Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-04-16
Eight Pacific RAILWAYS

the completion OF the first railroad
across the continent to the Pacific coast.
1t was then thought to be all that
would be needed for q long time to
come. The Northern Pacific was pro-
nounced visionary by many, and q
waste of capital. Only ten years have
passed and already six additional lines
are in process of construction. Enumer-
ating them geographically. beginning
at the most northerly line. We have:
l. The Canadian Pacific, to extend
from poiut west of Ottawa along the
north coast of Lakes Superior and Win
nipeg to Burrard Inlet, on the Pacific
coast, in latitude 40. Several hundr red
miles of this road are now under con-
struction and the road will probably
be finished within the present decade.
II the Northern Pacific was deemed i'm
practicable ten years ago, because 10.
cated so far north, what can be said of
the Canadian Pacific, several hundred
miles further North? And yet it will
be built and will traverse an immense
wheat region, and quite likely pierce
lew and rich mineral deposits in the
Rocky mountains. 1t will be 2,75O miles
in length.
2. The Northern Pacific will be 1900
miles in length, and will extend from
Duluth, and st. Paul, Mimi, westward
between the 46th and 48th parallels to
Puget sound. Over 800 miles of the
road is now In operation, and work ia
progressing from both ends. 1t is
probable the road will be finished be-
fore 1885.
3. The Union and Central Pacific
was the first road built, and extends
from Omaha to San Francisco, 1916
miles.
4. The Chicago, Burlington and
Quincy, which now controls nearly
1000 miles of railway, and is rapidly
pushing westward, is about to be- con.
solidated with the Burlington and Mis-.
souri, River road in Nebraska and its
numerous branches. The latter road is
building line up the Republican val
ley, aimed for Denver City, from which
point it will, with scarcely a doubt, be
extended to the Pacific coast ut no dis
tant day.
5. The Atthison, Topeka and Santa
Fe, st. Louis and San Francisco,
and Atlantic and Pacific. These
interests are now operated in
common. The Atlantic and Pacific was
chartered in 1866 to build railroad
from st. Louis to San Francisco, and
received magnificent land grant
81, 1000, 900 acres-but phlegmatic St.
LOUIS dawdled along with it and 1t was
not until Boston capitalists took hold
th., hut
continental ambition had any prospe ct
of qualification. 1t will build ON what
is known as 1.-The thirty. fifth parallel
route" The thirty fifth parallel is
reached at Santa Domingo on the Rio
Grande river. Tue Atchison and
Topeka has about nine hundred miles
of main line extending from Kansas
City to Santa Domingo and several hun
bred miles of brat ches in Kansas aud
Colorado. From the Rio Grande the
road is to be built and owned equally
by the Atchison, Topeka ami Santa F.
and the st. Louis aud San Francisco
west of the Rio Grande is to be known
as the Atlantic aud Pacific company.
1t will have two termsmi, one ut San
Francisco, the other ut San Diego.
6. There is now in operation y line
nearly thousand miles long from San
Francisco southeastward:into Arizona.
1t is the Southern Pacific, or 32i paral-
lei line. 1t is being pushed vigorously
and will probably be completed to
Elpaso, New Mexico, on the Rio
Grande, this year. 1t is supposed the
Galveston Harrisburg and San Antonio
road will be extended westward to meet
the Southern Pacific road ut Elpaso,
and also extended eastward to New
Orleans.
7. The Texas and Pacifc-Tom
SCOTS road-which tried so long to
obtain a government subsidy ami failed
is now being prosecuted with private
capital. 1t is IN operation from Tex
arkana, Texas, south and West 253
miles 10 Fort Worth, besides division
from Marshall, Texas, to Shreveport.
La, Az miles, and one from Texarkana
west to Sherman, 1855 miles. The
Shreveport line will be extended east
to Vicksburg. This road may form one
of the eastern connections of the South
ern Pacific, or it may be built through
to San Diego, California.
8. Another trans. continental line is
being built through Mexico to Quay mas
on the Gulf Of California. The line in
the United States is being built by the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe com
pany, the line in Mexico by company
called the Sonora Limited. Tnis road
will run through the fabulOusly rich
mining regions of old Mexico.
All of the companies we have emu
merated have considerable portions OF
their roads already built and III opera
ton. Each is backed with ample cap
itai, and each is ambitious to obtain a
trans continental traffic. The i'm
portance of these enterprises is not
only vast in the magnitude Of the CAPT
tai invested, and to be invested. and the
labor to be expended, but in the still!
broader phase of new countries to be
opened to settlement, new agricultural
regions to be put under cultivation,
and immense stores OF mineral wealth
to be unearthed. The trans-continental
as well as the local aspect of the ques
ton is fairly bewildering, and the
mind fails to comprehend the ex-
tent of the great empire that
is about to be added to the scope
% ,oo,l.rn niyiliyutinn II far SilrDaSSeS