The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1869-05-14
The Pacific RailrOad---The Last
Rail,

the leading journals for the last few
days. The last spike was driven on
Monday, and we don't know that we
could furnish our readers this week
with anything more likely to command
their attention than the following arti-
Gle from the New York Herald, which
appeared in that paper of the 9th:
Tomorrow, finishing at noon, the last
sleeper (of mountain mahogany, tipped
with Nevada silvcr) and the last rail
(of Missouri stceD and the last spike
<of pure California gold) required to
make a through connection by rail be-
tween New York and San Francisco,
three thousand two hundred and eighty
five miles, will be laid at Ogden, In
Utah Territory, the junction Of the
Central Pacific Railroad from Sacra-
mento, on the Sacramento river. in CAL
.ifornia, and the Union Pacific Rail-
road, from Omaha. on the Missouri
river, in Nebraska. The length of these
two national roads, separate and col
lectively, is as follows:
Union Pacific Railroad. westward
from Omaha to Ogden. 1852 miles.
Central Pacific Railroad. eastward
from Sacramento to Ogden, S64 miles.
Total length Of the two lines, l.S,6 miles.
This linking by rail the Pacific and
Atlantic oceans) is the Pacific Railroad,
built by such liberal subsidies of lands
and bonds from Congress as to enrich
the two companies concerned in its con-
struction. The first act on the subject
was passed in 1862, in the midst of our
late civil war. At that time the pros
poets for building the road within a
shorter period than twenty years was
very slim. There were. first. the heavy
drawbacks of the war. and. second. the
character of at least twelve
versed-a waste of timberless plains.
chains of continental mountains and
Asiatic deserts-a region which, cx-
cepting few small patches here and
there, appeared to be utterly worthless.
Hence the liberality of Congress in its
subsidies of lands and bonds. Since
then the boundless mineral treasures OF
all those Territories have been revealed
the richest discoveries of all being
those of only the other day, the White
Pine silver mines of Nevada. in dis
trict represented in the best maps of
last year as a blank. Never was there |
such a run of luck to any great enter
prise since the first voyage of Colum.
Dus westward in search of the Indies.
The richest States of the Continent in !
heir mineral treasures are springing up
over all that Asiatic section which !
wenty-four years ago was thought to
De a second edition OF Arabia. hardly |
worth the mules lost by Fremont in his |
first explorations-we mean that inte-
'ior desert region of Fremont's Great |
Basin. From the facts and figures of a |
nap and report before us of the White
Pine silver mountains of Nevada, il is, |
We think. likely that they will not be |
exhausted with the extraction Of a !
thousand millions Of silver. They are, !
evidently, richer and more extensive !
han those of Zacatecas in Mexico. from
which seven hundred millions of silver
nave been drawn, and are much OF the
amc formation as those of Potosi, in
Bolivia, which have Welded sixteen
millions of silver. This Pa
life Railroad will be the only outlet
or these treasures of Nevada and of
hose of Utah, the line of travel. and
more or less the line of exports and i'm
ports of the miners of Nebraska. Kan
'as Eastern Division branch road,) Wy
'ming (Montana has the Missouri riv-
NJ Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washing
on, Nevada and California.
This way business Of passengers and
reight, with the through passenger
rafiic, will be the munificent support
If this Pacific Railroad. Over line of
hundred miles by rail there
an be no heavy freight business be-
ween San Francisco and New York.
t will be cheaper by way of Panama
II Cape Horn. The teas and silks of
Ihina, for instance, coming by this road
rom San Francisco and in the way of
rade, will hardly in any considerable
come farther cast than st.
.ouis or Chicago, so that San Francis
%, in the Eastern Asiatic trade, will be
he port Of entry and delivery for this
'acific road. and New York will hardly
change. Thirty-two hun
lrcd miles of rail is too much to divert
lie trade of Eastern Asia across our
to New York. Only an 18TH
nus ship canal will draw it for the
United States east of the Mississippi
way from the route of Cape Horn and
food Hope. But the gold and silver
# our mining States and Territories
trough to the Pacific must come to
New York, and the advantages of this
completed road, with the new impulse
which it will give to the peopling Of
hose new States and Territories will |
&c felt by our New York dealers in
European dry goods and IiiOuterie.