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 OP THE ROUTE 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 he through one of the passes leading from the plain of Los Angeles to the 
valley of Salinas river. The practicability of these passes is 3 r et to he determined, and an 
exploration is now being made for this purpose. With the information now possessed, the 
Bay of San Francisco must he 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 “New Pass,” 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 he 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-chay-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. R. S. Williamson, is the most 
favorable in this part of the Sierra Nevada. Its summit is a nearly horizontal prairie for 74- 
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 may be 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 Rio Grande and the Gila, will probably reach supplies at moderate depths. Deep common 
wells may be successfully resorted to. 
