No. 3. 



EXTRACT FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETART OF WAR, DECEMBER, 1856. 



A report is herewitli submitted from the ofBce of this Department connected with the explora- 

 tions made to ascertain the most practicable route for a railroad to the Pacific, to which I refer 

 for a detailed account of the duties performed in that relation during the past year. 



My last annual report contained a brief reference to the principal results of the explorations 

 and surveys made during that year in connexion with the routes near the 35th and 32d parallels, 

 and between the Gila and Rio Grande. The report of the officer charged with these duties shows 

 the proposed railroad line between the bay of San Francisco and the plain of Los Angeles to be 

 an eminently practicable route. It occupies the valley of the San Jose and Salinas rivers ; 

 crosses the Santa Lucia mountains near San Luis Obispo; traverses the rolling country adjacent 

 to the coast as far as Tres Alamos river, and thence, to the mouth of the Gaviote creek, 

 passes either along the valley of Santa Inez river and the Gaviote pass, or follows the coast, 

 turning Point Concepcion ; from the mouth of Gaviote creek it follows the shore line to San 

 Buenaventura, and crosses the Santa Clara plain, the Semi pass, and San Fernando plain to 

 Los Angeles. 



The distance from San Jose, near the bay of San Francisco, to Los Angeles, by the shortest 

 line, is 396 miles. Two tunnels are proposed, each three-fourths of a mile in length, one on 

 the San Luis pass, through the Santa Lucia mountains, and the other in the Semi pass. The 

 estimated cost of this route, including equipment, is $20,823,750, or about $52,600 per mile. 



A favorable pass, leading from the valley of the Salinas river to the Tulare valley, was dis- 

 covered by this party, forming a good connexion with the bay of San Francisco for the route of 

 the 35th parallel. 



The results of the survey, it was formerly stated, have greatly improved the aspect of the first 

 route surveyed between the Pimas villages, on the Gila, and the Rio Grande, by changing the 

 line for nearly half the distance from barren ground to cultivable valleys, and entirely avoiding 

 a Jornada of eighty miles which occurs in that section. The route now follows the valleys of 

 the Gila and the San Pedro rivers to the mouth of the Aravaypa, a tributary of the San Pedro, 

 discovered by this party ; continues up that stream to its source ; crosses between Mount 

 Graham and Chiricahui mountains by a very favorable pass ; proceeds in a direct course 

 through the Peloncillo mountains, and joins the former line in the vicinity of Colonel Cooke's 

 emigrant road. From this point to the Rio Grande the route lies in the lowest line of the 

 depression which characterizes the plateau of the Sierra Madre in this latitude, the mean eleva- 

 tion of which is about 4,400 feet above the level of the sea, the summit being 4,600 feet above 

 that level. 



The maximum grade upon this route is 64.4 feet per mile. The route for two-thirds of the 



