Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-05-27
word HboU isafiWay;. fsufiffdinr: ~ q

The magnitude of tho appliances for building
tho great Pacihcss Railroad, the most dSsfdr
work of the nineteenth century, should giyespeo.
pie in this partoffthe world some HSag IF How
tie worksought obe done here, whssss. railroads
are sosiRperatiTely needed. Every oace in o
while See notices in5 the papers 5t6stsanother
twenty-five miles of issthe Pacific Railroad has
been conpletod and sihat the oa5sns ount Iof.land
agreeappOn has beeafarhed ovssfo tho Company
by the government.
1t will be remembered that Cons,ess granted TO
two Companies, the Union Pacific, andfthe.4 Cen
trail Pacific, the right to build their respective
lines from opposite ends until they should meet
aud connect. The Union Pacific Company is
working from the Missouri River, westward /;
while the Central Pacific is working from San
francisco, eastward The former have nearly or
quito, crossed the level plains of Nebraska and
come to the outlying hills of the Rocky Mountain
range; while the latter, it appears is making
equally wonderful and gratifying headway. Though
there is a heavier force of men and teams at work
on the California end of the Road than on this,
YET the progress of distance is far slower. For
while on this end the path lies, for many hun
dred miles, along an absolute plain on the CAL
ifornia end, it isup and over the grand Sierra
Nevada chnin of mountains. About twenty five
thousand Cinnamon are at work on the California
end, if We mistake not, the contractors are grad.
| ing on this (the Eastern) slope of the ~Sirreas
andbeginning to stretch their labors out into the
great Salt Lake Basin. The last and greatest oi
the tunnels through the Sierras is already opened
and the crossing of this dreaded range is now
! regularly made by the locomotive. AtGisco, on
the Sierras, the locomotive screams on.a spot q
high as Mount Washington, the highest of the
New England mountains. Think of It n! Thil
achievement of heiving and blasting q pathway
of one hundred ard fifty miles through primeval
granite barriers, is equivalent To more than 600
miles of ordinary railroad, in cost and resistance
overcome. Upward of 2o,OOO,OoO have been
expended increasing these mountains alone. And
it is believed that fully half of the distance be.
tween the Pacific coast end the Missouri River
will bo built by the Central Pacific Company
as the air dy accomplished Wo:k OF crossing the
sierras is by far the most difficult in their line
and moro costly to prepare for the. irolthan the
$50 milea, east of it. A
In all probability the year 1870 will see eregular
trains of cars running across the entire breadth
of the American continent-from New York to
San Francisoo-through calfornia, Nevada,
Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana
Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York!
And while all this is going on, cannot.we Of
Edgefeld pluck up courage to build that little
branch to the Pine House, or some other asaila-
BILE point? We are fossils, we are Rip Van Win
| kles, we arc sticks in the mud" If we do not
give up many Of our absolete Emotions" and ex-
hibit more advanced ideas, our neighb6rs, and
the world at large, will, leave us ignobly behind
in the race ofhuman progress.