The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1906-02-23
/ TRIUMPH OF ENGINEERING
Dream of Road Across Great Salt
Lake at Last Realized.


Lake at Last Realized.
When the first survey of the Union
Pacific Railroad came out of the
mouth of Weber Canyon, little
southeast of the present city OF Og-
den, 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 engi-
neers of the survey, for they dis
cussed little, though perhaps more
jocularly than seriously, the feasible
ity of driving straight across the
lake, or at least across its eastern
arm. OF course they gave it up me
idea then was most chimerica1. There
was neither the genius in finance
bold enough to undertake such stu
pendous work nor the traffic to war
rant such an expenditure. It may
be doubted, too, if there was engl-
neering 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 six
ties was not without it's fruit. The
idea remained the dream, the hope,
the faith of one of the young men
employed in building the Central Pa
cific. William Hood was of that
company of across the isthmus" plo-
neers who have made their mark and
their fame in the development OF
California and the Pacific slope. AS
he worked his way up to the RESPONSE
BILE 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. Hunt
ington, the master of the Pacific
railroads, was inclined to think that
it might be done; but the time was
not yet ripe, the traffic was not heavy
enough to justify the expense, and
such enterprises were not easy to
finance. But after Mr.. Huntington's
death there came to the head OF
Southern Pacific affairs a man whose
financial ability and holiness
matched the Engineering skill and
pluck of Mr. hood. In Edward II.
Hartman Mr.. Hood found a man who
sympathized with and believed In MS
plans, and who was able and Wiling
to provide the money.
The times mad changed. The day
of great and bold enterprises mad
come. The 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 in
terest on the investment could be made
to be told to go ahead. Traftic mad
increased to such point That opera
ton over the steep and crooked old
line was becoming constantly more
and more vexatious and difficult. Re
lief must be had Financier agreed
with engineer as to how it could De
obtained, and the result Is the LII
Gin Cutoff" as it Is called, the line
that runs from Ogden straight over
Great Salt Lake, which it crosses ON
a trestle nearly twelve miles long
and on twenty miles of ILL.," and
over the desert flats, 1902 miles in
all, to Lucin, where it rejoins the
old road. 1t is a cutoff" indeed.
Forty-three miles in distance are
Topped off, heart-breaking grades
avoided, 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 interest on the whole cost twice
over.-From Oscar King Davis's The
Lucin Cutoff' in the Century.