Seven Pacific Railways

When in 1869, only ten yeais ago, the completion of the Unieii and Central Pacific railways was celebratod with enthu-iasm throughout the country, it .was believed that another transcontinental line would never be needed or thoughtof. So vast as undertaking had the fint line seemed ihat it had been pronounced, by able and experienced men, to be utterlv impracticable ol construction and ofoperation if construeted; the men who engaged in it were ridiculed ascrazy theoritits, and tromendom f'aith and courage, backed by the National Troasury, alone brought the great work to eompletion. What a wonderful change in those brief tenyears! Already no less than six other linea are in progresa of construction to )he waters of the Pacific Coast. To enutuerate : 1. The Canadian Pacific, to extcnd froro u point west of' Ottawa, via the north coast ot Lake Superior and Winnepeg, crossing the Kocky Mountains at Yeliowhead I'a.-s, and ending at Burranl Inlet, about latitude 49. Several hundred miles are under oonstruction f'rora Lake Superior west, and work has also commenced on the Pacific Coaat. It is possible that the entirelineof 7750 miles frotn Ottawa may be completed within five years, thoegfa onger time will probably be required. 2. The Northern Pacific, to extend from Üuluth and St. Pino, Minn., west between the46th aud43lh parallels, to l'uget Sound, a di.-tatici' af about 1800 miles. Including the St. Paul branch of 136 miles, over 800 miles are already constructed, and work is progresing from both ends with the detertnination to have the line completed within five years, perhaps in three. 3. The UuioD and Ceutral Pacific line, from Omaha to San Francisco, 1916 miles, starting about latitude 42 and ending at 38 - the pioneer line, whose wonderful succes.s has called all the other projects into existenee. 4. The Utah and Northern. ThU road (of three feet guage), which is practically a íiranch of the Union Pacific, starts from the Union Pacific at Ogden and is already built over 300 miles north into Montana. From a point about 200 miles from Ogden it is intended at au earlyday to build an extensión north westerly to the Coluuibia Iliver and the rlch regions of Oregon and Washington Territory. The distancefroin Ot'den to the Uolumbia Itiver is about 600 miles. The Oregon Kailway and Navigation Company in which Mr. Gould is said to bo largely interested, opérales scvei al lii""'""1 ...:tes uf laiiwiiy aua steamerlinesf'rom the Pacific Coast inland, and will forui part of the northern trans continental line inconnection with the Utah and Northern and the I riion Pacific. This route will be a cotnpetitor of the Northern Pacific on the Pacific coast, although it will be considerably longer, and, mereover, will have ita own abundant source of support in the rich miuing, gn.zing, ag ricultural and tiniber regions of ldaho, .Montana, Oregon, and WaaMnfttoo. Tbere ls little doubt that this line will be built, and the rapid extensión of the Utah and Nothern within the past yearor two, makes it not improbable that less than five years will see the new route opo tothe Northern Pacific Coast. 5. The thirty-fifch parallel route. A very important combinatiou of Dterests, effocted within a few weeks pMt, bas made certain the speedy construction of this long proposed Hoe. In 1866 the Atlantic and Pacific Kailroad Company, was chartered to build a road from St. Louis to San Francisco, and Congress endowed it with a gen erous graDt of 53,000,1)00 acres of land. The road was built to Vinita, Iridian Territory, 364 miles, and has there restul. Menntime the company became iusolyent and was roorganized, ander bettcr ausptces, as the St. Louis and San Francisco. Tliis company has a branch leaving what va hitherto the main line at Pierce City, Mo. , 290 miles west of St. Louis, and which is now being extended and isntarly completed due west - and considerably north of the old line to Vinita - to Wiohita, Kansas, where or near to where t will juin a lx anch of the Atchinson, Topeka. and Santa Fe. This lat ter oompany, which represents almost uulimited Boston capital, and is characterized by remarkable energy and enterprise, ha now a line nearly completed from Kansas City to the Rio Grande river at Santo Domingo, about 900 milos, besides several hundred miles of branches in Kan-as and Colorado. At the Rio Grande the old thirty-fifi.h parallel