The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-30
BRIDGING THE LAKE 4 WONDERFUL FEAT Southern oacific's New Cutoff
 at Last Complete. PET PLAN OF HUNTINGTON  At the Most Picturesque Point on the Island Sea Plans Have Been
 Made for a Summer
 Resort.
PET PLAN OF HUNTINGTON

Ogden. Utah, November 29.-The Ogden Luein cutoff of the Southern Pacific rail- road Is 1O2 miles in length 72 miles on land and 30 miles on trestle work over the waters of Salt lake. It presents prac- tically level route except for a short dis tance on the west end, near Lucin, New, where a slight grade Is encountered. The use Of the cutoff, as stated, will throw out of transcontinental traffic the old line from Ogden to Luein. Nev., around the north end of Salt lake. This stretch of track 147 miles in length, is one of the most difficult and expensive in the liar riman system. It's maximum grade over the long Promontory hill is 10i feet to the mile, and helper engines are necessary. The original scheme for the cutoff was a pet plan of the late Colis P. Hunting ton. and under his directions Chief En- gineer Hood prepared the plans for the great engineering feat. The plans were perfected after MT. Huntington's death. and the surveys were approved by E. H. Hartman when he obtained control of the line.
 Actual work on the cutoff was com menced in March, 1902. and thus the inn mense task has been completed in about twenty months. The last pile was driven during the last week of October; the track was completely connected and the flooring and railing of the long trestle was com pleted' but work on the fills at either end of the trest1e will continue for some time, and it probably will be several months before the cutoff is incorporated In the overland system for all traffic The cutoff runs from Ogden west for fifteen miles over level country before reaching the lake shore, then crosses the east arm of the lake, a width of nine miles to Promontory point. and thence ninteen miles cross the west arm of the lake. and thence across the Salt Lake desert to Lucin, Nev.
 crossing the cast arm of the lake will pc an almost continuous fil-in supporting the trestle. Near the middle of this will De 6OO feet Of open trestle work, left for the waters Of the Bear river, which flows into this arm of the lake Across Promon- tory point runs i've miles of solid road ped, and therc difficult work was en- countered. q of 5000 feet in length through the sa l and rock of the abrupt blun being necessary. On this point, one Of the most picturesque around the in- land sea, station will be maintained and surveys have been made for sum mer resort. Across the west arm of the lake is stretch of eleven miles of tres tle work with a fill-in approach at either end of four miles.
 Tn accomplishing the work of spannng the lake one difficulty was encountered across the east arm in the sinks" or set ting of the fills and trestle work This was caused by the salt from the flow of Bear river having collected for centuries over the bottom of the lake and formed an insecure foundation for a depth of nearly hundred feet. It took thousands Of tons of rock and piles without number to reach the bottom of the lake proper but this was finally accomplished, and the gradual spreading out and packing of the fills resulted in q permanenI rncl5 he'd