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North and east of San Francisco are lines built and projected in all directions, leading through the valleys of the Coast Range to Humboldt and other points in the northern extreme of the State; while lines, connecting by boat at San Francisco with Oakland, Vallejo, and San Rafael, lead east and north to all the principal interior towns and valleys, and extend finally to the Oregon State line, where they join lines of railroads through the rich valley of the Wallamet and other sections of Oregon, and finally northward, crossing the Columbia river, and still on, across Washington Territory, until they reach, by direct and continuous rail, every portion of the continent from Pictou and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Boston, St. Louis, Mexico, California, Oregon, and Washington Territory, right up to the British line on the Pacific ocean, at the forty-ninth degree of north latitude.

CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD.

On the 8th day of January, 1863, ground was first broken at the city of Sacramento, California, and labor begun upon this national highway, which cuts the Sierras and Rocky mountains, spans vast plains, deserts, and prairies, and unites the Atlantic and Pacific by continu ous iron rail. In its connections it forms a chain of road across the entire continent, a distance of three thousand three hundred and twenty-three miles, from San Francisco to New York city. It is eight hundred and eighty miles from San Francisco to Ogden, at the northern end of Great Salt lake, Utah Territory, which is the eastern end of this road; from this point eastward to Omaha, Nebraska, on the western bank of the Missouri river, a distance of one thousand and thirty-three

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CAPE HORN-CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD, SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS. (Cars 2,500 feet above the American river, in the chasm below.)

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miles, was built by the Union Pacific Railroad Company. At Omaha and Chicago connections are made with this road by various lines connecting with all parts of the West, east of Omaha, and all parts of the Atlantic seaboard, Canada, and the lower British provinces.

The cars of this line do not run into the city of San Francisco, but have their terminus on a long wharf projecting three miles into the waters of the Bay of San Francisco at Oakland, in Alameda county, three miles distant, directly east from San Francisco. Large and elegant steam ferry-boats ply between these points every few minutes. At the town of Vallejo, twentyeight miles northeast from San Francisco, in Solano county, on the shore of the distant waters of the bay, is also another terminus. Large and elegant steamers run between San Francisco and this point several times each day, carrying overland and way passengers and mail to the trains which run to Sacramento and on to the Atlantic States.

The running time on these roads, forming the great overland line, is seven days from San Francisco to New York and Boston.

In the construction of this road most formidable obstacles have been overcome: the Sierra Nevada mountains, long considered a barrier over and beyond which no road could pass, have been pierced by immense tunnels, their deep gulches spanned by bridges, and their frowning brows grooved for the foot of the iron horse. The dreaded Rocky mountains yielded to science and labor, and their precipitous and stern elevations were climbed, and their rugged peaks flung into the torrents and gulches below. The greatest altitude on this line from San Francisco to New York is on the

summit of the Rocky mountains, at Sherman, in Wy oming Territory, on the Union Pacific road, 1,365 miles east of San Francisco. This point has an altitude of 8,242 feet above the level of the sea. The highest point on the Central Pacific road, from San Francisco to Ogden, is in the Sierras, two hundred and forty-three miles from San Francisco, at Summit, and a few miles west of the eastern State line of California. At this point the altitude reaches a height of 7,017 feet above the level of the sea.

This great national highway in its course passes in a northeasterly direction from San Francisco, through the States of California and Nevada and a portion of Utah Territory, until it reaches Ogden, in Utah Territory, a little north of Great Salt lake. At this point the road runs almost due east, passing through the southern side of Wyoming Territory for its entire length, and through the entire length of Nebraska, following the course of the Platte river, to Omaha; thence along the southern side of the State of Iowa, and through Illinois, to the city of Chicago, on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, where it joins the great network of railroads spreading over the entire country south, east, and north of this point.

This great continental highway was begun and its construction vigorously prosecuted during the internal war in America, from 1861 to 1865; and throughout all that critical and eventful period received the fostering care and stimulus of the national government, and the people on both sides of the continent took the deepest interest in its success, and the States and Territories through which it passes aided it financially in a most liberal manner. To the two companies building

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