Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-05-04
The Canadian Pacific Railway-A Stu.
nendOus Undertaking..


PORTLAND, May 3l.-E. G. Tilton, of Yale.
B. c., contractor Chief Engineer and General
Superintendent of the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way, arrived in this city yesterday. In an
interview with an Oregonian reporter to-day
he gave the following information concern
ing that enterprise Last February con-
tract for building eighty-five miles from
Emory Point, five miles below Yale, to Port
Moody, the western terminus, at the head of
Burrard Iulet, was let TO Andrew OGderdouk
aud associates, aud the work OF clearing and
bridging is already under way. Grading
will be commenced about the 25Sh of this
month Arrangements have been made tor
the importation of 900 Chinese, to arrive
within sixty days Two vessels, with l, 200
coolies, arrived last month, and the men are
now at work. Five thousand men will
be put on the line between Emory and Port
Moody, and like number on the Frazer
river. The wogk thus far on the Frazer has
resulted in the completion of % miles of
track, under contract secured in 1880,
northeast from Emory. Upon these 20
miles loo men have been at work for is
months, and the grade from the sixtieth to
ninetiath mile is nearly completed. The work
from Emory to Thompson's river, distance
of 60 miles, is probably the most difficult and
expensive on the North American Continent.
Frazer river Is bordered with steep. rugged
mountains of solid granite. from 5000 to
s 600 feet high. In the first II miles there
are I3 tunnels-four in one mile and
six in another. In two miles on the
division above Emory there are no less than
600 tres,les and bridges, and in the last
95 miles more than 100 enlbankments, which
at the foundation level are IL feet wide. and
the cuts % feet The tunnels are % feet
wide and q feet high. None other than
20 4 V,,%
section OF the work there are 10, O0O, 900 cubic
wards Of earth, an excavation of 5000 600
cubic yards of rock exclusive Of the tunnel,
aud 2 000 coo cubic yards of rock and ce-
mented gravel Between 80. 000,0 900 and 49,
GOO 900 feet of timber, board measure, are
REQUIRED for the structures Over the entire
contracts the rock is of the hardest compact
granite, in which often Cccur wide and ex-
tremely rich quartz veins. For miles the
road is literally hewn out OF the side of the
cliffs. The approaches TO many OF the tunnels
are galleries. At the eastern approach to
tunnel No. Z, for ovsr 100 feet the bluff is
galleried, and overhangs the roadway twenty
four feet in width, or two feet outside the
road bed, below which is an almost perpen-
dicular precipice of 200 feet. The first tun-
mel is at the north end of Yale, and the first
four happen within mile and half of the
town. 1t required eighteen months to build
the first two miles, working in the tunnel
night and day. From one point six tunnels
are visible at glance. The grades and
curves are moderate, the heaviest grade
being fifty feet to the mile. The line follows
the west bank of Frazer river to point
eight niles below Lytton, where Thompson's
river empties into the Frazer. There the
latter river will be crossed bv an
iron and steel bridge, to cost $500, ,000
The line will then follow the south
bank of Thompson's river to Kamloops
Lake. The contractors expect to have COM
p'eted by the end of this year 120 miles of
grade, and have 80 miles of track in opera
ton. The first two miles north from Emory
cost trife over $500, 900 per mile, and the
IL miles from the eighteenth to the twenty
ninth cost SIZE, coo per mile. The average
ccss per mile OF the upper division along the
Frazer and Thompson's rivers will be over
$4,000 per mile. This does not
include the cost Of rails and
fastenings, which are furnished by
the Government The cost of the 212 miles
from Port Moody to Kamloops Lake will be,
exclusive of rails, 1000, 900. The company
have at Yale erected nitro-g cerine aud pow
der works, with a capacity of IL goo pounds
per day, and car and machine shops, and all
the supply departme nts. A steamer is IN
der construction. and will be launched in a
few days for the navigation of the upper
Frazer between Boston Bar and the mouth
of Thompson's river. The boat is intended
for the transportation of supplies, and will be
the frat to ascend above Boston Bar.