The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1908-03-21
DROVE GOLDEN SPIKE
FINAL CEREMONY MARKS COM
PLETIoN OF NORTH BANK
RAILROAD.
Special Train Of Ten Coaches Makes
Run From Vancouver to Sheridan's
Point, Where Spike Was Driven
Banquet and Speeches at vancou-
yer In the Evening.

yer In the Evening. :
Vancouver, March 12.-At historic
Sheridan's point, on the Columbia
river, where fifty-two years ago sol.
diers defended the block house
against Indians, the golden spike on
the North Bank road between Van
couver and Pasco was driven yester-
day. The special train from Vancou-
yer carrying 600 citizens of the towns
along the line, ran over the new road,
The excursion was given by the
Whooper-Up Club of Vancouver, as
sisted by the officials of the railroad.
On the way up several bursts OF
speed were INDUCED to show the 600
excursionists what the new line is
capable of.
Cliffs Is Division Point.
The excursion train is the first pas
senger to make the trip from Vancou-
yer to Lyle, rs miles. A regular sched-
ule is in effect fro mPasco to Lyle,
LA miles, over which a mixed" runs
daily, but only work trains have OPP
Grated over the remainder of the line.
Cliffs, thriving Columbia river town
about equal distance from Pasco and
Vancouver, is the division point.
A fifteen minute stop was made
at Camas, the first station. Fifteen
minutes were given to Washougal,
and where a few more guests Joined
the junketers. Stevenson was reached
just after 1880 and the train reached
Lyle at 1:15, after a twenty minute
stop at Bingen.
In the evening a banquet was
served, at which cOngratulatOry
speeches were given.
The North Bank line, as it will
probably be designated for all time,
cost $40,000,00O and represents the
highest type Of railroad construction
yet achieved in any country. From
it's eastern terminus at Pasco, Wash,
to it's present western terminus at
Vancouver, Wash, it is to all intents
as level as a table and as straight as
string. It's gradients, what few
there are, are so Insignificant as to
present no material obstruction to the
easy movement of traffic; its infre-
Quent curves are of such little i'm
portance that they seem merely grace
full embellishments to break the
monotony of an airline road. The
stiffest grade in the whole 230 miles
is 2-10 of one per cent, while the
sharpest curve is scant three per
cent, scarcely worth mentioning.
Cost Not Spared.
Where the constructors genius ap-
pears most, however, is in the disre-
gard for the, stupendous natural OBJ
stacles encountered. Omonious noun
tains doomed before the engineers;
morasses of more than usual difficulty
had to be crossed because they could
not be skirted; above all, flinty cliffs
stood in the way. No effort was made
to avoid costly tunnels by making de-
tours that would have heightened the
finest bridges are being erected over
the Columbia and Willamette, Stats
tics of which are quite beyond the av-
erage Imagination. These will not be
ready before July, so that the trains
will have their terminus at Vancou-
yer until that time and passengers
will be ferried across the Columbia
and be transferred to street cars.
These two bridges will cost 49,.
10000.
North Bank engineers estimate that
close to 100000 cubic yards have
been moved, of which between 6,0OO,-
600 and 100000 were solid rock,
mostly basaltic. This is more earth
than Uncle Sam has moved on the
Panama canal since he took charge of
1t. The rate of cutting and filling has
been nearly 100000 cubic yards a
month. Fhe blasts it took to break
down some Of the basaltic cliffs en-
countered were among the largest yet
used in railroad construction any
where. Some of them crumbled to
mere debris boulders larger than the
Alaska building in Seattle.
Grade Is Easy.
From Pasco to Vancouver the line
is entirely level or down Hill. Yet
from Vancouver to Pasco the raise is
only 307 feet.
Back in 1894 was the greatest fresh
ct the Columbia has put forth since
the West was settled. The grade of
the North Bank line is ten feet above
the extreme high water mark of '94,
SO that washouts need never be ap-
pretended.
The monster Cape Horn tunnel is
1000 feet long and is bored through
solid rock. Should the North Bank
line ever be double tracked, no delays
or changes will be necessary; the tun-
mel was made large enough to accom-
modate two tracks.
Labor Leaders to Confer.