The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-12-24
THI RAILROADS Oh UTAH.
Information Regarding Surveys
for the Pacific Lines.
SALT LAKES FIRST ROAD.
The Utah Central Reached the City
in 1870.
II LAKES FIRST ROAD.
Other Lines and When They Were Built
The Gravity Road from Alta to wa
satch-The Union Pacific and
Rio Grande Western.


Sixty-two years ago a company was or
ganized in Baltimore with capital OF
$500, 600 to construct a railroad for gem
eral purposes of transportation. Rail
roads had been built before in the
United States, but not for general trans
portation purposes. The first line was
constructed in 1926, was four miles in
length. cost $40, 600, and was used for the
purpose of carrying granite. The second,
built in 1927, was nine miles in length,
and was coal road down in Pennsyl
vania. Both of these were drawn by
horses.
Railroads for general purposes of trans
portation We're not, however, begun un
til 1928. Then the Baltimore & Ohio
company built twelve miles, con-
struction on which was begun July 4 Of
that year. Three years later passenger
railway was in operation between Sche-
nectady and Albany, n. Y. and carry
ing 3S7 passengers a day. This was fol-
lowed by a road from Richmond TO Ches-
terfield, Va. and another from New Or
l..
from that time dates the period OF active
railroad building in the United States.
These roads were primitive, there was
neither comfort nor speed, the cars were
open ones and the people were afraid of
them. Had any one, at that early day,
when the original blue laws were in
effect, ventured prediction that a rail-
way would ever he constructed upon
which a speed Of twenty miles per hour
would be attained he or she would no
doubt have been put out OF existence.
As an evidence of this an authority on
railroads at that time says: ''Nothing
can do more harm to the adoption of rail-
roads than the PRONUNCIATION of such
nonsense as that we shall see locomotive
engines travelling at the rate of twelve
miles per hour
Hon. Thomas Allen of st. Louis, in an
address delivered in this city. said:
'sWhile president OF the Missouri Pacific
IN 1852 had the honor TO introduce the
frst locomotive here that ever crossed
the Mississippi. 1t was called Pacific
No. 3, and l purchased it at Taunton.
Mass, and had 1t sent around by sea to
New Orleans, and thence brought UP the
river on a steamer. Meyer, whom / saw
recently hauling a big tree from Olive
street to Missouri park, hauled this loco
motive by horsepower from the river UP
Chestnut street and out to the machine
shops. The passenger cars came the
same way in pieces from Troy. \. Y,
and were put together here. This was
the first practical start for the Pacific.
''The next year the first division OF the
road was opened thirty eight miles, and
that was the first piece of railroad con-
structed west OF the Mississippi 1t was
during the very next year, 1854, that the
first railway from the east reached the
Mississippi; that was the Chicago & Rock
Island railroad at Rock Island. Both of
these lines now stretch far away to the
west and connect themselves with the
Union Pacific; with whose leading char
acteristics and terminus on the Pacific
coast you are familiar. The system has
rapidly spread Itself out, most largely in
Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota. |
Texas and Nebraska, until now one
fourth III, 500 miles, in length of the
whole railway system is west OF the Mis-
sissippi, while the population q 800 ,00O)
is between one-sixth and one fifth OF the
whole.
whether it has brought rain or not
upon what were supposed to be arid
deserts, vet there are those who think it
has, and who find electricity in every rail.
and who believe that by 1t the crooked
paths have been made straight, the
valleys raised up, the hills cut down, and
the desert, in truth made TO blossom
as the rose.
II was early in the .sfifties' when the
Trail came into general use. Many OF the !
roads prior to that time using the old flat |
bar iron for track. This iron was laid |
upon sleepers which rested upon the ties !
spiked thereon, while the raIl was spiked |
to the sleeper. One can imagine the COM /
forts obtained in a line like this In the |
winter contraction would cause the bar
rail TO break and twist, while expansion |
in the summer produced a ike result and |
snake heads'' appeared in wonderful |
pTofusion along the entire line.
Hundreds of readers of the Columbian |
HERALD can recall the time when the Pa /
cifc railways were projected; the
original surveys made away back in the |
fiftieg; the voluminous reports issued |
by the government in 1857 regarding
those surveys embellished with many
high colored engravings, while the letter
press described the wonderful country
the proposed line was to traverse. How (
many of them ever expected to see that [
road built?
Others will recall that day in 1869 when
the fruition of the hopes of thousands of
people were reached, when the golden
spike was driven at Promontory and the
last rail was laid. which completed a
belt Of iron reaching from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, and the height OF railway