St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-01
A VAST UNDERTAKING.
The Engineering Difficulties Experienced
in Building Section Of the Cana
dian Pacific.
Hundreds of Miles and Millions of Feet of
Solid Rock Blasted Out With
Dynamite.
Trouble Experienced in Carrying
Provisions to the Thousands
Engaged on the Job.

Engaged on the Job.
The Social Relations of the Force
Hospitals for the Sick Fight
ing Liquor Sellers.
In an article in last Sundays GLOBE
headed A Trip to Manitoba, work upon the
North Shore division of the Canadian Pa
citfc line was briefly referred to, but since
then additional information has been
obtained in regard to its construction,
which may prove interesting. This
line in May last was completed by Mr..
John Ross, whose name i'll connection with
it will remain imperishable. As great en-
gneering difficulties may have been met
with elsewhere on short lengths of railway,
but it can be confidentially asserted
that in no other country in the
world have such embarrassing obstacles
been encountered and overcome as were
met with and triumphed over by Mr.. Ross
on the $50 miles intrusted to him to build
from Port Arthur eastward. To add to the
marvel the construction part of the work
was accomplished in little over year.
1t is but short time since predictions were
made that however rapidly President
Stephens and his associates might be able
to traverse the prairie within the heart of
the continent with their long line of rail,
inter-oceaIic railway communication on
Canadian territory was but a dream
to the present generation, be-
cause of the impossibility of getting
round the north shore of Lake Superior.
But with operations directed by me1 of ex-
perience, skill and energy it has been
opened to freight traffic and in few weeks
for passenger traffic, with all the luxury of
drawing room, sleeping and dining-room
cars.
THE ROADS EXTENT.
Mr.. Ross division, commenced from
Port Arthur east, may be described as
reaching considerably east of line running
north from Sault Ste. Marie. To Heron
bay, distance of nearly 200 miles from
Port Arthur. the road hugs pretty
closely the shores of Lake Superior. There
it runs inland northeast distance
of about fifty miles to Dog lake,
thence more nearly east for about 100
miles. The location of the road took
longer time than the actual work of con-
struction, and was nearly as difficult, loca-
ton occupying nearly sixteen months,
while the construction was completed in
fourteen. Engineers commenced locating
in the fall of 1882, and got through track
laying on May 10, 1885. With the ex-
ception of about sixty miles, the principal
obstacles encountered were rock of the
hardest description known to engineers
and contractors, and the oldest known
to biologists, sienite and trap
Over 2.5OO.OO cubic feet of solid
rock excavation of this description, mix
ture chiefly of feldspar, hornblende and
quartz had to be removed besides larger
quantities of rock and hardpan. The
task may be judged of by the fact that for
fifteen months 100 tons of dynamite per
month were used. The dynamite was
manufactured at the works. The opera
! tions went on without intermission. winter
and summer. day and night, controlled by
| an army numbering for the greater
part of the time not less then 10, 900
men. There were also employed from
1,50O to 2. 900 teams of horses supplemented
in winter by about 800 trains of dogs. To
house and accommodate this vast host
nearly 8, 900 buildings of various descriptions
were erected on the works. To supply this
host with food seven months provisions
had to be procured in the fall of the year.
The appetiteS of these men were so whetted
by hard outdoor work and the eager, nip
ping air that each man, it is said, consumed
on an average
FIVE POUNDS OF SOLID FOOD
per diem. To take in these supplies and
the material for the works the company
had seven steamers running and the con-
tractors five. For the same purpose fifteen
docks and storehouses were built by the
company along the shore of the lake. re-
curing 3. 900, 900 of lumber in construction.
The shore was so rough that supply roads
could not be built except at enormous ex-
pense. so the supplies and material were
loaaed at these docks and thence distributed
by fleets of small boats along the
line. And there were not only
difficulties by land but by water as well.
Michipcoten was one of the most valuable
points of distribution along the entire coast,
but it could not be advantageously utilized,
owing to the tierceness of the storms. Here
two docks were built, each in turn to be
washed away by the violence of the sea,
and here also two steamers were sunk.
Consequently the supplies had to be landed
four miles west of Michipicoten. and dis
tributed from that point instead
The labor and expense of getting in the
supplies from the coast at Michipicoten
to the railway beng constructed on the
north may be estimated by its being neces-
sary first to build a road through the rocks
seven miles in length; then lake six and
half miles long was reached, to cross
which steamboat had to be constructed.
A stretch of sixteen miles of rough noun
tain country, requiring large rock hastings
and cuttings, was then encountered. That
accomplished another lake eleven miles
long was reached. where another
transport steamer had TO be built. Two and
a half miles more interviewed between this
lake and Dog lake, where third steamer
'. f,o fl,D e
taking in the supplies fourteen miles to the
northwest angle and twelve miles to the
northeast angle of Dog lake. In this way
about 100 miles on the road east and west
was supplied from Michipicoten. On these
inland lakes six docks and six warehouses
were built. AS many as 800 derricks were
used on the works.
THE TUNNELS.
Between Nipigon and the Pic there are
five tunnels, and not less than twenty rivers
had to be diverted from their natural courses
and carried through rock tunnels excavated
underneath the road-bed. There are along
the c,ast eleven miles where in the living
rock shelf has been formed for the road
bed of the railway, averaging twenty feet
in width. The rivers crossed by the line
are spanned by iron bridges. There is some
trestle work, most of which has now been
filled in. AS an evidence OF the quality of
the work. it may be remarked that no grade
exceeds fifty-two feet to the mile, and the
curvature is generally good, only two curves
exceeding six degrees.
THE SOCIAL LIFE
of the community governed by Mr.. Ross
possessed features of interest. The vast
interests committed to his charge compelled
him to vigorous prosecution OF the whisky
L I