The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-12-04
CITY NEWS.
A Pageant of Race HOrses..-BuildiDg
Permits.--Wedding Licenses.
Our Connection With Ell PasO.--Pur-
suing a RObber.
Other Interesting Local Gleanings.
The Completed Highway.


Now that the continent is crossed by an
other line of railroad, few facts of a gem
eral retrospective and summarizing charac-
ter may prove interesting to the readers OF
the HERALD. On Thursday last was laid
the rail connecting the Gould system of
Pacific roads west of Dallas with the Hunt
ington system east of San Francisco Cali
iornia.
The track-laying has been completed in
twenty months and ten days, having begun
at Fort Worth on the 25th of March, 1880,
and laying in this time 52j miles of MAIN
track and p of side-track, and about one
mile more of material spur-tracks, in all
547 miles.
These 547 miles ofrailroad track have con-
sumed $1,000 tons of rails 1000 tons of
spikes, and $500 tons of angle-plate bolts,
say $1,000 tons of metal, or 1000 r-loads;
besides 100000 cross-ties-l2, 600 carloads
and say 1900 loads of bridge material; TO-
600 loads OF depot and section house lum-
Der, and 1000 loads of telegraph material
and commissary stores, in all 10000 car
loads q vast amount to handle.
The first 100 miles of this track was laid
in 100 days, the second in l59, the third in
lO2, the fourth in 81 and the fifth in "a DAYS;
or the main track was laid in 525 working
days, leaving out Sundays and all rainy
days; a mile per day, a remarkable average
hitherto unknown in railroad industry, and
requiring good management on all sides
The most track laid in any one week, was
htty miles, in August last. the least was
eleven and half miles, in Nay, 1880.
The most track laid in any one day was
three miles on the 9th of October last, near
Wild Horseriding, or sections 127, 12S and
l20 from FL Paso.
The telegraph line accompany ing this 525
miles of road consumed $500 poles and
lOO coil of wire, or 20 car loads of mate
rial, quite an item.
Dallas can now be congratulated upon
the consummation of her hopes in the com
pletion of a through line of railroad from
the Trinity river to the Pacific
ocean, thus connecting within her corporate
limits, Huntington'S and Gould's mag
nlticent schemes with her own individual
and independent systems, such as the
Texas Trunk to Sabine Pass; the Chicago.
Texas d Mexican Central to Laredo; the
Wichita to Red River and the Pan Handle
country; the Texas d St. Louis, and the
East Line 4 Red River Narrow Gauge roads
to st. Louis.
The Wholesale trade of Dallas will now be
benefited by an all-rail connection.
with such western towns as Fort
Worth, Weathertord, Eastlahd Sweetwater,
Colorado City, Big Spring, Teyah and hi
Paso, andfor the benefit of our merchants
and the travelling community, we give
below the accurate and correct distance
from Dallas to each of these points, as OBJ.
tanned from Captain W. NJ. Johnson, late
City Engineer, who has been for the past
two years in charge of the track-laying job
ana who was also in charge from bal /
las east to Grand Saline, in 1873: |
Dallas to Fort Worth, 3l.33 miles; Dallas to !
.Weatherlord, G2l6; Dallas to Eastland
l35.l6 Dallas to Baird Ills; Dallas to
Abilene, 1880; Dallas TO Sweetwater /
2S3 90; Dallas to Colorado, 26l 90; Dallas TO |,
Big Springs, 1886; Dallas to Pecos, $4,000;
Dallas to Toyah 45O,l5; Dallas to !
"a lS, 32S,23; Dallas to. Blanco
nn96'SS; Dallas to I'll Paso, G37.OO
Balrd, Bg spring and Toyah are the ends
OF divisions, and have have round-houscs,
depots, station-houses, and turntables
Among the Dallas men employed on This
great enterprise, besides Captain Johnsos
we may mention that Mr.. II. p. Cowen Ito,
gethcr with Mr., Jones, OF Shreveport, and
hhowlon, of Marshall) had the CON
tract for building the bridges, nut
NiS up ABOUT 6uJ OF them, and
NJ times employing 200 men and 20 teams,
also, That Mr.. j. II. Henderson supplied ali
the telegraph poles, and, with Max Elser,
mad the contract from Sweetwatcr west to
put mp the line; also, that Mr. l.. NJ. Spcn.
Ger mad the contract to supply the meat fur
hished to contractors, keeping herd of 200
beeves out on the plains and prairies west
OF the Pccos, and giving uniyer.
sal satisfaction, both as to ouan-
tlty and quality of beef sold;
also that Mr., A. Brownlee has the contract
Tor building all depots and section houses
along the line, putting up % depots and so
section houses, besides the round.houses al
Big Spring and Toyah, working sometimes
SIX or seven gangs and doing everything In
most satisfactory and substantial manner,
ihe greater part Of all dry goods and
V,othlhg sold to contractors came from
inc large wholesale houses of Dallas,
Whlle the groceries and meat also came
rom our numerous wholesale grocery and.
provision houses. Dallas was well repro.
scented IN all departments, and branches of
IN, ,he construction Of the road and laying Of
the track, The passenger trains will soon
run through ifem Dallas To- ri
Paso without change of cars' and
baggage checked and tickets sold from
Dallas to San Francisco, California. and
PORTLAND, Oregon, perhaps, by steamer.