Michael Sol Collection

FILLING TOPOGRAPHERS' GULCH IN THE CASCADES.Hydraulic methods are here employed to make a fill 282 feet deep and 200 feet long, asserted by engineers to be the

biggest in the world.

Michael Sol Collection

........._........_---~~---------------- .........------

RAILWAYS DIVIDE' A NEW KINGDOMBy WILLIAM THORNTON PROSSER

F1WENTY-FIVE yearsago a party of distin-

T guished foreign finan-. ~ ciers, noblemen and

diplomats, a c c 0 m-panied by their friendsand notable Americanpublic men, all in

charge ?f the country's then most promi­nent raJ1way promoter, boarded a seriesof special trains at New York, Chicagoand St. Paul for the first official trip~ve.r the new Northern Pacific railway,which crossed the continent to the Pa­ci~c northwest. Gradually the rails ofthis new transcontinental system hadbeen extended westward over stretchesof waving grain, then barren plains anddes~rts, bad lands and mountain ranges,until after a distance of 2,000 miles itformed the longest link in a highwayfrom ocean to ocean. The leader of thatfamous expedition was Henry Villard,whose far-sightedness into the future ofthe \Vest had brought to realization hisdre~m for the completion of this greatproject. .

.FiIled with pride and elation at thetnumph of the undertaking, these carsbore upon the journey as they left theeast capitalists from Germany, Belgiumand other Eur.opean countries who hadcrossed the Atlantic at the call of Mr.Villard to see how he with their moneyhad conquered the backbone of theAmerican continent, and had joined thefar northwest in intimate bond withcivilization. Under the spell of the pro­mot~r's eloquence, and stirred by his en­thUSiasm, these continental investors,loo~ed forward to seeing a great, rich,fertile land that would bring the new:ailway profit and wealth from the open­Ing of the line. They thought of theirown thickly populated and well culti­vated acres at home and smiled withsatisfaction as they 'beheld the wheatfields of Minnesota.

But swiftly moving toward the realmsof the setting sun these trains left be­hind evidences of man's work in the till­ing of the soil, and the engines led theway across the bleak plains of Dakota.Soon the travelers began to wonder howthese wind-whipped steppes could sup­port a great railway system. Hour afterhour barrenness succeeded barrenness,with stations farther and farther apart,and nothing but the fervid words of Mr.Villard to steady doubting hearts.

"\Vait!" he said, and told them how infuture years these plains would be thegreat wheat producing district of Amer­ica. "But now-?" they asked.

Then came Montana's dreary sagebrush, with scarcely a habitation fromend to end, and the spirit of the foreignfinanciers °grew ,still more depressed."How can there possibly be a trafficgreat enough to pay us interest on hun­dreds and hundreds of miles of unpro­ductive track?" they queried each other,and one by one these distrustful and dis­'couraged European capitalists quietlywired back to their brokers:

"Sell Northern Pacific."Rugged mountain ranges succeeded

sandy, greece-wood stretches, and morewires went eastward:

"Sell Northern Pacific," with eachman thinking he alone was to fool theothers, and emerge from the disastrousventure with undepleted pocketbook.Ignorant was the host of the evil messen­gers that flashed from each stoppingplace. By the time those special trainsreached Tacoma, then ,the terminus,there was scarcely a man on board whostill owned Northern Pacific, panicgripped the New York stock. exchange,and Mr. Villard was financially ruined.

Perhaps if there had been rio telegraphwires to receive those fateful messagesof "Sell!" "Sell!" "Sell!" the originalstockholders would have been content tohold their railway shares, after they had

683

Michael Sol Collection

684 TECHNICAL· WORLD MAGAZINE

PREPARIXG FOR A FILL ALONG THE ST. PAUL ROAD D1 \VESTERNW ASHIXGTOX.

STEEL BRIDGE ON THE GREAT NORTHERN ACROSS THE \VENATCHEERIVER.

building. All the whilethousands upon thousandsof people were drawn fromthe Eastern states and Eu­rope to make their homesin the New West. Yearspassed, and the Northwest.found its transportationfacilities utterly inadequatefor hauling its products orhandling its commerce. Itset up a cry for more rail­ways. That cry is beinganswered, for more milesof railway are now outlinedor under construction inWashington than in· anyother state in the union.The total reaches above 2,­500 miles for the one statealone, and Oregon, Idaho,Montana and all the far

\Vestern commonwealths are boasting oftheir gains in trackage, while 4,000 milesof steel are to be laid in Western Canada.

