The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-05-27
Correspondence of the Chicago Tribune
New YORK, May 16, 1867.


how deep an interest is felt In the
progress of the Pacific Railway. This
led me to spend considerable time in
the past ten days at the Offices of the
Central and Union Pacific Railroad
Companies, from the officers of which
I learned precisely what are$he pres
roads. As they are to connect at or
near Salt Lake, and form single line
across the continent, the two are
simply to become one road when COM
pleted. [ begin with the @
CENTRAL PACIFIC
or California end of the line, and for
the following facts I am indebted to
G. p Huntington, Vice President of
the road. The line was completed
last fall to Cisco, twelve miles from
the summit of the Sierra Nevada
Mountains, and ninety east of
Sacramento, and, with few interrupt
lions, trains have been running on
the road to that point during the en-
tire winter. Your San Francisco cor
respondent in one of his letters,
few weeks since, stated that it would
be found impossible to open the road
for several months in the winter, on
account Of tremendous SHOWS Expe-
rience has proved his assertion to be
premature. Though six feet of snow
sometimes fall in single night,
Judge Croker asserts that from
the peculiar position of the road,
running as it does mainly along the
sides of the mountains, it can be kept
clear of snow as readily, and operated
as successfully as most roads in the
Eastern States. The Interruptions
during the early part of last
winter were caused more by
the settling of the embank ments,
(some of them a hundred feet
high and made entirely during the dry
season. when the heavy winter rains
set in, than by the snow, At various
places the road had settled ten, feet or
more, and the trains had to stop till
these could be filed up. OF course,
there will hereafter be no delay from
this cause, and as to the snow, that
can be removed, or its effect provided
against, as future experience may sug-
gest.en - - sf.f ro, ~ 1..il'3i'-ts
The tunnel, sixteen hundred and
fftyseight feet long, through the gran
lite rock at the summit of the noun
tains, stops the immediate progress of
the work. During the Winter large
force has been at work day and night,
working from four faces, an opening
having been made in the centre, and |
one thousand and sixty feet, Mr.. |
Huntington thinks, are now com
pleted, leaving little less than six
hundred feet to be tunneled. The |
workmen advance in all at least fifty
feet per week, so that by the middle |
of August the tgreat bore " through |
the summit of the Sierra Nevada |
Mountains will be completed. Dur |
ing the Winter large force has been |
at work on the eastern slope of the |
mountains, and by September, we are |
assured, the entire line will be COM
pleted and the cars running to Vir-
ginia City junction, one hundred and |
sixty miles east of Sacramento.
This is way down on the |
Truckey River meadows, and when
there, the road will be out of the |
mountains. Mr. Huntington showed |
me the profile of the road thence to
the north. bend of the Humboldt |
River, nearly two hundred miles east
ward, and it simply confirmed what |
had previously supposed to be true,
that the road could be built up the |
valley of the Humboldt almost as
cheaply and as rapidly as the eastern
end up the valley of the Platte. I |
have not particle of doubt that on or
before the fourth of July, 1870. the
scream of the locomotive from Cali
fornia will wake the echoes from the
mountains about Salt Lake, and that
six hundred miles can be built by that
time, and the Californians are Just
men to do it. Mr.. Durant, of the
laurels or Gov Stanford will meet
him at Fort Bridger instead of Salt
Lake.
The company have now some ten
thousand men, mostly Chinese, at
work, and they hope to increase the
number to fifteen thousand within
month or two. They have iron
enough on hand to complete the road
to the north bend of the Humboldt, |
two hundred and twenty-five miles |
east of Cisco. The road will be fin
ished to that point early next.season,
when it will secure a large share of |
the trade of Idaho. 1t will then
from Utah and Nevada. The net
earnings in 1866 on only forty-two
land for a. part of the year ninety
tour) miles of road were 1865, S03, or |
more than a hundred thousand doll
lars more than enough to. pay the |
entire interest on the cost of 1876 |
miles of completed road, that is. to
the east line of the State of Califor- |
MIA. The road will be a magnificent /
success beyond any contingency.
Let US now turn to the