26 BOOK OF A HUNDRED BEARS 



filled up to make it." 'Till it up, then/' says 

 Harriman; ''don't let the child cry for a thing like 

 that." 



To understand this you must know that, when 

 the U. P. was built, or rather, what is now the 

 Southern Pacific, west from Ogden, it made a great 

 detour around the northern end of the Great Salt 

 Lake, necessitating heavy grades and a climb of 

 fifteen hundred feet. For years this piece of road 

 had been a heart breaker. It took two big engines 

 to take twenty cars over the grade and it was forty 

 miles longer than a straight line. But a straight 

 line meant the Great Salt Lake Cutoff, involving 

 engineering problems heretofore unsolved and 

 millions of money. Harriman had the engineers, 

 and could get the money, and the word went forth 

 that this great inland sea should no longer be an 

 obstructor of traffic. 



Ordinarily a cutoff is a simple thing. So many 

 yards of dirt or rock to be removed; so many 

 bridges, ties and rails. But here was the unknown. 

 It was proposed to bridge thirty-four miles of 

 water, to construct a double track on piles or fill, 