Because of this activity the northwestto a lesser degree than any other partof the country has felt the effect of dis­turbances in money centers. Most of thebig undertakings were financed early in1907, so the work was well under waywhen October's unpleasantness came.

Seattle is the objective point whithermost of these rail lines are hastening.From Chamberlain, S. b., the Chicago,Milwaukee & St. Paul is hurrying across

seen \Vestern \Vashington, and becomeconvinced that the promises of futureyears would be fulfilled. But they couldnot realize the verity of the Villard pre­dictions, they did not know that irriga­tion would make sage-bru~h land ablossoming garden, or that the broad ex­panses they saw retreating to the horizonwould yield millions upon millions ofbushels of grain. They could not seethat all the East would call for the tim­ber of Puget sound, or that the com­merce of the Orient would reach tre­mendous proportions, nor yet that goldwould make the nameAlaska a synonym forwealth.

After the Northern Pa­cific followed James J. Hillwith the Great Northern.He completed his transcon­tinentalline without the aidof an immense land sub­sidy. His tracks \vere laidinto Seattle in 1892. TheCanadian Pacific crossedthe continent still fartherto the northward. Theopening of the OregonRailway & NavigationCompany's lines had beenabout the same time as wasthe Northern Pacific.

Then followed· a periodof inactivity in railway

Michael Sol Collection

RAILWAYS DIVIDE A NEW KINGDOM 685

Montana, Idaho and Washington, morethan 1,000 miles, to reach Puget soundere the gates of the Alaska-Yukon-Pa­cific exposition open there in June ofnext year, and likewise the Harrimanlines are building north from Portland toterminals in Seattle the acquisition ofwhich cost $15,000,600.

In retaliation for the Great Northern's

has shown signs of following the Mil­waukee's lead. Other new lines of lesserprominence are projected or under way,notably the North Yakima & Valley,partly built from North Yakima, in thecentral part of the state, to Tacoma. >

This is another unknown quantity.But the Northern Pacific and Great

Northern have not been passive. To-

GREAT NORTHERN DAM IN THE WENATCHEE RIVER,>TWO-AND-ONE-HALF MILES ABOVETHE POWER PLANT.

invasion of Canadian soil the CanadianPacific is preparing to build a line acrossWashington from Spokane to Pugetsound, thence northward to its presentterminus at Vancouver. The NorthCoast ~ailway, the enigma of the west­er.n raIlroad situation, is another line,WIth branches and trunk amounting to644 miles, building from Spokane toSeattle. So secretive have been the con­struction officials of the Nmth Coast thatthe pubiic does not know whether this isthe. Canadian Pacific in disguise or theChIcago & Northwestern, which alreadyextends far toward the Northwest, andwhich for the last two or three years

gether they are building the Spokane,Portland & Seattle, both the larger linesbeing under the direction of Mr. Hill.This jointly-owned line, more than halfcompleted down the north bank of theColumbia river, provides a water-leveloutlet from the great Inland Empire.Grain for tidewater wiII be brought downthis new artery, and eventually muchtraffic of the two main lines will berouted that way. The timber of south­western Washington will be hauled east­ward by easy grades. The constructionof this line requires some of the mostremarkable feats of modern railway en­gineering, and in parts is the most ex-

Michael Sol Collection

TOPOGRAPHERS' GULCHThe tracks would rest level if placed on top of a

pensive on the American continent, so• engineers affirm. The total length is

377 miles.In what is known as the Boundary

District, on each side of the internationalboundary line, 1\lr. Hill has been busy.Eventually he will have still another lineacross the "Rockies, from \Vinnipeg west- .ward, and with extensive terminals inVancouver, B. C. This district had foryears been looked upon by the CanadianPacific as its own particular territory,and the action of the Great Northernmagnate in deliberately invading itaroused the Canadian powers, so thatthey immediately began the financingof American extensions that mean theexpenditure of many millions.

For years 1\lr. Hill with his two biglines has been the dominating figure intransportation in all the states that bor­der western Canada. He has had mas­tery supreme, and while his rule wassometimes harsh, the name of a greatindustrial builder as well as that of atransportation king, will be his for alltime. He developed the country as he

6J6

built, for he knew his railway could notbe supported without traffic for everymile. Dozens of branch feeder lines tothe railway that bears his personal stamp,the Great Northern, attest this fact.

