcent than if conveyed by any other
route, We Judge, therefore, that on this route the
Railroad is most likely TO be built unless future de-
velOpments Of Mineral Wealth north OF south of it
should change the whole aspect Of affairs.
III. And now as TO cost and the ways and means.
This road cannot be built cheaply; for provisions
aud all the necessares of life must rule high along
it's lpe. ard most Of the laborers will have 10 be
carried thither. Yet it is but fair to cOnsidS, that
many Of the heaviest items Of expense an
railrosds--Land and Land Damages Timber,
Stone, &c-will here cost nothing but the labor of
preparing them for this use. Then the rock-cutting
will in the average, be light, and the bridging still
lighter. For much of the distance, $4,000 per |
mile viii grade aud bridge double track in the
very ee'tmauner uOuUuv.. there there! are AZ miles that
wvu.u cost $l00 600, but these are comparatively
few; while the Colorado is the only formidable
stream 10 be crossed between the Missouri and the
Sacramento And, as the road would necessarily
be commenced at each end and pushed toward the
center, il would have considerable traffic on the
very fret hundred miles that should be completed,
and large one on the first five hundred. Were 1t
=. 10 be finished peIt Anril 20 far es Carson Valley
from the West and pixies Peak" from the sss'
we 6nnly believe that those two sections would
pay expenses and interest on cost forthwith. Nso,
=. what might not be hoped from the completed road!
Again; 1t is to be considered that by building
thus in sections, each portion, as finished, would
be used to forward provisions, rails, timber, Sc,
for the next. IfWheat be worth $5 per bushel to-
day at Denver ii by no means follows that it would
cost half sc much with a railroad from the Mis-
, sOsri completed nearly or quite to that point.
B.. We estimste that Railroad from the Missouri
}. st Kansas City, wyandot, Leavenworth, Atchson
OF St. joseph, Ia San Francisco, must be nearly
quite 1900 mils, long, and that it would cost with
double track and fully equipped S7o 900 per mile,