Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1866-10-19
Progress OF the Pacific RntIrond


On the first of September the Pacific
Railroad was completed from Omaha CITY
to beyond Fort Kearney, in Nebraska, a
distance Of over two hundpd miles. The
rate of progression is from fortv-fiye to
fifty miles a month, so that it is believed
that another year will strech the road to
the Rocky Mountains. The route is from
Omaha City, along the banks of the Platte
river, the same course Travelled by the pony
express. The surface of the country is
highly favorable to the work, being smooth.
hard, dry and almost level. A better road
bed could not be desired. The graders are
at work along the third hundred miles. and
will finish the fourth this fall.
AT the other end the work is progressing
rapidly--a work that will be considered one
OF the monuments of mans perseverance
and industry. We have before alluded to
the immense difficulties to be overcome in
the construction of the road through and
over the Sierras, and the success in sur
mounting them. To eXaggerate the impor-
lance OF this trans-cOntinental highway is
almost impossible To a certain extent it
will change the relative positions of this
country, Europe. and Asia. The track of
an army is track of desolation. Its pass
age impoverishes and scorches the country
through which it moves. Not so the track
OF commerce. That country which stands
between the place of production and the
mart of sale, which is the highway over
which the wealth of nations must travel.
enjoys a Danean shower. This was the
secret of the prosperity of Palmyra the city
over which the proud Zenobia reigned-it
built Alexandria, sustained Carthage. and
made Venice the strongest republic of the
world.
With the completion of the Pacific Rail-
road, instead of receiving our goods from
India, China, Japan, and the "Isles of the
Sea" by the way of London and Liverpool
we shall bring them direct by the way Of
the Sandwich Islands and the railroad, and
become the carriers, to a great extent, for
Europe. But this is but portion of the
advantages of this work. Our western
mountains are almost literally mountains of
gold and silver. In them the Arabian fable
of Aladdin is realized. To-day it costs al
most competence to reach them, and live
among them for a year or two, until the
labors of those weary months begin to make
visible return. Food, clothing, machinery,
implements, and all other necessaries are
costly i'll the mining regions of Colorado,
Nevada, and Arizona. This cost is largely
that of transportation. Let the road be
completed, and the comforts as well as the
necessaries furnished by Asia, the manu-
factures of Europe, and the production of
the States, can be brought by the iron horse
almost TO the miners door, and in the pro-
duction and possession of the precious met
ais, the blood of commerce, we shall be the
richest nation on the globe.
But the substantial wealth created by the
improvement of the soil and the develop
ment of the resources of the country is n
of this vast work. Ease of access, facility
of intercommunication. and encouragement
to travel, will invite thousands ofthe crowd
ed inhabitants of Europe and our Eastern
cities and build up towns and cities, and
make luXuriaut farms where now nature
exists in almost undisturbed wildness.-
Scientific Ameiical