246 Reminiscences of 



at less than one fifth of the cost of the former. Still 

 despite all obstacles, the reward was promising. 



The iron rails could not be obtained readily enough 

 to keep up with the grading, and the latter stretched 

 out hundreds of miles beyond the track-laying, and 

 from Promontory where the final rail-laying met, 

 graded tracks stretched otit in a total of several 

 hundred miles beyond the place of meeting, still 

 existing monuments of lost labor. 



The government aid to the building of the Union 

 Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads across the con- 

 tinent was one of the most broad-minded and com- 

 prehensive plans ever conceived by any government, 

 and at a period of financial condition when most men 

 would have shrunk from undertaking the great perils 

 involved; but it was carried through in the briefest 

 period in which any similar enterprise of that character 

 was accomplished, uniting the Atlantic and Pacific 

 oceans by a direct route of 3300 miles. The govern- 

 ment at that time was at an annual expense of over 

 six millions of dollars paid out for wagon transporta- 

 tion to its military stations through the wilderness, 

 which railroad carriage largely diminished, besides 

 advantaging the rapid subjugation of hostile Indians 

 which imperilled settlements. The building of the 

 great Transcontinental route also encouraged the 

 rapid building of man}^ auxiliary roads, followed by 

 extensive settlements and the increase of new indus- 

 tries. Many objections were made from various 

 quarters to the advancement of government funds 

 and credit, yet every dollar advanced was paid up 

 with interest in full. 



The enormous advantages of railroad building in 