line s reachcil. The St. Louis and Sun l(raneieo company, which owos this line and ita land grant. has nnw entered into an agreemerjt with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, by which the two companies become joint and equal owners of' the franchises and rights of the old Atlantic and Pacific, company, and agree to build the line from the Rio Grande to the Pacific. The name of the new coiupany will be tho Atlantic and Pacific, railroad, Western División, and each of the two partica to the agreement will own its stock to the amount of $12,500,000, which they agree not to sel) for a period of twenty years. The paiticulars we obtain from tin original document of agreement. The line i.s to have two termini. San Diego atid San Francisco. The route is very favorable boto for construction and operation on account of extremely low grades and the fact that it will nut be interrupted by snows. We are assiircd that the line will be completed te the l'acific within two years, which would indícate a speed of construction hitherto anparalleled. The eastern termini of this lir.e will practically be St. Louis and Chicago, the fermer reached via St. Louis and San Franoiaoo, and the lal ter via the Chicago & Alton, with which the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe has madea close working ment, and by other linesfrom Kansas City to OfaÏMgO. ti. The Southern Pacific or 3-d paraUel ine. This line is already in operatioo froin San Francisco euHward f'nr more thatl 900 miles into Arizona, and by the close of oèxt year will probably have reaobed BI l'n-ii, New Mexico, os the Rio Graoda, and tbe MexK'an border. Herc the plan seems to bo to meet it with the exteösion ol' the (alvestoo, Htrrisburg nd 'an Antonio, cciiipletÍDg a line to .New OrV.vis and the i uil joast, and with tbe Texasand Pacific road The laiter isalready in operatioo Irom Texirkana, Texas, - where it forma iüiimate conneetion with the iSr. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern fnr the north and ea-t - south and we.-t L35 to Fort Worth, besides a división from Marshall, Texas., east to Shreveport, La., ol' 40 miles, and one Crom'lVxarkana we.ttu Sbermao, 150 miles. The Shreveport line will ultiuiately be extended to V ieksburg, fornUDg part of the direct line f'rom tbe middle Atlantic States to the l'acific. The time which will elapse bef'ore the junction of' these two important roads witli the Southern Pacific is cffected is not definitely .stated, hut it is not likely to be many years. A late report is totheeffect that thu Gould, Iron Motintain, Texas & Pacific, and Southern Pacific interests have united iu order to push tlirough the connection without delay. 7. Still another route to the waters of tbe Pacific is in progresa. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (Jompany, not content with pushing west to San Dieao and San FrancMpo frqm the Rio (ïande, wiil also e intinue southward to the Mexiean line soiuewlure west of L1 Paso, pecbapR tnkiag in Tuuson, Arizona, en nulc. AttheMexican line it will bemetby a Oúmpany ur;an ized in the saiue interest, and ealled the Sonora Limited, which will build FOUthward 250 miles to Guaymas, on the tíult'oi' California, througb the fabulou.--ly rich mining región of Oíd Mexico. Tbe contract lus already been let for the building froBQ (iiaymas tiorib about 100 miles to HernjO sillo, and not tuany years will pass before tbrough .sleeping cars can runliom Chicago and St. Louis, through MisHOUti, Kansae, Colorado, New Mexie , Ar lona and 01(1 Mexico, to the Qulf öf Californi in lalitude 28. It is not probable tbat bifore five ytars have passed all these va-l enterpii-e, of wbicb we have given bal B liasty outline, will be accomplisbed. The niiud is bewildered iu imagining the revolutiou in geography, population, industry and looiaty whicb tbey will cause. Tbey will belt the continent with bands of steel fiom the far north almost to the tropjes, embracing, between Iatitude53 tolatitude28, doIomUud l'ó degress of' tbe earth's great eircle. and and bridging many times the western em pire lying between the MiMMsippi iliver and the Paeilic Ocean. Ccnturis of the world's labor before the era of looomotives did not effect the material and moral rosults which science, pterprise, and capital will achievo in the western part of our Western Hemisphere before the inlant of day is five ycars oíd.