Year: 1869

"Nobody can realize how great work this
has been until he takes the long ride of four
" or five days and nights, through dreary wastes
and unbroken solitude SO wrote our
special correspondent when he reached
San Francisco the other day by
the new railway, after crossing the
whole North American Continent, and passing
on the route through every variety of climate
and every variety of country. 1t is like listen
ing to an Arabian tale to be told of the
strange contrasts of this wonderful journey of
$500 miles. AT morning you ride through
fields of waving grain, where the reapers are
already at work, and before noon you are
shivering among the perpetual SHOWS. In
few hours the traveller passes from the valley
where mercury stands at so in the tube, to
the bleak mountain station where water
freezes every night in the year. From
Summer to Winter is only jour
ney of a score or two of miles.
Seven days travel carry us from the centers
of commerce on our Atlantic coasts, through
the fertile and cultivated Middle States, past
the busy cities of the lakes, across the wide
prairies, the burning alkali desert where water
for the engines must be carried hundred
miles, the mountain ranges and
the wild magnificent country which lies
between them, through the avalanche
region of the Sierras, up to the summit of
mountains 5000 feet above the sea, and so
down the Pacific slope to the luxuriant Cali
fornia valleys and the lusty seaport of our
Western coast. No such road as this was ever
built before, and not many such can be built
hereafter.


The grandeur of the work we think has failed
somewhat of due appreciation. We have lived
life of such fierce sensations of late years,
that great things have comparatively little
effect upon the public mind; and besides
there have been such grave doubts
about the proper building Of the road
that we were not ready to throw
up our hats and hurrah until we knew little
more about the way in which the work had
been done Misgivings ought now to be set at
rest. Competent observers have given their
experiente of travel, and there is little or no
disagreement among them. A great part OF
the road is as good as the best in America.
Nearly all of it compares fayOrably with at
least three quarters of our railroads, and there
is only a small section, laid under peculiarly
unfayOrable circumstances, WlllcH can De cdllcu
decidedly poor and uneven. But all these
defective portions are being rapidly put into
better condition. Immense gangs of Chi
namen are at work all along
the line, reducing curves, leveling
the road-bed. adjusting ties. Preparations are
making for the Winters storms. SnOw-sheds
and fences are stretching themselves for miles
along the exposed portions Of the track
Masons are at work upon culverts. Temporary
bridges are being replaced by structures of the
most approved kind. The engine factories
and car shops are turning out rolling
stock with extraordinary speed. New stations
are springing up wherever the wants of trav-
elers seem to call for them. Already one can
travel from Omaha to San Francisco with as
much safety and comfort rs from Chicago tC
New-York and we shall not be surprised if in
the course of two or three years the great
through route from ocean to ocean ranks a:
one of the best railroads in the United States
| Such certainly ought TO be its rank, and the
people will spare no effort to secure it.