Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-03-17
THE PLACERyILLE ROaD.
a Scenic Route and a Magnificent Bridg
A Fine Country.


, Wbsn will passenger trains begin 10 run
regularly TO Placervllle? is question asked
every day By Sacramentans who desire to
visit that ''gem of the foothills, u the county
seat of Ell Dorado. The track is laid, but
not yet entirely ballasted, the turn-table
has not been put in, nor the depot build
ing erected. In talking with railroad Of
fetal yesterday it was learned that trains
might be running in two weeks, and again
That they might not commence until the
middle or last of next month. II will take
some time to erect the depot buildings,
which, by the way, are to be substantial
and of modern architecture
The chief cause of the delay is the build
ing OF new piece of road around the up
per part of the ravine so as TO enable them
10 abandon the high bridge, some two and
a half miles this side OF Single Springs
The bridge is old, fill can be made one
hundred yards above, which, by digging
deep cuts at the approaches, will make a
substantial road. Several hundred men
are at work there now, their tents making
quite a little town. The hill is being
filled with excavations which will be loaded
with powder and all discharged sim
ultaneously. 1t will be q grand eruption.
and it is feared the flying boulders and de-
bris will demolish the bridge. In that
event cars will not be able to run through to
Shingle, but a transfer will have to be
made at that point until the fill and cuts
are completed, which Will take some six
weeks. This fact alone renders it impossi-
bic for the railroad company to fix upon
any particular date on which trains will
run regularly 10 Placerville
The town of Placerville is eleven and a
half miles by rail from Shingle Springs,
and has an altitude of 1900 feet. The
road from Shingle Springs to the terminus
is as crooked as that of the Oregon and
California through the Siskiyou noun
tains, and is equally as attractive in noun
tain scenery. 1t passes through tunnels,
over aud along hillsides, through fertile
valleys, belts of timber, some of the finest
orchard and vineyard lands in the State,
much of ii under high state of cultiva-
ton. Everywhere along this line of road
the eye rests upon scenery equal to that of
any foothil section in the State, nearly
every acre of which is susceptible
of the highest cultivation, and for
the production of choice fruit has
no superior. The bridge across Webber
creek, large branch of the South Fork of
the American is one of the grandest struct-
ures of the kind on the coast. 1t is over a
quarter OF mlle1n length, extending from
one hillside to another, and in the center it
is 1l29 feet above the surface of the water
below. The bridge is eleven feet lower at
one end than the other, and is a substan-
tlal structure-as strong as masonry, wood
and iron can make it. Instead of a single
track, four lines of steel rails are laid upon
it, so that if a car should Jump the track it
would be difficult to leave the bridge. In
order to further insure against casualty, a
string of timber 10x10 is bolted on top on
each side of the bridge, which renders it
impossible for an accident to happen even
should car leave the rails.
One day last week Mr.. Strowbridge and
Mr. Brown, the bridge-builder, went up
over the new road on tour of inspection.
Mr.. Strowbridge walked across on the tim
bers, while Mr.. Brown crossed to the other
side by walking down under the bridge and
wading the creek below. Mr. Strowbridge
walked out on the end of tie, and was
looking at his companion below, when Mr..
Brown called out: q say, Strowbridge
does it look very high?"
Yes" replied Mr.. Strowbridge, "you
look like a mouse down there"
The maximum grade from Shingle to
Placerville is ITO feet. The maximum
grade coming this way is so feet. Making
the lightest grades coming this way is owing
to the fact that the company expects the
heaviest hauls to be made from that end.