The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-05-17
CNew York Evening MailJ

(New York Evening Mail)
The Western Pacific railway was In
eVitable. in fact, a necessity. Years be-
fore it was projected it was a vision IN
one mans mind, but when Union Pacirc
secured control of the central division OF
the Southern Pacific and straightWay ex-
hibited a hostile policy toward the Den
yer az Rio Grande and the Rio Grande
Western, a new line from Salt Lake CITY
to San Francisco passed from the dream
stage to a reality. 1t had 10 be ouiit 10
insure the free play of the Colorado lines
Otherwise their destiny, for many years
at least. would have been concerned sim
ply with local traffic. Transcontlnental
business had to be preserved, even II at
great cost.
structed under the auspices OF the Denver
a. Rio Grande as a narrow gauge ROAD.
This was during the height of the war
of the gauges" waged by technical writers
and theorists. When the Denver q Rlo
Grande became insOlVent and later was
reorganized, the Rio Grande Western be
came independent and so remained until
acquired by the Denver * Rio Grande.
In 1899 the two boards of directors ap-
pointed conference committees. the one
TO sell and the other to buy Rio Grande
Western. The committees failed TO agree :
whereupon the Western. jointly with the
Colorado & Southern, bought the Colo
RADIO Midland. and the western oousht
also a large interest in the Colorado d
Southern.
A year elapsed, during which the Den
YER & Rio Grande board nearly decided 70
build an independent extension 70 SAT-
Lake City and Ogden. Prudent counsel
prevailed. however, and in 1900 negotia-
tions were resumed, and after some
months Denver q Rio Grande acquired
the Western. About this time George
Gould, hearing of the conferences, and
being suspicious of negotiations so long
and quietly conducted, acquired for Mis-
souri, Pacific an important interest in
Denver & Rio Grande so that Missouri
Pacific would have a friendly connection
to Denver and to all principal points in
Colorado and Utah. This is tale never
before told.
The Huntington regime had favored the
two Rio Grandes. Mr. Hartman immedl-
ateIy became an antagonist. He was bent
on routing all of the business that the
Central Pacific could stand by that line.
He only did what any other railroad man
would do in the same position. for the
sentimental side of transportation lie is
not conspicuous. The Hartman attitude
made it imperative for the Rio Grandes
to act; to get western outlet not only
for themselves. but for the three or four
lines that sent the bulk of their coast traf-
fic via the Rio Grande route.
Surveys had been made along a pro-
jected line that roughly follows the pres
ent right of way of the Western Pacific,
and engineers had been in the field for a
long time trying to find low-grade pass
through the Sierra Nevada and the Coast
Range mountains which would permit
the construction of a line at reasonable
cost. The Southern Pacific negotiateS
the Sierras at an elevation of 1850 feet.
with a maximum grade of over "a per
cent. The engineers whom President
Jeffrey of the Denver & Rio Grande
engaged for a reconnaissance a number
of years ago were successful in finding a
way through Beckwith pass and by the
canyons of the Feather river and tribu-
taries in the Sierras. Here it is that the
line now being constructed has it's right
of-way, passing the summit at an eleva-