nges of the East, but such is
the fact.

Starting from Omaha, the Union Pacific follows for nearly 500 miles, or
almost half of its entire length, the valley of the Platte River. A
better route for a railroad cannot be found upon the western continent.
There are between Omaha and Cheyenne but three bridges worthy of the
name. The Platte Valley is almost straight, rising toward the west at a
nearly uniform rate of about 10 feet to the mile. Grading was
practically unnecessary, and the work of construction consisted of
little more than the laying of the ties and track. From the base of the
mountains at Cheyenne to their summit is a distance of about thirty-two
miles, the difference in altitude between the two points being less than
2,200 feet. The average grade is therefore about 68 feet to the mile,
and nowhere are the grades heavier than 80 feet to the mile. There are
heavier grades than these in the prairie State of Iowa, and the mountain
grades of a number of Eastern roads exceed those of the Union Pacific by
from 30 to 40 feet to the mile. The rise is, if not uniform, at least
gradual, and the construction of even this portion of the road required,
therefore, neither great engineering skill nor any unusual expenditure
of money. The road now crosses a plateau which extends almost to the
terminus of the Union Pacific at Ogden, and a very large portion of this
is as favorable for a roadbed as the average railroad territory of the
country.

The route of the Central Pacific presented to the engineer no great
obstacles between Ogden and the State line of California, the only
elevation of any note to be surmounted being the Humboldt Mountains in
Nevada. Their highest point, Humboldt Wells, is 221 miles west of Ogden,
and has an elevation of 5,650 feet above the level of the sea, while
that of Ogden is 4,320 feet. Upon an average the grades of this portion
of the road do not differ from those found in the Mississippi Valley.
The portion of the Central Pacific Railroad which traverses the Sierra
Nevada is the most expensive of the whole line, but the cost of
construction did not, even on this division, exceed the amount
contributed for it by the Federal Government; for the statement is made
upon good authority that a few of the leading promoters of the road
built the first western section of twenty miles with their own capital,
of less than $200,000, and a loan from the city of Sacramento and Placer
County, amounting to $55