The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-03-30
Great Northern Man Building a
Number Of Extensions.
BUNCH OF CASH TO BE SPENT
Twin Cities Will Come in for a Share
Of This Layout; Money Will
30 ,-,as Tf 3f
!. Be, Distributed,

IT,. Hill is busy in New York and vicin-
| ity trying to sell the ore lands to the
United States Steel corporation the
| Hill engineers are good and busy out
| in the northwest. The Portland & Sc.
| attic railroad is we'll known PROPOSE
ton, both in the west and in the east.
The railroad people are watching it,
wondering whether or not it will real
ly take the city of Portland from the
Hartman diadem. On this the Great
Northern will spend about $l2,5OO,O
cash, the Northern Pacific spending the
rest of the money to complete it.
The Great Northern will spend about
SO 100000 on an extension to make a
new connection with the Burlington be-
tween Sioux City, Iowa, and Omaha.
This extension involves the building of
~ miles of new road and is import
ant as indicating the trend of co-opera-
ton between these two parts of the Hill
system.
About $4,500,O00 is to be spent on
the V. V. & f. and the Washington &
Great Northern, building jointly the
lines across the British Columbia bor-
der from Washington. This is suppos-
ed to be largely coal proposition. An.
other branch line in the same country,
not yet begun, will cost about 81 ,2OO,-
600. This whole project is thought by
some to be the western terminus of
new line that will ~ - 40 trans
continental traffic of Victoria, to COM
pete with the Canadian Pacifc's new
line to Spokane. Tho ''~~.-- = not ac-
cepted in railroad circles here, as the
road is not being laid down like trunk
line, but like good local tariff rail
way.
Two small spurs run north from st.
John, N. D., to the Canadian frontier.
and perhaps across it. O"n &C them is
supposed to be aimed at Brandon, and
is intended to take Canadian Pacific
amidships, so to speak, The whole
amount of building in this section is
probably covered by $l,5OOOOO.
An important 2OO-mile line is to be
sent through to Billings, Mont, to con-
meet with the Northern Pacific and Bur-
lington at that strategic point. The real
object of this extension is not known.
1t looks little like another scheme in
the general proposition of making traf-
fie more easily interchangeable between
the three systems, and does not seem
ito have much transcontinental import
ance., The cost will probably be about
81, 800, 900 OF more.
About $l,25O,O00 will probably be
needed to complete the company's dou-
ble-tracking contract between Seattle
and Everett. A retaining wall will be
needed most of the way, which brings
the cost up tremendously. Contracts
are let.
About $l,3OO,00O or less will complete
two or three small feeders under way
In Montana. r' '',os are designated
merely to hold the traffic of the road
against new roads, the Milwaukee and
|other arrivals.
Elevated work in the twin cities is
ESTIMATED at various values. Probably
ST Csc, 900 is liberal for it.
In ali, the program at present on the
surface calls for the expenditure of
over $32,OOO,0O0 on lines in the north
and the northwest within the next two
or three years. 1t is not possible even
Ito guess what new projects Mr.. Hill
is contemplating that are still beneath
the surface
/ A lot of talk that comes out of the
west with regard to invasion of the.
Canadian northwestern prairie lands
may be, forgotten as soon as heard. Hill
may 60 into the Canadian northwest
with a feeder or two, but it is believ-
ed here that he has no extensive plan
for Canadian invasion such as is talk
ed about.