ROUTE NEAR THE THIRTY-SECOND PARALLEL. 27 



The length of this route from Fulton to San Pedro is 1,618 miles. 



The sum of the ascents and descents 32,784 feet ; 



To overcome which is equivalent, in the cost of working the road, to traversing a 



horizontal distance of 621 miles; and the equated length of the road is 2,239 miles. 



The estimated cost is $68,970,000 



EXTENSION OF THE KOTJTE OF THE THIRTY-SECOND PARALLEL TO SAN FRANCISCO. 



For a connexion with the Bay of San Francisco, the most direct route from the San Gor- 

 gonio Pass would be through one of the passes leading from the plain of Los Angeles to the 

 valley of Salinas river. The practicability of these passes is yet to be determined, and an 

 exploration is now being made for this purpose. With the information now possessed, the 

 Bay of San Francisco must be reached by crossing the Coast range to the Great Basin, 

 passing over its southwestern extremity, then crossing the Sierra Nevada and descending to 

 the Tulares valley. 



The best pass by which to reach the Great Basin is the &quot; New Pass,&quot; made known by 

 Lieut. Williamson s explorations. 



Descending from the summit of the San Gorgonio Pass to the town of San Bernardino, 24 or 

 25 miles distant, with natural slopes less than 80 feet per mile, excepting for 1.3 mile, where 

 the slope is 127 feet per mile, the route to the Mission and Low Pass of San Fernando (about 

 100 miles from the summit of San Gorgonio) is over a country giving gently undulating 

 grades, and in other respects favorable to construction, in fertile soil, building-stone, water, 

 and fuel. 



The San Fernando Pass is about eight miles through. Its summit has an elevation of 1,949 

 feet. A tunnel is required one-third of a mile long, through soft sandstone, 203 feet below 

 the summit. An ascent of 620 feet is made on the south side, with grades of 155 feet per mile 

 for four miles along the natural slopes, which cannot be reduced by side location without great 

 expense, and a descent of four miles of 115 feet per mile, with heavy side-cutting in earth on 

 the north side. The ascent to the New Pass in the valley of Santa Clara is now begun, and 

 with a cut of 50 feet for a short distance at the summit in drift, the summit is attained in 29 

 miles over natural slopes without side location, and with grades varying from 55 to 105 feet 

 per mile. For the space of one mile on the ascent, the mountains close in precipitously, and 

 the streams wind abruptly ; and it may be necessary here to cut two or perhaps three short 

 tunnels, from 100 to 300 feet long, through slaty granite. The elevation of the summit is 

 3,164 feet. Descending to the Great Basin, cutting and filling will be required for two or three 

 miles to adjust the natural slope to the grade west of the summit. After that, and until 

 descending into the Tulares valley by the Tah-ee-ch ay-pah Pass, a distance of about 70 miles, 

 the ground will require little preparation for the superstructure. The lowest level descended 

 to in the Great Basin is about 2,900 feet. 



The Tah-ee-chay-pah Pass, first explored throughout by Lieut. E. S. Williamson, is the most 

 favorable in this part of the Sierra Nevada. Its summit is a nearly horizontal prairie for 7^ 

 miles. The elevation of its entrance from the Great Basin is 3,300 feet, from which the 

 natural slope ascends at the rate of 22 feet to the mile for 12 miles, then at 80 feet per mile 

 for 9 miles, to the prairie summit. 



The descent to the Tulares valley is 15| miles by the natural slopes, which vary from 153 to 

 192 feet per mile, a side location in earth-cutting giving an average grade of 144 feet per mile 

 for 17 miles, which maybe reduced still further by an extension to 21 miles the Tulares valley 

 being entered at an elevation of 1,489 feet. There are two intervals of 13 and 17 miles in the 

 Great Basin where there is no water. Artesian wells here, as in the similar formations between 

 the Kio Grande and the Gila, will probably reach supplies at moderate depths. Deep common 

 wells may be successfully resorted to. 



