The National tribune., 1905-12-21
A TRIUMPH OF ENGINEERING
Dream of u Road Across Great Salt Lake
II ut Last Realized.

oscar King Davis, in the January Gem
= turyD
When the first survey of the Union
Pacific Railroad came out of the mouth
| of Weber Canyon. little southeast of
the present city of Ogden. it found the
Great Salt Lake lying across it's path
westward TO a junction with the Central
Pacific Even at that early date some
idea of the possibilities of the later-day
triumphs of railroad construction seems
to have occurred to the engineers of the
survey, for they discussed a little,
though perhaps more jocularly than Sc
riously the feasibility of driving straight
across the lake. or at least across it's
eastern arm. OF course, they gave 1t
up. The idea then was almost chimer-
fcal There was neither the genius in
finance bold enough to undertake such
Il stupendous work nor the traffic to
warrant such an expenditure. 1t may
be doubted, too, if there was engineer
ing faith equal to the task. SO the line
was built up through the hills around
the north end of the lake.
But that light talk of the early COS
was not without it's fruit. The idea re-
NAMED the dream, the hope, the faith,
of one of the young men employed in
building the Central Pacific. William
Hood was of that company of across
the iSthmGS' pioneers who have made
their mark and their fame in the de-
velopment of California and the Pacific
Slope. AS he worked his way up to the
| responsible post of Chief Engineer of
| the Southern Pacific System, owner of
| the old Central Pacific, he never lost
sight of the possibility of that line across
Salt Lake. Coils P. Huntington, the
master of the Pacific Railroads, was in
clined to think that it might be done
but the time was not yet ripe. the traffic
was not heavy enough to justify the ex-
pense, and such enterprises were not
easy to finance. But after Mr.. Hunt
ington'S death there came to the head
of Southern Pacific affairs a man whose
financial ability and boldness matched
the engineering skill and pluck of Mr.
Hood. In Edward H. Hartman Mr.
Hood found a man who sympathized
with and believed in his plans, and who
was able and willing to provide the
money.
The times had changed. The day of
great and bold enterprises had come.
The old era of pinching and often false
economy, that let roadbed and rolling
| stock run down in order to squeeze out
an unjustified dividend, was ended. The
condition had been reached where it
was only necessary for the engineer to
show how the interest on the invest
| ment could be made to be told to go
ahead. Traffic had increased to such
a point that operation over the steep
and crooked old line was becoming con-
stantly more and more vexatious and
difficult. Relief must be had. Finan-
cier agreed with engineer as to how it
| could be obtained, and the result is the
'Lucn Cutoff as 1T is called, the line
| that runs from Ogden straight over
Great Salt Lake, which it crosses on a
| trestle nearly II miles long and on 90
miles of fiji and over the desert flats,
1912 miles in all to Eucin, where it re-
joins the old road. 1t is "cutoff'' in
deed. Forty-three miles in distance are
Topped off, heart-breaking grades avoid
ed, curves eliminated, hours of time in
transit saved. and untold worry and
vexation prevented, at the same time
that expenses of operation are reduced
more than enough to pay the interest
on the whole cost twice over.