The eastern division of the parent system served an absolutely treeless country, though the land was among the finest imaginable for agriculture. The railway required plentiful supplies of timber, not only for its own needs, but also for those of the settlers scattered along its roads. Every foot of wood had to be cut in the far north-west lumber territory, and had to be hauled for hundreds of miles over a rival railway before it entered the territory served by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway. Considering the enormous consumption of this commodity, the money paid over every year to the rival railway in freight charges represented a respectable figure.
CARRYING THE CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE AND PUGET SOUND RAILWAY ACROSS THE COLUMBIA RIVER
Showing the huge steel bridge necessary to carry the track over the waterway.
Thereupon it was decided to tap the forests and to secure an outlet on the Pacific Coast at the same time. Although it was estimated that the 1,400 miles of track necessary for the purpose would cost about £20,000,000, or $100,000,000, it was calculated that the saving in freight charges for hauling timber would defray the greater part of the interest on this capital.
Work was commenced in 1906: on April 1, 1909, the last rail was laid, and the golden spike was driven home into its sleeper, with no more ceremony than if a mere siding had been completed, instead of a new trans-continental line, conforming with all up-to-date requirements as to grade, curvature and general standard of work.
The completion of such a project within three years was truly an epoch-making achievement, and, as might be supposed, a long string of record-breaking feats accompanied its realisation. In 36 months £17,000,000, or $85,000,000, were expended in the boring of tunnels, the erection of 20 miles of bridges, cuts and fills to fashion a new steel highway, and to pave it with 200,000 tons of rails. Some days the mechanical track-layer, with its load of sleepers and rails, advanced so rapidly that 5 miles of track were laid between sunrise and sunset.
Curiously enough, this new line was commenced from the banks of the same river as signalled the commencement of the first railway to the Pacific—the Missouri River—but at Mowbridge, a point some miles to the north. At the very commencement heavy expense was incurred in the building of a huge bridge across the waterway, which alone absorbed £400,000, or $2,000,000. It crosses North Dakota and Montana, where it was no uncommon circumstance to encounter isolated homesteads, the owners of which had to travel 150 miles to post a letter—a duty which, under the circumstances, was performed about once in 6 or 12 months.
In Montana the line drops into the valley of the Yellowstone River to cling to its banks. While the river winds in and out in an amazing manner, the railway follows practically a straight line through the valley, and for 117 miles it is one of the fastest stretches of track in the whole continent, there being an imperceptible rise. On paper it seems but a simple task to build such a piece of straight, level track, but in this instance it proved very expensive, for the river is crossed about once in every mile, there being 115 bridges in the 117 miles.
After leaving the Yellowstone River the work became more difficult, for three ranges of mountains had to be overcome. The battle with Nature, which had been fought by the Southern, Western, Northern Pacific and Great Northern railways respectively, had to be waged again.