White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1925-05-29
new BRANCH MAY Be
MAIN Line OF n. P.

According to a news story publish
ed in last Sundays Seattle Times,
the survey now being made by
Northern Pacific engineers for a re-
ported branch line from Connell to
Priest Rapids may develope into the
main line of the N. p. across the
state. The Times story, in part, says:
The Northern Pacific Railway Com
pany intends soon to relocate it's main
line across the state of Washington
for the double purpose of reaching
the proposed new industrial city at
Priest Rapids and reducing by about
seventy-five miles the length Of the
present haul between Seattle and
Spokane. This is the report that
reached Seattle yesterday through
private channels of communication
from New York. The report was re-
garded as .well-founded in Wall Street
according to these advices.
The New York report confirms and
supplements similar reports that
reached Seattle from news sources
separated by the width of the CONT
nent to the effect that the Northern
Pacific had arranged to survey
new line west from Connell to Priest
Rapids, distance of about SIS miles.
This report was published in the
Wall Street Journal, one of the ma
TONS most conservative business
newspapers, last Monday. At Yak-
ma announcement is made that the
survey already has begun and that.
certain construction material has ar
rived at Council.
h Officials of the Northern Pacific in
Seattle last night disclaimed knowl-
edge Of the construction plan revealed
by the New York report. However,
it is recalled that Charles Donnelly
of st. Paul, president of the Northern
Pacific, gave out following visit to
the Pacific Northwest few months
ago, a carefully guarded statement
to the effect that the Northern Pa
cific was considering the cons'ruc-
ton of a branch line from Connell or
some other nearby main line point to
give the road an entrance to Priest
Rapids.
The advices that reached Seattle
from New York yesterday have their
deepest significance in the fact that
they coordinate the reports that the
Northern Pacific is surveying a line
from Connell west to Priest Rapids,
with the reports of past years that
the Northern Pacific as soon as the
financial situation would justify the
step, would straighten out and short
en- its main line across this state,
placing it on physical basis COM
parable with the Milwaukee and the
Great Northern main lines.
Would Cut Off Loop.
The Northern Pacific main line be-
tween Seattle and Spokane is now
3ee miles long, making a long loop
from Ellensburg down to Pasco and
tken upoagain to the north, striking
1.-THE direct line route around Council
and Ritzyille.
The now reported purpose of the
Northern Pacific is to cut across tho
base of this great loop with line
via Priest Rapids between Cornell
and Ellensburg. This " would make
the new main line distance across the
state about 324 miles.
The Milwaukees mileage between
Seattle and Spokane is 305. The
Great Northern's is 33o.
Originally it was planned by the
Northern Pacific to make the shorter
line across the state by building from
Ellensburg to Ritzville, and certain
old railroad maps show such a line
jotted down as proposed" But
map of the state made for the North
ern Pacific and revised and repub-
lished only recently shows in dotted
lines as proposed" construction the
line which is now being surveyed be-
tween Connell and Priest Rapids.
Not Intended as Feeder.
According to the latest Wall street
report the line from Connell to. Priest
Rapids is not planned as mere feed
er to serve Priest Rapids develop
ment and connect it with the main
line, but will be extended from Priest
Rapids up the Columbia and north
westerly to connection with the
main line at Ellensburg, distance
of approximately forty miles, making
new and shorter route across the
state.