The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-04
IA DAYS TO DAWSON.
TINT WILL BE THE SCHEDULE OF

| IHE UHIII fASS d. UhON ROAD.
Remarkable Speed and Success i'm Rail
Road Construction In AlasiSa-BrIug
ing the Kiondike Gold Region clos
to New York -Dificulty of the Work.
On May 81, 1898, the silence of the ap
proaches to the White Pass of the Chill
cat mountains was broken by the ex
plosion of tons of giant powder, anC
one thousand laborers, armed with bal
and barrow, drill and dynamite, pushed
out from the head waters of Lynn ca.
nal, leaving two shining lines of steel II
their wake. Other railroads have con
quered greater heights, and spannet
wider chasms, but for rapidity Of con.
| struction in the dead of an Arctic win
ter, over an almost insurmountable
mountain range, the White Pass & Yu-
kon railway must ever stand in consplc-
uous pre-eminence.
At first the wiseacres smilingly nod
ded their heads and whispered
Scheme; Skagway has seen her best
! days. and there are town lots for sale"
AS the grade neared the granite wall a
mile high, and the SHOWS filled every
cut and canyon, even the hardy pack
ers" said that the construction gang
must surely tie up until spring, but the
indomitable officers and engineers were
not built on that plan. From ten to
forty feet of snow was demoved, thu
and a train pulled to the summit, twen-
ty and four tenths miles from and
twenty-eight hundred feet above the
starting point, in less than nine months
from the day when the first line peg
was driven.
In the spring of last year President S.
H. Graves arrived In New York. He
carried the sole possessions of this Arc
tic thoroughfare, the charters from the
English government granting right of
way over British territory, from a point
near Lake Bennett to Dawson, and
from the United States government over
the strip of American territory lying
between the sea and the internationa
boundary line. Armed with these doc
uments Mr.. Graves started for Alaska,
arriving in April. 1t seems incredible
that in so short space of time i'm
mense quantities of railroad material
could have been purchased and shipped
three-fourths of the way from New
York to the North Pole, and that the
same weeks should witness the organi-
cation of as splendid corps of civil en-
gineers as ever sighted a sextent or
made war upon nature-yet such is the
fact.
The general name covering the whole
system is the white Pass & Yukon
route, but this Is merely caption. and
covers three distinct charters. From
Skagway to the international boundary
line. twenty-eight miles, the road will
be officially known as the Pacific &
Arctic Railway and Navigation Compa-
ny" The majority of this stock is
held by Americans, or al. least in the
name of Americans. The next division,
which is now under rapid construction,
crosses British Columbia, and Is to be
called the British Columbia Yukon
Railway Company" The last division
will traverse the Northwest Territory,
and is to be known under the tite of the
British Yukon Mining, Trading and
Transportation Company The stock
covering the British divisions is mostly
held in London and Montreal.
The road has been carrying freight
and passengers as far as Glacier sta
ton, about five miles from the summit,
for several months. During February
the receipts of the freight department
alone were thirty-seven hundred dollars
n day, and those of the passenger de-
partment six hundred dollars Indeed,
since the first of January, the receipts
from the fifteen miles of completed
road have equalled the pay roll expendi-
ture, including a construction gang Of
between one and two thousand men.
Nav that freight and passengers can
be landed at the top Of the dreaded |
pass, Mr. Gray anticipates that the re-
,eipts will be doubled.
Yet this fine showing Is not obtained |
by reason of exhorbitant rates. Before
he railroad was projected the pack
ars" We're charging sixty cents hun
lred pounds to the summit, with no
guarantee for safe delivery. The rail-
way charges two cents hundred
pounds and insures against loss and
lamage. While this seems ridiculous
y low rate. Mr.. Gray laughingly
pointed out that their charge for fif-
cen miles was the trans-continental
ate for a haul of 1896 miles between
Iew York and San Francisco. I'VE
ave-" said he, hundreds of tons of
reight waiting transportation to the
Interior. With present facilities we
annot handle all that is presented but
ust as soon as our new locomotives ar
i've. which have been specially con-
tructed for mountain work, we shall
and freight on the head waters of the
Yukon twelve hours after it's arrival In
kagway." He pointed out of the win
ow as he spoke, to a long line OF
reight cars, containing an indescriba-
lie tumble of timbers and machinery.
NO" said this keen young traffic
manager, in answer to a query, that
not the wreck of Barnums circus, but
our great river steamers in transit, I
mock down. They are the equals in
yerV reSpect to the best on the MiSsip- ,