The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-01-11
A CHOICE OF ROUTES.
Why the Great Northern May
Change Its Plans.
GREAT SAVING OF DISTANCE.
Cherry Valley Route Nest Direct,
Avoids Risks of shore Line and
Has Good Business.

The chief subject of speculation in re-
gard to railroads is now the probable route
by which the main line of the Great
Northern will reach the Sound. The work
of construction has not yet actually begun
between the Sound and the mountains,
simply because most of the country
through which the road is to pass is yet in
An entirely wild state. The first requisite
is roads ever which TO take in the material,
outfit and supplies. As far up as Sultan
transportation can be done by the Sno-
hemish and Skykomish rivers in fiatboats
of light draft, and the steamer Monte
Cristo, which was built for the naviga-
ton of shallow streams, has been chartered
for this service. Above Sultan the Sky
komish is not navigable and about 500
men are engaged in building a corduroy
road, camps being established at intervals
of eight miles. Nothing but corduroy
will serve the purpose, for the heavy loads
which will be hauled for the work of con-
struction would soon reduce road made
of the soft alluvial soil Of the valley to a
yeritable quagmire.
Thus the route can be changed without
the loss of any money already spent on
construction, for the original route would
be adhered to as far west as Sultan, which
is at the confluence of the Sultan with the
Skykomish river. If the new route is
adopted the road would leave the Skykom-
ish valley about that point and swing
off in southwesterly direc-
ton until it reached the Snoqualmis
valley at Cherry valley, on the. north line
OF King county. From there 1t would run
almost due west until it struck the north
end of Lake Washington, then run south
west to the west side of Green lake, and
join the Seattle d Montana about Ballard.
1t is reported that a survey has already
been completed from Sultan to Lake
Washington.
Several points are made in favor of this
route. The principal one is that it will
will save haul of about forty miles and
about an hours time on through business
for Seattle, as, this city being the objective
point, the road would strike directly for it
in general southwesterly direction, in
stead of running northwesterly down the
Skyhomish and Snohomish and then
southerly along the Seattle & Montana
line. In short, the road would
follow one side of triangle instead
of two. The through traffic would also
avoid that part of the Seattle & Montana
line which is most liable to blockades by
slides and washouts-the shore line be-
tween Ballard and Everett. This part of
the line will require great expenditure of
money and labor before it is secure against
such Interruptions, and it is not likely
that, where sharp competition enforces
good time and the certainty of running on
it, the traffic of the main line would be ex-
posed to such chances.
BY adopting this route the Great North
ern would 60 through the heart of the Sec
ton which is likely in the next decade to
furnish the heaviest tonnage in the dis
trict tributary to Seattle. The Sno-
qualmie valley is, next to the
Duwamish and White river valleys,
probably the most thickly settled in the
Sound country. The farmers of that dis
trict have been crying out that the people
of Seattle are paying exorhitant prices
for vegetable from California, while the
produce has to be left to rot in their fields
for lack Of good roads over which to bring
1t to market. A railroad tapping the
lower Snoqualmie valley would give these
farmers an opportunity to bring their pro-
duce cheaply and quickly to market, and
would induce them to increase the acre.
age under cultivation. The next valuable
point in favor of this route is that it strikes
Lake Washington, the shores of which
are destined to be the manufacturing
suburbs of Seattle, and which will be the
harbor in which the grain and mineral
products of the state will be loaded on
board ship whenever it Is connected by
canal with the Sound.
These are the arguments urged by those
who believe that Engineer Stevens was
serious when he said that the abandon
ment of the Snchomsh valley route was
under contemplation.