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Chapter Page
I. The Project and its Projectors, 9
II. The Proposition in Congress, 21
III. Mostly Financial, 31
IV. Commencement of the Work, 42
V. Progress Made, 50
VI. Indian Troubles during Construction, 69
VII. The Builders, 79
VIII. Completion of the Line, 92
IX. The Kansas Division (Kansas Pacific Ry.) 103
X. The Denver-Cheyenne Line (Denver Pacific R. R.) 117
XI. History of the Line since its Completion, 123
XII. The Central Pacific Railroad, 133
APPENDIX.
(1) Roster of Officials, 141
(2) Statistics, 146
(3) Nomenclature, 148
(4) Paddy Miles' Ride, 153
(5) Copy Report Engineer in Charge of Survey, 157
Preface
For some reason the people of today are not nearly as familiar with the achievements of the last fifty years as they are with those of earlier days.
The school boy can glibly recount the story of Columbus, William Penn, or Washington, but asked about the events leading up to the settlement of the West will know nothing of them and will probably reply "they don't teach us that in our school"--and it is true. Outside of the names of our presidents, the Rebellion, and the Spanish-American War, there is practically nothing of the events of the last fifty years in our school histories, and this is certainly wrong. "Peace hath her victories as well as War," and it is to the end that one of the great achievements of the last century may become better known that this account of the first great Pacific Railroad was written.
It was just as great an event for Lewis and Clark to cross the Rockies as it was for Columbus to cross the Atlantic. The Mormons not only made friends with the Indians as did Penn, but they also "made the desert to blossom as the rose," and Washington's battles at Princeton, White Plains, and Yorktown were but little more momentus in their resu
The Story of the First Trans-Continental Railroad, page 1
by W.F. Bailey