The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-21
WENTETHCENTUUYROMANCE
BATTLE OF THE RATL ROADS IN
THE NORTHWEST.
Struggle for the Control Of the Paclnc
Coast Natural Obstacles Overcome
and Great sums spent-The Leaders
In n Spectacular COntest-The Future.

and Great SUMS .Spent LcAucEt
In n Spectacular Contest-The Future.
The romance OF the Lost to-day. is the
story of the battle OF the railways. There
is little Of the adventurous in the present
railroad doings Of the East. 1t is a cold
business enterprise.
But once over the big river, nays the
ReuicS Of RcpieNcs, the spirit Of adventure
runs through every page. In the great
struggle for the command Of the Gulf, in
the battle of the giants for the trafic OF
the coast, men are men, not meohanisms.
In the East they say, The Pennsylvania
has done this" or THE New York Central
has lone that" and so on to the end OF the
story. Out West men speak Of Hill. Of
Hartman, Of Gould, OF Yoakum.. The
difference is the difference between the
first class machinery. exposition and a first
class fight.
The Pacific Northwest is the real centre
Of the building activity. The States OF
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and
Nevada claim more than 3 500 miles Of new
railway in immediate prospect. What this
means may be inferred from the fact that
it is more railway han now exists in the
State of Washington and is twice as much
as JneTe Is III OIckOH' AhcSC ototCo nov
all outgrown their railway systems.
Here also lies the amphitheatre OF the
most spectacular railway contest OF the day
for here James j. Hill meets E. H. Harri-
man ihethe field. Oregon for forty years
has lain fallow, bound around by the great
circle Of the Shasta Route and the Oregon
Short Line. This past summer Mr.. Harri-
man has announced that more than one
thousand miles OF railway will be built for
the opening Of O~regon-the great, deep,
mysterious desert of central Oregon.
Across the Columbia River, in Washing
ton. Mr.. Hill is building the Portland and
Seattle Railway from near Pasoo into Port
| land, about 23) miles. 1t is the most singu-
lar railway ever built in the West.
1t is to cost between SEC, 900 and S70,00t
a mile, to be built Of the heaviest steel
rail, and TO be practically a water level
line across " the Rocky Mountains. To
accomplish this feat mountains are ~levelleC
and cast into the river, huge cliffs OF solid
granite pierced with a series of tremendous
tunnels, great crevasses filled with broker
rock.
The roadbed, in fact, is being cut along
the precipitous cliffs that are the north
shore of the Culun bia River. The one
sole purpose Of this made roa is to provide
a new highway for the Northern Pacific
and the Great Northern which shall make
those roads the cheapest, and therefore
the most powerful, of the railways that carry
freight from the Lakes TO the Pacific.
There is no local traffic on the line. Or
the south flows the broad Columbia
with the Oregon Short Line but a few miles
back from its shore. On the north lie the
cliffs and the mountains.
In direct reprisal for this daring invasion
of Portland, Mr.. Hartman is showing the
Union Pacific north into Seattle, the head
quarters of Puget Sound traffic. He
has spent more than $4,000, 900 to get his ter,
minals and approaches, and intends to
carry his fight into the heart of the euemy'f
country. This line, like the last, is a
strategic railway rather than a pioneer.
Into this battle of the. mighty intrudes a
new combatant, the Chicago, Milwaukee,
and St. Paul. The country traversed by
its surveys is semi-arid in places. Com
ing into the mountains the road cuts through
the copper centre of the world, skirtfnl
the marvellous mountain OF Butte.
Beyond. il pierces the great forests. Herr
and there, throughout the thousand mile
stretch of main line. it traverses rch valleys
heavy with grain and cattle. Across th'
Columbia it runs through the home OF the
big red apple, perhaps the most distinctive
of the varied products of the garden STATE
of Washington. ~.
This is a giant project. In time it vii
probably make the st. Paul the second oi
the third largest of the railways Of the Unior
in point Of IL means the creation
of a new highway to rival the Great North
ern and the Northern Pacific.
Wyoming is coming in for a tardy recog
milton as a railway field. The United State
Government is spending many millions o
dollars on two great irrigation projects II
that State.
In consequences, the Chicago h North
western is pushing through a branch iron
Casper westward. The Colorado and South
ern has surveyors in the field running a lin
north from Denver to the Yellowstone
River. The Chicago, Burlington and Quinc.
il mapping out a new line.
Southwark the Hill lines disappear. Tha
mighty pioneer is replaced in the central ne
pion by George J. Gould. who rivals the
activities Of E. II. Hartman. The neV
Gould line is one of the most spectacula
and impressive episodes of the day.
II is designed TO be the western divisio
Of the Gould transcontinental railway, fror
Baltimore to San Francisco. 1t is a task O
huge proportions. 1t must cross the Sierra
with a line that shall be cheap to operate.
The only railway hat crosses his rang
in central territory to-day is the Centrt
Pacific, built more than forty years ago b
the California pioneers. IL climbs almoe
into the eternal SHOWS, then slides swift
down into the region Of eternal summer
A. yet the difficult parts of the new Wesl
ern Pacific are little more than surveys, bl
the reports that come out of the West ind
cate success. If the engineers finally secuI
A line through the Sierras with a maximum
grade Of only hfty-two feet to the mile IN
new road will undoubtedly revolutionize n
carrying Of through freight from Salt LAX
to San Francisco.