Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1871-04-08
From the Nsw York Independsat.
The Northern Pacific Railroad.
BY SCHUYLER COLFAX.
Vice Prss;Ient orNe Tbftelf .Stqtss.

Dl SChC L L@lS NOLfA IA.
TIoe-Prss;gent QrAe United stqte,.
Midway across the continental the
head of twelve hundred miles of lake
navigation--a thousand miles from But.
falo, the western terminus of the Erie
canal, aud as near to it by water as Chi
cago-a hundred miles west of the lon
gitude of st. Louis or Galena--is the
young city of Duluth, the initial point
of the Northern Pacific Railroad. That
great work, so magnificently endowed
by the government, is already being
pushed rapidly westward, under its en-
ergetic controllers and before the snow
flies next Fall, it will be completed to
the Western line of Minnesota, where it
crosses the Red River of the North
which runs nor:hward to Lake Winni-
peg-and onc-cight of its distance will
have been accomplished. Commencing,
toe, this season on its western line, the
work will be prosecuted from both di-
rections, and long before the nation cell
ebrates its Centennial anniversary of Iu-
dependence, the Lakes will be united
by iron bands with that Mediterranean
of our Northwest, Puget Sound.
OF the auspicious influence of this en-
terprsc, which but a few years ago
would lave been considered so daring,
the most sanguine of its friends have
scarcely yet tnll realization. Even ia
king Chicago as a starting point, it will
be--Uia ST. Paul, where an arm Of the
Northern Pacific road is reached-two
hundred miles less distance TO Puget
Sound than to San Francisco. Besides
this, vessels from the Golden Gate to
China, sail on, what is called the grand
circle, instead Of in straight line; and
any one testing this by a striug on the
globe will be surprised by the result, if
they have not previously studied the et-
feet of the rotundity of the earth, and
its diminished protuberance as you GO
toward the Pole. Hence, when they
have sailed eight hundred miles from
San Francisco, they are only one hun
dred miles from the entrance TO Puget
Sound. And this striking fact shows
the advantage this route will have in
commanding the through traffic Of Asia
with our Atlantic States, or that portion
of it which will pass over the soil of this
nation Oh its way to Europe.
Nor is this ALL Development is the
great duty of the Republic, after all its
recent trials. Resources are the gift of
the Creator. Developing them depends
on the work of man. Along the line of
the Northern Pacific Railroad, as it fol
lows up the watercourses of the Missou
ri and the Yellowstone on this side, and
descendS by the valley of the columbia
4 ho 90
al land is waiting for the plow, with a
climate almost exactly the same as that
of New York, except that, with less
snow, cattle in the larger portion OF it,
can subsist on the open range in winter.
Here, if climate and fertility of soil pro-
duce their natural result, when railroad
facilities open this now isolated region
to settlement, will soon be seen waving
grain fields, and happy homes and grow
ing towns while ultimately, Gordon OF
prosperous States, tecming with popula-
tion and rich in industry and consequent
wealth, will occupy that now undevel-
oped and almost inaccessible portion of
our continental area.
But this road is fortunate also in its
pathway across the two ranges of
mountains which tested so severely the
Pacific Railroads built on the central
line, and the overcoming Of which re-
tiected such we'll deserved honor on their
energetic builders. At the Deer Lodge
Pass, In Montana, where it crosses the
Rocky Mountains, its altitude above the
sea is $500 feet less than the Union Pa
cific Railroad at Sherman, which is said
to be the highest point at which a loco
motive can be found in the world, And |
on the Pacific side of the Continent it is
even more fortunate. From Arizona up |
to the Arctic Circle, the Columbia is the |
only river which has torn its way thro' |
that mighty range, the Andes of North |
America, which in California, is known |
as the Sicrras, but which IN Oregon
changes its name TO the Cascades. Ma
ture has thus provided a pathway for
the Northern Pacific Road through these
mountains, the scaling of which, on the
other line, at an elevation of over seven
thousand feet--a most wonderful tri-
umph of engineering the Central
Pacific Company millions of dollars, and
compelled them for seventy miles, to
maintain grade OF over one hundred
feet to the mile-twiee the maximum of
the Northefn Pacific at the most diff
cult point on its entire route.
1t is fortunate, alsp,gin its terminus on I
the Pacific coast. No one who has not |
been there can realize the beauty OF E'u-
get Sound andjts surroundings, One