Omaha daily bee., 1909-05-09
The Empire Which the Road Serves

80, What this reconstruction has done for the earning power of the
road may be reflected in the fact that Hartman paid the government
virtually $6O.0OO,OOO at auction for the road and today its capital
stock is valued at $685. 600, 600. Its annual gross earnings far exceed
the amount Mr.. Hartman paid for it.
What this reconstruction has done for the vast empire stretch
ing out from the Missouri river to the Pacific coast may be reflected
in the boundless prosperity of the towns, cities and states along its
line. Communities have been planted and developed and enriched,
real estate and farm values have been multiplied, industries have
been established, streams have been harnessed, power plants con-
verified from natural resources that before this IRA of railroad in
cial and industrial influence of the physical reconstruction of the
Union Pacific upon the country it traverses.
Mr.. Hartman bought the road from the government November
l, 1897, at auction sale in Omaha. The road was bankrupt. 1t owed
its roadbed had deteriorated and its condition a 81 bad that moth
ing except complete reconstruction could save it.
Hartman employed Horace G. Burt, then with the Northwe
ern, for president. and Mr. Burt took with him from the North
western j. B. Berry. 1t was not for his ability a S a financial manager
that Hartman wanted Burt. Hartman was the hnancier; he could
take care of that end Of it, He was not concerning himself first with
the earning power of the road. He knew that in It's old condition it
had very little earning power, as earning power of railroads goes.
What Hartman wanted and what he got in Burt was a great railroad
engineer, and Burt, got an able lieutenant In Berry. The mission
Of these men was to rebuild that road. They did it, and when Burt
left the road in January 1904 he left a new Union Pacific behind
him.
The new Union Pacific is fortytwo miles shorter than the old
line. Mr.. Burt clipped of that much in the reduction of grades and
curves. So today you travel an even 1000 miles from Omaha to
Ogden. whereas If you Travelled 1t before the reconstruction you
made l'O4s miles This. OF course reduced the time somewhat, but
the laying of a new roadbed, the best in the west, did more to reduce
time than the reduction of distance did. 1t was not safe, if possible,
to make the time over the old roadbed that is made over the new.
Superior Engineering Skill
1t required a superior skill in engineering to cut off these forty
two miles, The original engineers had done their work SO we'll that
it took thirtyhve years to find a way to reduce the distance, and
the best engineers of the world have admitted long ago, and events
have justified their admission, that it will not ever be possible to
md a way to improve on the route. The line they run was the best
that could be run. Mr.. Hartman himself. upon the occasion of his
visit a year and a half ago to the Omaha Field club, paid a stout
tribute to these old pioneer engineers when he said;
After all these years of experimenting and investigating it has
been found impossible to run a more direct general line of survey
from Omaha to ogden than the original engineers of the Union
Pacific drew. Their work cannot be improved on"
Sherman Hill and Dale Creek ridge-these were names to
eonture with in the days of the old Union Pacific. But those land
marks of a frontier railroad are gone. Yesterday you we're dragged
with nerYeraking anxiety W. q bridge 600 feet long m 126 feet
high. Today you glide smoothly over embankments which experts
pronounce the most remarkable in the world. The roadbed is as
solid as rock and as smooth as a floor. You pass over Sherman Hill
with the same easy comfort that you skirt the level, sweeping
prairtes Of Nebraska. Instead of mounting the summit of that
granite-ribbed spur of the Black Hills. you pass through a cut 26
feet lower than the summit on the old line. West of Dale Creek
through a spur of the same mountains you pass through a tunnel
$500 feet long, bored through solid granite, of which Sherman Hill
was the backbone.
Lifting huge locomotives and trains over high hills and noun
tains at immense cost for fuel and power struck Hartman, the hard
headed Yankee, as an Impractical and useless proposition. 1t
aroused his spirit of conquest and drove him to these marvellous
feats OF engineering, and his first was Sherman Hill Mr.. Burt
found 1t would be necessary TO shoot a tunnel through sherman
HILL solid granite, 1900 feet long ana os ample dimensions for the
largest load to pass through. Precautions we're taken to reduce the
grade through the tunnel, thus avoiding inconvenience from smoke
or foul air and insuring comfort to the travellers.
To get an idea of the immensity OF the work, understand first