The Hill line describes a horseshoe curve on one side of the river, following the waterway. The Harriman line, on the opposite side of the river, tunnels through the projecting tongue of rock.
One of the most notable of these early achievements was the Takasaki-Naoyetsu line, which was commenced originally to facilitate the transportation of constructional material for another road. The engineers were baulked by the Usui Pass, and this gap was left open, the two sections on either side of the range being opened for traffic in 1887. The intervening division was undertaken subsequently, being deferred from time to time in the hope that an easier location than had been plotted would be found. Though the engineers searched the mountains diligently, they failed to secure any improvement free from heavy work, and at last the mountain division was taken in hand. The grades were so steep, however, that the rack had to be introduced, the Abt system being selected. The engineers found this section particularly trying, as they had to drive no less than 26 tunnels through mountain spurs in a distance of 7 miles, while the deep clefts in the mountain’s flanks called for massive masonry bridges. This work, however, was completed in 1893, and it served to provide through communication between Tokio and Naoyetsu.
It is doubtful whether the iron road ever has made such a phenomenal growth in other parts of the world within a short time as has characterised its development in the East. In China there was not a mile of line in 1877. To-day over 10,000 miles of railways have been built, are under construction, or are projected. In Japan the network has grown from 18 miles in 1872, to 5,141 miles at the end of the 1910 fiscal year, of which total 4,634 miles belong to the State, and 597 to private companies, while the former at that date had 2,790 miles in hand, and private enterprise about 160 miles.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE CONQUEST OF THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS
Although the first trans-continental railway across the North American continent tapped San Francisco, this was not the route that was advocated in the first instance. Public fancy was inclined rather to the suggestion that the Pacific should be gained more to the north, at the estuary of the Columbia River. This feeling was fostered, no doubt, because that country loomed more prominently in the popular eye, as a result of the famous expedition of Lewis and Clark during the years 1804–6, wherein they trailed across the unknown corner of the continent and gained the Pacific via the Columbia River. The operations of the Hudson Bay Trading Company and its numerous rivals also had served to familiarise the public with this great territory.
It is strange to observe how, directly Stephenson had demonstrated the possibilities of the steam locomotive, imaginative minds drew pictures of stupendous railway-building achievements across great continents, broken up by unscaled mountains and unfathomed broad rivers, as if the building of a track for the iron horse was the same as a child building toy houses with wooden bricks. As a result the North American continent became criss-crossed in all directions by railways—on paper—and it was a good thing for the country at the time that these schemes never got any farther than that stage.
Since Huntington succeeded in his first great effort, the country has been spanned by a round dozen lines. Four systems, however, stand out pre-eminently. These are the Northern Pacific and the Great Northern, two lines which, in the first instance, were built after the pioneer manner, and the Western Pacific, and the Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Puget Sound roads respectively, which were constructed upon experience gained in connection with the earlier lines, and therefore in accordance with modern ideas.
The Northern Pacific undertaking suffered strange vicissitudes. It was suggested, discussed and anticipated for years before it was ever taken in hand. It was a born engineer and practical railway-builder who drove the scheme finally to a definite conclusion. This was Edwin F. Johnson, and his words carried weight because of his great engineering reputation and the soundness of his views. He waged the agitation so relentlessly that the Government at last embarked upon a unique enterprise. A series of expeditions were inaugurated, known as the Pacific Railway Surveys, and the men for this task were drawn from every department of the public service. Their task was to report upon the practicability of threading the great mountain barriers to reach the western sea. The results of their efforts were set out in some thirteen large volumes, and they constitute possibly the most exhaustive work ever carried out in regard to the plotting of railways through a country. But, like the majority of such Government outbursts, they represent so much wasted money: they were so valuable that they became forgotten. The surveyors and railway-builders of to-day prefer to work out their own destinies.
Then came the Civil War, and that ruled any railway-building enterprise under the ægis of the Government completely out of court. But Johnson was not to be dissuaded from his enterprise. He laid his scheme before many prominent railway men in the country, and they decided to carry out the work. Johnson was deputed to act as chief engineer, and was urged to locate the line.