The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-09-24
GRANTED AT LAST.
The Salt Lake and Fort
Douglas
GETS ITS RIGHT OF WAY.
The Proverb Illustrated-"If at First
You Don't Succeed, Try.
Try, Try Again"

The Salt Lake and Fort Douglas Rail
way Company, after several months
earnest entreaty, has at length received
franchise from the City Council to
build, own and operate steam railway
through the city. The route decided
upon is perhaps the least Objectionable
of any that could be selected for rail-
way running from the western to the
eastern portion Of the city, being located
upon streets eight rods in width and but
slightly populated the entire distance.
The first right of way asked by this
company, it will be remembered, To-
Gated q route from the Utah Central
depot over the aqueduct on North Tenn
pie street to City Creek canyon, thence
up the eastern slope of the canyon to
Fourth street, Twentieth ward; along
that street to the military reservation.
1t was as long ago as last December
that this right OF way was asked,
and at the very next sitting OF the
Council after the petition was presented,
two colossal protests-one signed by
residents of North Temple, the other by
residents on Fourth street, threw
large, damp and extensive blanket on
the project. Among the petitioners at
that time were W. W. Ritter, LeGrand
Young, Seymour B. Young, j. t. Little
and others. The matter then rested In
allegiance till John w. Young, Esq,
came along, some time in April or May
last, and petitioned, as president of the
Salt Lake g. Fort Douglas rail
way company for a right of
way along route which con-
nected with the Utah Central track
ON Eighth North street or thereabouts
and skirted the foothills south and east
of the Warm Springs to Arsenal Hill,
thence by the most practicable route
down and up the canyon slopes to the
Twentieth Ward bench, two streets
higher up the hill than before Ito the
city cemetery, through that sanctuary
to the reservation. As before, protests
from residents poured, streamed, flooded
the City Council, and all the promises
the railroad company could make and
all the argument its promoters could
adduce had apparently little effect on
the suspicious North Bench mind. The
streets and alleys committee (who by
the way have exercised a degree of
patience and forbearance quite rare in
public men and which called forth ex-
pressions of thanks and appreciation
from Mr.. Young last EVENING" made
periodical visits over the route, listened
to the arguments of parties if they were
interested in any conceivable way and
were about giving the solution of the
question up in despair, when the COM
pany changed its tactics somewhat, and
without relinquishing the request for the
bench right OF way, asked to go
along Second South street, the occu-
pancy having been relinquished by the
Cable Tramway Company, to whom it
had been previously granted. This un-
looked for movement on the part Of the
company was again promptly met with
the usual remonstrance. Then came
mass meetings, public discussions, and
right of way on Second South for a
freight railway of any description. The
company, with the selfsame pluck which
characterized it from the beginning,
yielded the point and the street, only to
ask the right of way on still another
route-the one il has now received
franchise for. This route connects with
the D. & F. g. Railway on Fifth West
street, and runs along Eighth South to
Seventh East, then dropping down to
Ninth South and running along that
street to Tenth East, crossing the City
Canal, and thence running northerly on
the most practicable grade successfully
to First South, the city gravel block and
the military reservation. Among the
conditions imposed upon the company
by the city .are the following:
No train shall be run at 3 greater
speed than eight miles an hour; bril-
liant light must be attached to the cars
after nightfall; the track must be laid
on the established grade; crossings at
intersecting streets, to be made of plank
twenty-four feet wide in streets, and
eight feet wide in sidewalks, must be
laid and kept in repair ut the expense of
the company; tax of five mills on
every passenger carried after June, 1887.
must be paid, or in lieu thereof en- ines
to convey gravel from the beds to any
street intersected by the railroad in any
quantity less than 200 loads per day,
are to be furnished. The franchise is
void il not accepted in sixty days, and
the road must be built within nine
months.