The Story of the First Trans-Continental Railroad | Page 3

very correct and interesting account of the scenes he visited. In it he says, "There would be no difficulty in the way of constructing a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean *?*?*?* and the time may not be so far distant when trips will be made across the continent as they are now to Niagara Falls to see Nature's wonders."
To just whom belongs the credit of being the first to advocate a railroad to the Pacific Coast is in dispute. No doubt the idea occurred to many at the time they were being introduced and successfully operated in the East. The two items referred to seem to be the first record of the idea or possibility.
About the same time, although the date is not positively fixed, Dr. Samuel Bancroft Barlow, a practising physician of Greenville, Mass., commenced writing articles for the newspapers, advocating a Pacific railroad and outlining a plan for its construction.
His proposition contemplated a railroad from New York City to the mouth of the Columbia River. As illustrating the lack of knowledge regarding the cost and operations of railroads, we quote from his writings "Premising the length of the road would be three thousand miles and the average cost ten thousand dollars per mile, we have thirty million dollars as the total cost, and were the United States to engage in its construction, three years time would be amply sufficient *?*?*?* At the very moderate rate of ten miles an hour, a man could go from New York to the mouth of the Columbia River in twelve days and a half."
Another enthusiast was Hartwell Carver, grandson of Jonathan Carver the explorer of 1766. His proposition was to build a railroad from Lake Michigan (Chicago) to the South Pass, with two branches from there, one to the mouth of the Columbia River, and the other due west to California. South Pass received its name from being South of the pass in general use. Strange to say his "true Pacific Route" formulated without knowledge of the lay of the land was absolutely the best and the one that today is followed by the Union Pacific Railway and affiliated lines, substituting Granger for South Pass. Carver's proposition was to build the line by a private corporation who were to receive a grant of land for their right of way, the whole distance, with the privilege of taking from the public lands, material used in construction, with the further privilege of purchasing from the United States Government, eight million acres of selected lands from the public domains at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, payable in the stock of the Company. His road was to be laid on stone foundations and to be equipped with sleeping cars, dining cars and salon cars. His ideas as to the cost of the work were far too low, but outside of this he was seemingly inspired. At the time he was writing, 1835, there were seven hundred and ninety-seven miles of railroads in operation in the United States. Passenger coaches were patterned after the old stage coach, the track iron straps on wooden stringers, yet here he was outlining what today is an accomplished fact. A railroad with stone ballast from Chicago to the South Pass (Granger, Wyo.) one branch diverging from there to the mouth of the Columbia, (Portland, Ore.,) the other to California, (San Francisco and Los Angeles, Cal.,) traversed by trains comprised of sleeping cars, dining cars and buffet cars. The Union Pacific and its connections.
Carver spent the best years of his life and what was in those days an ample fortune in endeavoring to further his project. The great opposition to his plan arose from the proposed diversion of the public lands and the stock feature, neither Congress nor the public taking kindly to the idea of the Government giving lands for stock in a private corporation.
A third proposition was fathered by John Plumbe of Dubuque, Iowa, who suggested at a public meeting, held at his home town in March 1838, that a railroad be built from the great lakes to the Columbia River. His plan contemplated an appropriation from Congress of alternate sections of the public lands on either side of the right of way. The company to be capitalized at one hundred million dollars, twenty million shares at five dollars each. Twenty-five cents per share to be paid down to provide a fund to commence operations and subsequent assessments of like amount to be paid as the money was needed until the full amount had been paid in. One hundred miles to be constructed each year and the whole line completed in twenty years.
All of these propositions were more or less visionary and advanced by men of theory with little or no capital. They had the