But this immense district is no longerto be the sole prop.erty of James J. HilI,for the Milwaukee, Harriman, the Cana­dians and other interests are fightipg forshare and share. \Vashington, as the

. most rapidly developing of the northweststates, now has 1,125,000 people. Herwheat yield is worth $40,000,000 a year,and her timber $85,000,000. Her fishmean $15,000,000 annually, her coal $10.­000,000, and her Alaska commerce $21,­000,000. Seattle, with 275.000 people.has a port commerce of $140,000,o<!J.The commerce of PuO"et sound WIthChina, Japan, Siberia, b the Philippines.South America, Australia and Europeis reaching n'lomentous proportions. Forthe last fiscal year it was a trifle lessthan $70,000,000, with exports nearlydouble the imports. A ship sailed fr~mSeattle the other day loaded solely WIthgrain reapers to be used on the ex-

Michael Sol Collection

P,\RTLY FILLED. .twenty-story building set in the depths of the ravine.

panding wheat fields tributary to Vladi­vostok. Alaska has sent to the Seattlea~say office almost $175,000,000 in vir­gm gold. .

Here, indeed, is a commerce worthfighting for. The only marvel is thatMr. Hill should have been in undisputedcontrol so long. Puget sound, nearerthe Orient by several hundred miles thant~e California ports, boasts a larger for­eIgn trade than the Golden Gate. Foryears and years to come, if not for al­ways, Alaska, with its area as big asour four largest states, must buy andtrade and travel through Puget sound.Bt~t to the railways the most attractivepnze for immediate profit is the timberof the western slope. -

After the merchantable trees of everyother part of the United States fall, for­ests will stand on the north PacificCoast. Fast as is the western timberdiminishing, decacles must pass-yes,scores of years-before it is gone. \Viththe northwest the only source of supply,all the country will need the lumber thatcomes from the tall fir trees. Mr. Hill

has remarked that an acre of timber atthe first cutting produces more freightthan an acre of wheat cultivated forforty years. President A. ]. Earling, ofthe Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, hassaid that if he can haul over his new roadto the coast four trainloads of lumber aday the entire operating expenses of theline will be paid. Under normal con­ditions the lumbermen assert that theymore than pay for the operation of theNorthern Pacific, which now carriestwo-thirds of their eastern shipments.

This annual lumber yield of Wash­ington, including the shingles that are cutfrom the cedar trees, would fill a train1,035 miles in length-enough to reachhalf the way from Portland, Ore., toSt. Paul, or from N ew York to Chicago,with a good many miles to spare. Thetimber industry of \Vashington has 100,:­000 men directly dependent upon it--itrepresents 620 per cent of the businessof the state. \Vell may great railwaysystems race into such a field. Insteadof defiance, the Hill answer is:

"There's business enough for all."

Michael Sol Collection

688 TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE..The last year has seen the greatest

struggle ever witnessed in the west be­tween an immense industry and acoalition of the transportation lines. Foryears the lumbermen had not been ableto get anything like enough cars for theforwarding of their cut. Each seasonthe shortage was more acute, with rail­ways congested 'from end to end, andgiving preference to wheat and perish­able articles as against lumber. Some­times the lumbermen ·received less thanhalf the number of cars they needed.

Then the railways last fall-before thefinancial flurry-advanced their lumberrates about twenty-five per cent. Thisvirtually cut the lumber shippers out ofthe middle states' market in competitionwith the timber from other districts.The fight against this new rate in theFederal courts and before the InterstateCommerce Commission has attracted at­tention far and wide. Even under theold· rates \Vashington lumbermen, ac­cording to their testimony before the in­terstate body, were wasting in the forestand in the mill something like $15,000,­000 worth of timber annually, of the

lower grades that they could not affordto ship to eastern markets, because of thefreight tariffs. But the coming of newroads with competition and a broaderterritory for a market will right theseconditions, it is confidently believed.

Greater popular interest centers in theprogress of the Milwaukee than that ofany of the other roads, because its com­pletion to Puget sound will precede theothers, and because its entry into the fieldcannot but be fraught with the most farreaching consequences. When the offi­cials of the road first announced theextension they set an approximate dateupon which it would reach the coast, andso far operations have been carried outon schedule time. It now seems certainthat the first Milwaukee trains will rollinto their Seattle terminal grounds be­fore the spring of next year is ended.

The Milwaukee will be one of the firstof the far western roads to adopt theuse of electricity as a motive power onan extensive scale. According to pres­ent plans, trains will be taken throughthe Rockies almost entirely by the elec­tric current, supplied by power stations

CUTTING THE ROADBED THROUGH A HILL.

