THE PROGRESS OF THE PACIFIC RAILROAD.

Southland Times, Issue 1052, 6 November 1868, Page 3

THE PROGRESS OF THE PACIFIC RAILROAD.

("Alta California") The cars of the Central Pacific? Eailroad raa to Cisco, ninety-five miles from Sacramento, in May of last year, and were there arrested until the 18th inst., first by the unfinished condition of the summit tunnel, and afterwards by the snow, which for a long time to a depth varying from twelve to twenty feet on portions of the track. The stoppage of the cars, however, did not prevent working on the eastern slope of the mountains, afid mnch grading was done and track laid, so that when on Tuesday last the iron was put down to make the connection at Cohuru, fifty* miles of additional road were at once ready for usej and on Wednesday the cars run through to Eano, 134 miles from Sacramento, and 16 miles from Virginia City. The Union Eoad has been completed 600 miles west from Omaha, so that 754 miles of rail on the Great Pacific Eoad are now in running order, and the gap of, staging is 970 miles or thereabouts, for portions of the route are not yet located, and distances can, of course, not be precisely known until the road has been surveyed on the line as finally fixed. From Beno to Big Bend of the Tuckee is 33 miles ; to Humboldt Lake, 75 ; to Oreana, 104 ; to the Big Bend of the Humboldt, 175 ; to Eeese Eiver, 225 ; to Salt Lake, 500; to Echo Canon, 600; and to Green Eiver, 650. If the two companies advance now with equal speed they will each construct 484 miles, and will meet 16 miles west of Salt Lake. The Eastern Company, however, has been building with much more rapidity than the Western, and has already made its contracts for grading to Salt Lake, so that the probabilitie* seem to be that the junction will be made 100 miles this side of the City of the Saints. The Union Company has promised to complete 300 miles this year, and has already made nearly 50. It is advancing at the rate of a mile and a half every day. This extraordinary activity of the Union Company has made it necessary for the Central to resort to the most vigorous measures, and a newspaper report says that 5000 tons of iron are to be imported across the Isthmus at an extra expense of 20dols per ton, so that the work may advance as rapidly as possible. The expense of building a road in such haste, in a desert couutry, at an elevation varying from 40G0 to 6000 feet, far from water and timber, is not less than 20,000d01s per mile, so that 53 miles demand 1,000,000d015, and 400 will require 8,000,000d015, a considerable sum even for those who get the largest subsidies. Presuming that both companies can raise money as fast as they need it, we may estimate that each will lay a mile and a half of tract per day for the next 150 working days, or 450 miles, and this would leave at the end of the year a gap of 520 miles. They promise to do better than that, but such promises are not trustworthy, and 450 additional miles for this year will be satisfactory. A stage can make six miles an hour easily fov 20 hours out of the 24, or 180 miles per day; so that the 978 miles can be made now in five days, and at the end of the year there ought to be only three days of staging. The cars should make 350 miles per day, so the time from Sacramento to Omaha, 754 miles in the cars and 970 in stage, should be less than eight days. Prom Omaha to New York the distance is 1550 miles, and the time about four days ; and from San Erancisco i to Sacramento the distance is 125 miles, and the time eight hours. With every additional hundred miles of rail, about nine hours time are saved in the trip ; and in December next, if 450 miles are finished this year, the mail time between the Western and the Eastern Metropolis of the Continent will be reduced to about nine days. That will be highly satisfactory.