Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-04-21
From the New York IndsFendent.l
The NOrtherR Paeific Railroad.
RY SCHUYLER CoLFAX, VICE PRESIDENT ol
THE UNITED STATES

RY SCHUYLER CoLFAX, VICE CE-PREsIDENT OF
THE UNITED STATES.
Midway across the continent-at the
head of twelve hundred miles OF Lake
navigation-a thousand milea from Buffalo
the western terminus of the Erie Canal
and as near to 1t by water as Chicago-a
hundred miles west of the longitude of St.
Louis or Galena-is the young city of
Duluth, the initial point of the Northern
Pacific Railroad. That great work, so
magni6cently endowed BY the Govern.
ment, is already being pushed rapidly
westward, under its energetic controllers /;
and before the snow flies next fall, it will
be completed to the western line Of Min
nesota, where it crosses the Red River of
the North-whiCh runs northWard to
Lake Winnipeg-aud one-eighth of it's
distance to the Pacific Ocean will have
been accomplished. Commencing, too,
this season on its western line, the work
will be prosecuted from both directions,
and long before the nation celebrates its
Centennial Anniversary of Independence,
the Lakes will be united by iron bands
with that Mediterranean of our Northwest,
Puget Sound.
or the auspicious influence of this en-
terprise, which but few years ago would
have been considered so daring, the most
sanguine of its friends have scarcely vet
full realization. Even taking Chicago as
a starting kpoint, it will be (ciG st. Paul,
where an arm of the Northern Pacific
Railroad is reached) two hundred miles
less to Puget Sound than to San Francis
co. Besides this, vessels from the Golden
Gate to China sail on what is called the
grand circle, instead of in straight line (;
and anyone testing this by string on a
globe will be surprised at the result, if
they have not previously studied the eff
feet of the rotundity of the earth, and its
diminished protuberance as you go north
ward towards the Pole. Hence, when
they have sailed eight hundred miles from
San Francisco they are only one hundred
miles from the entrance to Puget Sound /;
and this striking fact shows the advan-
tages 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 on its
road to Europe.
Nor is this all. Development is the
great duty of the republic, after all its re-
cent 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 follows
up the water courses, the Missouri and the
Yellowstone on this side, and descends by
the valley of the Columbia on the other, a
vast body of agricultural land is waiting
for the plow, with climate almost ex-
actly the same as that of New York, ex-
cept 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 produce their natural
result, when railroad facilities open this
now Isolated region to settlement, will
soon be seen waving grain fields, and hap
py homes, and growing towns; while ulti-
mately Gordon of prosperous States,
teeming with population, and rich in in
dustry and consequent wealth, will occu
py that now undeVeloped and almost in
accessible portion of our continental area
But this road is fortunate also in its
pathway across the two ranges of noun
tains which tested so severely the Pacific
Railroads built on the central line, and the
overcoming of which reflected 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 8, 1000 feet less than
the Union Pacific Railroad at Sherman,
which is said TO be the highest point at
which a locomotive can be found in the
world. And on the Pacific side of the
continent 1t is even more fortunate. From
Arizona up to the Arctic Circle the Col.
umbia is the only river which has torn its
way through that mighty range, the Andes
of North America, which in California is
known as the Sierras, but which in Oregon
changes its name to the Cascades. Nature
has thus provided a pathway for the North
ern Pacific Road through these mountains,
the scaling of which, on the other line, at
an elevation of over seven thousand feet
"a most wonderful triumph of engineer
ing), cost the Central Pacific Company
millions of dollars, and compelled them,
for seventy miles, to maintain a grade of
over one hundred feet to the mile-twice
the maximum of the Northern Pacific at
the most difficult point in its entire route