The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1891-09-19
GREAT NORTHERN EXTENSION.

It The following from the Fort Bsntor
d River Press, written by a member OF thu
editorial staff of that excellent journal
contains facts OF such vital import t.
a the people of Northern Montana that thu
g TRIBUNE feels it cannot devote space tt
better purpose than in reproducing the
article in it's entirety:
C "The tracklayers are at work on the
Great Northern extension just west OF
1 the Two Medicine river, in the Blackfeet
: Indian reservation, and the work of con
J, struction is being pushed with all the
vigor hat can be gotten out of several
3 thousand men under intelligent direc-
D ton. When this road is finished
through to the coast we are of the
opinion that there will be a very marked
, change in transcontinental rates, and as
, the completion Of the road is now not
only a certainty, but an immediate fact,
the evidences being all in favor of the
conclusion of the work within less than
two years time, the managers of the
older Pacific incl will have to begin to
reckon with this new factor in the trans
! portation world at once. If Mr.. Hill re-
tains his strength, and he is now in the
very prime of life, he will be able to die
tate terms to the Union, Southern and
Northern Pacific managers which will
very materially change the rates on all
transcontinental freight.
"These remarks are prompted by a
knowledge of the %stupendous advantage
which the new line will have over its
competitors and which have been often
mentioned in the letters of travelling cor
respondents and detailed by wandering
railroad men who have passed over the
new line on journeys of business or
pleasure, but the mere casual statement
of these gentlemen that a one per cent
grade is the maximum required for cross,
ing the summit of the Rockies does not
carry with it the full force of what is in
volved in that stupendous fact, Another
thing, whether this statement has been
discussed by men skilled in the operating
departments of rival lines it has been
generally disbelieved or passed by with
a smile of incredulity. A maximum
grade of n per cent mean that a rise
of $3.50 feet to the mile is the highest
hill on the road. 1t also means that a
single engine on the Great Northern can
pull about twice as much freight to the
summit of the Rockies as "a single engine
OF equal power can pull to the summit on
any of the OLDER roads. This is the fact
which the Goulds, Huntingtons, and
billions will have to reckon with when
the Great Northern's representatives go
into the Transcontincntal association
two years hence and take a hand in max
ing through rates.
'The Northern Pacific barely missed
finding the Marias pass through which
the Great Northern crosses the range. In
1879 when the preliminary surveys were
being run west of Bismarck, the first line
came west through Montana north of the
river, but the engineers failed
to find the slow spot west of Two Medi-
cine and so the final location lay along
the Yellowstone.
"A recent number of the Northwestern
Magazine contained an article in which it
was asserted that 1.-THE pioneer line" that
s the Northern Pacific, "took the best
through the mountains, and that
he Great Northern has taken the second |
oest and that that was all there was to it, I
to the reports of unusually low Z
which have recently been finding i
heir way into public prints, and proving ,
he truth of the assertion made above l
the Great N%Orthern's claims for V
superiority were not believed by other '
abroad men. A recent run over the o
Inc by a representative of the River "
'ress found the fact to be as stated, u
ound the road bed, bridges and steel to "
Ne of the most substantial character, and '
ound that the engineers had subordin- d
ted other things to the one of para u
Importance; that is low grades, !"
had either ~excavated unusually deep :"
uts or had made a detour whenever it .
'as necessary to keep the maximum y
rade down too. S0feet tothe mile. On the !"
side of the summit, going down a
Pacific slope there are sleeper grades |.
nan l per cent; l.75 perhaps, but no. .
here on the line of the road, from st. Il
to the coast will there be auy- =
here a grade which is not materially +
Sceeded by the grades on any of the =
her Pacific lines %
San interesting state of things" is 81