The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-07-29
Railroads in ssse Ear yycss.

of the commission sent out by Jay Cooke I
q Go. 10 examine route for the North .
ern Pacific Railroad Company eastward /
from Puget Sound. In passing over :he /
Union Pacific Railroad, he makes tue fol
lowing fatteriug report:
SALT LAKE CRY, June is, 1860 -Messrs.
Jay Cooke Il Co-Gentlemen I'VE arrived
here yesterday morning by stage. twenty
eight miles from the railroad station Desc
ret" changed the day we left Omaha to
"Wintah," )" after prominent range of snow
mountains, in sight of which we were nearly
all day of the 10th. The view Of these
snow-clad SUBMITS, standing at an elevation
o! eleven or twelve thousand feet above the
sea. is both beautiful and grand
The railroad from Omaha to Cheyenne,
6l6 miles. is equal, in all respects, to the
best Of our firSt-class Eastern roads, and SUI
Perior to most of them On account fits easy
grades. On this whole distance the road is
remarkably smooth, so that it is easier to
write as the cars are going than on any rail
road | know of. Nearly the whole of it is
ballasted with fine gravelly material. Il is
all prairie land. and all the way in the val
ley OF the Platte river or its branches. AT
North Platte" POI miles from Omaha, the
line takes the valley of the South Platte,
burg" S77 miles from Omaha. Thence it
follows the "lodge poIe'' fork of the South
Platte to "Pine Bluffs" 473 miles from
Omaha. 1t then passes across an easy .di-
vide" over to the waters Of Grow Creek
another tributary of the South Platte. and
descends TO Cheyenne, lG miles from Q ma
ha. Omaha, the starting point, Is 7GO feet /
above the sea; Cheyenne is 1921 feet above |
the sea so that the total rise is 1861 feet
IN SIC miles, or an average OF 6-l0 feet
per mile; the maximum rise for short dis
tances being 35 feet per mile, excepting that
In getting out from Omaha there is at pres
ept grade of 62 feet per mile, which, how
ever, on the completion Of the bridge
across the Missouri at Omaha, now in pro-
gresS, will be reduced to about 40 feet per
mile, and which, occurring at an important
city, is not Of much moment Practically,
the railroad from Omaha to Cheyenne is
straight line for 5l6 miles, with ruling
grades below so feet per mile, and averaging
about 10 feet per mile. This entire distance
is grass country, but most of the way it
may be cultivated, ard produce spring
wheat, corn. potatoes. oats. etc. At present
Il is virgin soil. ranged over by anIeIopes,
occasional Indians and cmigrants, and lat
terly by the railroad, and now dotted with
railroad villages about every fifteen miles,
these villages as yet depending wholly on
the railroad employees and the travel bv
rail, no local trade existing along the
route till we reach Cheyenne, where the
stage road runs to Denver" 10 miles off
As far as Cheyenne we were honored with
the conn pany of ex-SCcretary Seward and
his family. At Cheyenne he was welcomed
by a crowd aud band of music; and here
he babe our party farewell, intending to pro-
cod p 4 e /.
ciic.
Cheyenne bears somewhat the same rea-
tion to the passage of the Black Hills range
of the Rocky Mountains that Altoona bears
to the Allegheny range on the Pennsylvania
Central Il ad ; only, however in this, that
at Cheyenne the grade increases. and con-
tinues gradually Increasing to the pass of
the mountain at the summit at Sherman
the highest point attained by the railroad
anywhere between the Atlantic and the Pa
cifc Ocean-Sherman being 8 ,235 feet above
the sea.
But here the resemblance ceases. The
ascent of the Black Hills, from CHEYENNE to
Sherman, distance of SO miles, is entirely
different from that on the Allegheny slope.
Ia the 80 miles the rise is 23l4 feet, or on
an average OF 20 feet per mile, and the max
imum at any point 85 feet per mile. But
in attaining this easy ascent there is no
heavy crest, no deep fills, the deepest cuts
only about 20 feet, and no tunnels, and on
the very top, at Sherman, it So happens that
there lsa slight depression, requiring an
embankment about four feet high.
l watched this portion Of the line critical
ly all the way, although it was by moon
light. in company with DR.. Claxton, look
ing from the hind platform Of the hinder
car, and l vas particularly struck with the
fact that there is little more work on these
33 miles than on the route approaching
Cheyenne from the East. and no appearance
of a mountain ascent. Such is this remark
able pass.
In fact, it was not necessary that even this
summit should be passed by the railroad, for
the Laramie Fork, as we'll Gs the main North
Fork of the Platte, cuts through the Black
Hills. and could have been followed with
regularly ascending grades, though on more
circuitous and more costly routes. Where
the line now crosses the Laramie west Of the
Black Hills, it is 1923 feet above the sea, or
1ll2 feet lower than the Sherman summit
and at the crossing OF the North Platte, ives
Of the Black Hills, it is only GAIT feet above
the sea, or 1858 feet below Sherman.
These features are not generally understood
by our people il the East. Ga the entire
distance, $40 miles from Omaha to Sherman
on the highest summit passed between tn,
two oceans, the work is absolutely trifliug
the curves Of the easiest kind and the grades
are rs above stated.
From the Sherman summit, descending
the slopes of the Black Hills, the work i
heavier and the grades somewhat undula
ting, the maximum descending, grade bein:
sc feet per mile for about ten miles into th,
valley of the Laramie. The general rang,
Of the height Of grade above the sea, from
the Laramie, crossing 234 miles west of Sher
man to Green river, is from 1000 to 6OOt
feet in q distance of 274 miles, between Lar
annie and Green river, with no very heavy
work at any point. At Green river tn,
grade is 6ll2 feet above the sea, and at th,
Aspen summit. 923 miles further west. it i
7463 feet. Aspen is the second highes
summit on the Union Pacific Road, and it i
772 feet lower than Sherman, at point 90!
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