The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1877-10-06
From Mondays Extra.
Completion of the Railroad Bridge
--Strategy--The Cars in Arizona
The army Deffed--Enter-
prise or Crime?

OF SEImcs
On Saturday. Sept. 90, the super
intendent of the force engaged ir
constructing the bridge and track
of the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company at this place, having an
nounced to lis chiefs that every.
thing was ready for connecting G
the bridge with the track on the
California side OF the river, receiv-
ed orders by telegraph to max
The connection forth with and in
time for the passage across the
Colorado river and into Arizona OF
the Sunday morning train. The
adoption Of this programme was
fOreshadoWed in the SENTINEL OF
Saturday.
To avoid collision with the
military authorities Oh the Fort
Yuma reservation, and possibly to
give the military commander no
chance to call for volunteers TO
enforce the OrdeisOf the Secretary
of War, the railroad men deter
mined TO carry out their inStiuc-
tions in the night. Major Dunn,
Twelfth Infantry. commanding
Fort Yuma. suspected their in
tenlion and placed a sentry on the
end of the track until IL o'clock
at night when, all being quiet,
the guard went off. The entire
force garrisoning Fort Yuma con-
sisis Of Major Dunn, one sergeant
and one enlisted man, prisoner.
About midnight the railroad force
began active operations by crib
bing up. with railroad ties, the
space between the track and the
bridge. Upon these were laid
heavy stringers and the rails
quickly followed.
All went smoothly and quietly un-
Ill about two O'Clock in the morn
ing, when q rail was carele5oly
dropped on the bridge. It's ringing
vibrations reached the ear of the
officer commanding the fort. The
garrison Except the prisoner) was
soon marched TO the scene Of war
and further prosecution of the
work was strictly forbidden. A
detarh ment was stationed on the
bridge and ordered TO fix his bay
Onet and let no one pass. For a
little while the army had things
its own way and all was quiet;
but pretty soon Il carload of rails
came rolling along. The detach
ment on the bridge had no orders
to retreat, but rather than be run
over he changed front. Major
Dunn ordered Supt. Green to con-
slider himself prisoner, and not
having sufficient force to carry out
his instructions returned to the
fort. Track-laying was continued
without farther interruption, and
by sunrise the construction train
was on the Arizona side of the
Col ,rado. BY seven o'clock a. m.
Sunday, Sept. 80, 1877, the track
was laid along Madison avenue
beyond the intersection of First
street, and for the first time the
whistle of a railroad locomotive
was sounded in Arizona. Its shrill
sounds reused our sIuggards from
their Sunday morning nap, and
The construction train Was soon
surrounded 10y an eager crowd.
1t WAS then run back TO the Cali
fornia side to clear the track for
the regular morning train from
San Francisco and to give the
wOrkmen Il chance for breakfast
and rest after their nights labors.
The length oftrack laid wasover
1000 feet. The first engine driven
into this Territory was No. 81.
The rails were laid and spiked
across the joints of the draw in
such a manner as to make it i'm
possible toopen it without the use
of much time and labor. This was
to guard against any unfriendly
manipulation of the draw.