Michael Sol Collection

FOUNDATION OF THE GREAT NORTHERN PLANT IN TUMWATER CANYON, THE STRUCTURE

TO BE COMPLETED BY AUTUMN.

at intervals along the line. Abundantpower may be developed, for the water­falls are plentiful through western Mon­tana and northern Idaho, and the Cas­cades may also be negotiated in the samemanner. Undoubtedly this method ofpropulsion will prove more economicaland more satisfactory in a dozen differ­~nt .ways than steam, and the success ofIts mtroduction in the mountain regionswhere grades are heaviest, and to a de­gree never before. equaled, will. be the,forerunner of elctrification for most ofthe other lines that' cross the westerntnountains.Hllndreds of thousands ofhorse power go to \vaste daily in theturbulent streams.. In ~iossing Washington the Milwau­k~e wIll. open much territory that is now~lthout intimate connection with the out­s~de world, and will develop some of thenchest portions"of the state. It crossesthe Cascade mountains and the Columbiariver basin a litt1ebelow the center line,between the· Northern Pacific and theGrea~ Northern. Track-laying is pro­gressmg rapidly, especially in the eastern

portion of the state, where the countrymuch more easily adapts itself to railwayconstruction.

Just west of the Cascade summit theroad is making what is believed to bethe deepest railway grade fill ever under­taken, either in this country or abroad.The route to be taken by the tracks downthe mountain-side is intercepted byTopographers' Gulch, 800 feet from sideto side at the required level, and :?82 feetdeep. The tracks might rest on a twenty­story building -set in the depths of the .ravine. In ordinary circumstances a

.bridge would have been built, but theapproaches were unsatisfactory for theconstruction of a span, though they lentthemselves to sluicing operations. Sowith the aid of hydraulic apparatus thisdeep gulch is to be filled to the properlevel. Sixty thousand dollars was spentin fluming, piping and machinery forthe big nozzles before a yard of earthwas moved. ,

At Seattle the Milwaukee will connectwith a line of Japanese steamships to beestablished upon the completion of the

689

Michael Sol Collection

690 TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE

new transcontinental highway. Thesewill sail every ten days for the Orient,and will provide keen competition for theHill line, the Nippon N'usen Kaisha andother services.

It may be remarked as strange that thel\Iilwaukee does not establish its ownOriental line, but under present cot1(li­tions no American concern will embarkextensively in Pacific commerce againstthe Japanese. With their heavy shipsubsidies, cheap labor and economicalmethods of operation the Nipponesehave such a tremendous advantage thatthey have virtually driven Germany andEngland out of the Orient commercially,and America is going in the same way.The foreign carrying fleet of the UnitedStates upon the Pacific has declinedforty-six per cent in the last two years.

JIlr. Hill made the experiment of es­tablishing a line of his own in connec­tion with the Great N'orthern, and builtthe mammoth freighters M illllcsota andDalwta. It proved an expensive experi-

ment. The Dakota piled up on the rocksof Japan in broad daylight, with theopen sea all about her, and the M inllesotacatches on fire or meets some sort ofill-luck every time she enters Japanesewaters. Meanwhile the Japanese boats,which are increasing at a marvelous rate,are carrying more and more of Americanexports and imports.

Mr. Harriman has laid the founda­tions for immense operations in Seattle.He will reach the city directly from thesouthward, paralleling the tracks of theNorthern Pacific northward from Port­land, and entering Tacoma through atunnel which obviates most embarrassinggrades now met by the older line. Onterminals, yards, station and other im­provements the Harriman interests willspend large sums in Tacoma-in factwork on a large scale is under way.

Broad rights-of-way, extensive tideland holdings and city blocks werebought by the Union Pacific in Seattle,and preliminary work for utilizing them

TUNNEL ON ST. PAUL ROAD NEAR SEATTLE.One of the many instances of hill-and-mountain boring in the northwest.

Michael Sol Collection

RAILWAYS DIVIDE A NEW KINGDOM 691

is progressing rapidly. Be-.J~een one and two yearsWill yet be required beforethe work is entirely com­pleted.

Follo\'{ing the exampleof Mr. Hill, Mr. Harrimanis boring under Seattle atunnel that will lead tolarge waterfront acreage int~1C northern part of theCity, where great docks areto be established for theUnion Pacific's foreigncommerce. The genius ofthe Southern Pacific doesnot plan to let Mr. Hill andthe Milwaukee divide be­tween them the trade ofPuget sound with all theworld. It is to be a strug­gle for supremacy, with theNorthwest as the battlegrOund. The Harrimantu?nel, it is predicted byrailway men, will be usecla!so by. the Canadian Pa­clfi~, and eventually theUnIOn Pacific will reach allth.e northern coast district, not stoppingWith Seattle. The timber of northernWashington and of British Columbia willlead it on.

