Railway Routes in Alaska 



173 



The custom-house statistics show that 

 $3,272,411 worth of goods were carried 

 to the Alaska Yukon from the United 

 States in 1905, which probably represents 

 between 15 and 20 thousand tons of 

 freight. The cost of the freight on this 

 tonnage amounted probably to over 

 $1,200,000 to the consumer. This sum, 

 allowing three-quarters for operating ex- 

 penses, would pay probably 5 per cent in- 

 terest on the cost of constructing 200 

 miles of railway, or half the distance 

 from tide-water to the Yukon placer 

 camps. I call attention to this to show 

 that, even with the present condition of 

 development, railway projects are not 

 entirely visionary. 



The important mineral-bearing area of 

 Alaska falls into four provinces, most of 

 which are undergoing rapid development 

 (see map, page 181). These are (i) the 

 Pacific littoral, (2) the Seward Penin- 

 sula, (3) the Sushitna-Copper River 

 province, and (4) the Yukon-Tanana 

 region. The Pacific littoral lies for the 

 most part on tide-water (see map, page 

 164), open throughout the year, and 

 needs no railway system to develop it, 

 though there are many places where 

 short lines will eventually be built. The 

 Seward Peninsula, which in 1906 pro- 

 duced about $7,300,000 worth of gold, is 

 accessible to ocean-going vessels for fully 

 a third of the year. These, with the 100 

 miles of railway already in operation and 

 other projected lines, afiford means of 

 communication which, while it leaves 

 much to be desired, yet is sufificient to 

 enable large mining operations to be car- 

 ried on. 



THE NEW YORK TO PARIS RAILWAY 



Plans for the construction of the so- 

 called New York to Paris Railway, 

 across Alaska and Siberia, have found 

 some earnest advocates during the past 

 few years. Though this project rather 

 falls outside of the present discussion, 

 yet it deserves mention, if for no other 

 reason than for the publicity it has re- 

 ceived. Alaska can obviously not be 

 connected with the United States by rail 



except by a line through Canadian terri- 

 tory (see map, page 176). When the 

 new Canadian transcontinental railway, 

 known as the Grand Trunk Pacific, which 

 is to reach to the Pacific coast in latitude 

 54°, is completed, a branch could be ex- 

 tended northward, which could reach 

 Fairbanks with 800 to 1,000 miles of 

 track. While such a line would not en- 

 counter any serious obstacles, yet many 

 watersheds would have to be crossed, 

 and as it would run transverse to the 

 larger drainage channels, there would be 

 heavy expense for bridges. A railway 

 from Fairbanks to Cape Prince of Wales 

 would require at least 600 miles of track. 

 It is proposed to tunnel Bering Strait, 

 which is 54 miles from headland to head- 

 land, but is broken by the Diomede 

 Islands, lying about half way between 

 (see map, page 176). While tunnels of 

 the length required are probably not an 

 impossible engineering feat, they are so 

 far beyond anything of the kind as yet 

 attempted that it must be a bold group of 

 capitalists who would undertake it. Fer- 

 riage across the strait, difficult in sum- 

 mer because of the strong northerly set- 

 ting current, is impossible during seven 

 or eight months in the year because of 

 the ice floes. As the strait seldom freezes 

 over, communication without a tunnel 

 would be entirely interrupted. 



This intercontinental railway project, 

 divested of its glittering generahties, 

 amounts to this: The first 1,000 miles of 

 track would parallel the Pacific seaboard 

 and reach a point less than 500 miles dis- 

 tant from tide-water by a more direct 

 route. An additional 600 miles of track 

 would be needed to reach Bering Strait, 

 and this, too, would be in direct competi- 

 tion with deep-water navigation for at 

 least a third of each year. Furthermore, 

 to connect the two sides of the strait, as 

 proposed, would require two tunnels 

 more than twice as long as any hitherto 

 constructed. The Siberian part of the 

 route would appear to have even less 

 justification, for here 1,500 to 2,000 miles 

 of unsettled and unproductive territory 

 would have to be traversed. 



