The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1881-09-08
VOLUME 7. VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON TERRITORY, TIL
THE DAI.LES.CASCADES DESRAELROAD

The distance between the Dalles and
the lower Cascades is, by railroad
measurement, 46 miles. The con-
struction of a road bed along the bank
of the Columbia, between the two
points named, is work of greater mag
nitude than the tourist, though civil
engineer, would imagine. The road
bed has to be made over, in, and
through solid basalt rock for nine
tenths of the distance. Much of this
rock rises almost perpenditularly from
the river many feet in the air. A
track has to be cut through the side
of this rock, involving much drilling
and the explosion of much powder.
In several places huge sections of the
rock have been thrown into the wa
ter. At other places deep cuts have
been made in the solid rock. At two
places, tunnels, each over four hun
dred feet in length, have been bored
through cliffs of solid rock, which
rise abruptly for hundreds of feet
above the water. AT one place, known
as Shell Rock, the road had to be con-
structed over n mass of sliding frag
ments of basaltic rock; which moved
from near the summit of The noun
tain whenever the bottom rock was
disturbed, as n pile of whea; will slide
down from the top when shovel full
is removed from the bottom. To
crown all, about four feet from the
surface the fragments of rock are en-
cased in ice, not ice that is clear as
crystal, but ice that has been discoI-
ored by the rocks that it embraces.
Chief Engineer Thielsen is of the
opinion that, way back in that period
when then white man knewnot of the
existence of the Columbia river, there
was winter of such great severity as
to freeze the water which trickled
through this vast pile of hroken rock
from the small streams that flow down
the mountain sides in rainy weather,
and that the sun has never since had
power to thaw it to greater depth
than a few feet from the surface. To
cross this mass of sliding, ice-bedded
rock, temporary dams Were made of
timber at various poi,.ts above the
track, to retain the rock as eXcava
tiOns were made, and solid walls of
masonry were constructed to keep the
slippery mass in place. This work,
after much skillful labor, was success
fully performed, and solid road bed
made below the wall. There are nu-
merous places requiring long embank-
ments to be made, and MANY heavy
fills, while there are large number of
pieces of trestle work required, one
bridge being eighty-five feet high and
seven hundred feet long. Then the
road bed is a very crooked one, being,
as one engineer described it, a success
sion of curves, many being quite sharp.
Taken asa whole, the road bed be-
tween the Dalles and Portland Is a
very heavy one to construct. 1t is es-
timated that the section between the
Dales and the Cascades will cost an
average of $4,000 per mile, or a total
of S2,000,O 900. The work of construc-
tion is being prosecuted with great
energy, there now being engaged in
the labor about 1900 Cinnamon and
400 white men. The work is Of such n
character that few, if any, scrapers
can be used, and only about 200 horses
are employed, mostly i'm cart work.
Several steam drills are employed in
the rock work, and large quantities of
powder are daily used in blasting.
The graders are about four miles from
the Dalles, the grade being nearly fin
ished below that place. The engi-
neers confidently expect to have. the
grading between the Dalles and the
Cascades finished before the first day
of October next, when the grading
force will be set to work between the
Cascades and Portland. Nearly seven
teen miles of track have been laid, be-
ginning at the lower Cascades and ex-
fendinT above Shell Rock TrestIe