At present the Northern Pacific andGreat Northern run into a new Unionstation in Seattle. Across the streetfrom this the Union Pacific will' erecta .general terminal building at a cost of$:J~,OOO, and nearer the water front theMilwaUkee plans a handsome structure.Purchases of these tide land grounds fort .ermmal purposes produced one of the

most remarkable booms in Seattle waterfro~t property that any city ever ex­pe.nenced, and strange to say values tothiS day have remained close to the topnotch reached in the flurry. Men whoOwned property covered by water whichthey had forgotten, suddenly foundthemselves worth a fortune from this un­expected source. Areas that had beentransferred under tax titles for a fewdollars in previous years came to beWorth thousands.

The wonderful progress of Seattlethrough all this activity, due to the ad­vent of new railways,' the discovery of

STEAM,SHOVEL AT WORK LOADING CARS.

gold in the north, the expansion of Pa­cific commerce, and the in-rush of peo­ple to Washington from every part ofthe United States, has been one of themarvels of the country. In 1880 Seattlehad a population of 3,533; in 1890, 42,­847; in 1900, 80,000, and at the presentrate of growth it will have 500,000 erethe close of 1910. Few cities in theworld have grown so fast in the last fewyears, proportionately, as Seattle.

With the idea of advertising thisprogress to the world, and bringingAlaska into closer touch with the countrywhich adopted it some forty years ago,Seattle is at work on the Alaska-Yukon­Pacific exposition, which will lastthrough the summer of next year, andupon which the city, the state, the UnitedStates, collectively and individually, andforeign countries will expend $10,000.­000. Several buildings have already beencompleted, on -the campus of the Uni­versity of \Vashington, between twolakes which lie in the city limits, and atthe close of the exposition these struct­ures will be used as permanent additionsto the University group.

Michael Sol Collection

692 TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE

One notable feature of railway build­ing in the Northwest is the extension· ofinterurban lines bet\veen the cities andfrom the -centers of population outthrough the thickly settled and richfarming districts. Within a few years allthe Puget sound country will be a net­work of interurban rails, acting as feed­ers to the main trunk lines of railway. ,The finest interurban cars in use inAmerica are on the line behveen Seattleand Tacoma. Spokane has become acenter for interurban activity, lines radi­ating to the east, south and west, andtheir remarkable success means theircontinued extension.

Canadian railway building is evenmore spectacular than that on the Ameri­can side, because of the rivalry betweenthe lines which are hurrying to the coast,and the long stretches each must cover.I t now is announced that in addition tothe Grand Trunk, the Canadian North­ern will hasten to extend to the Pacific,and the Canadian Pacific will build an­other line westward to the north of itspresent trackage. Prince Rupert, theGrand Trunk terminus, is to be a modeltown, and laid out on beautiful and ma­jestic lines by the famous Olmsteads, thelandscape gardeners, of Boston.

After reviewing the railway situationit may not be amiss to give a concreteillustration of the appreciation in thevalue of western timber lands. Whenthe Northern Pacific was built it wasgiven a land grant of each alternatesection within forty miles on either sideof its right-of-way. After holding the~reater part of its western \VashingtontImber for fifteen or twenty years it madea deal with Frederick \Veyerhauser, of

Minnesota, now the timber king ofAmerica, selling almost 1,000,000 acresof land at a little more than $6 an acre.

Now that same land is worth from $50,to $125 an acre. Thus one of the great­est of American fortunes passed out ofthe hands of the railway to which itwas given by the government, and Wey­erhauser's wealth was increased bymanifold millions. Yet at the time of

"the sale the railway was considered tohave made a good deal. If it possessedthat million acres today the increase invalue would more than equal the entireindebtedness of the road.

By the time the east turns Seattle­ward in the spring of 1909, lured to thegolden Northwest by the Alaska-Yukon­Pacific exposition, the Great Northerntrains will be lifted over the Cascaderange and dropped down on the Pacificslope by electricity.

At a cost of $1,000,000 the work ofharnessing the tumbling waters of theWenatchee river in Tumwater canyon israpidly progressing, the dam and power­house now nearing completion. Ap­proximately 8,000 horse-power will begenerated, sufficient to drive the ISO-tonengines and their trains up the range,through the Cascade tunnel and hold,back the great weight until the carshave skidded down to Seattle, Tacomaand other Pacific ports. The St. Paulwill not finish its task of harnessing thewaters of the St. Joe river in northernIdaho until after the Great Northern hasdemonstrated that the Wenatchee water­power is sufficient. In the meantime Mr.Harriman's agents are still filing onwater-power sites and planning projectssoon to be begun.