CHAPTER XL 
Railroad Practicability of the Snoqualme Pass. 
By referring to the lucid and able reports of Captain McClellan, in charge of the western 
division, and of Mr. Tinkham, one of the civil engineers of the exploration, the following facts 
will be found established. 
The pass is about 3,500 feet above the sea. The Yakima valley, leading to it, is broad and 
open, affording an excellent railroad approach. The pass must be overcome by tunnels or 
inclined planes, or a continuation of both. There are two places for a tunnel: First, one from 
the level of Lake Willailootzas, about 3,000 feet above the sound, of 4,000 yards (2.27 miles) in 
length. Second, by a tunnel from the level of Lake Kitchelus, 2,38S feet above Vancouver, 
11,840 yards (5.73 miles) in length. The first tunnel has an eastern approach of 18J miles, with 
a grade of 48.4 feet per mile. The second tunnel has an eastern approach of 1SJ miles, with a 
grade of 15.2 feet per mile ; both on the supposition of uniform grades. 
Captain McClellan’s survey and barometric profile only extended some three miles beyond 
the divide; and for the remainder of the route, of which the report of Captain McClellan gives 
the general features, I am particularly indebted to the winter trip of Mr. Tinkham for the 
information we possess as to grades and practical difficulties. From the pass to the Snoqualme 
falls the distance is forty-five miles. On the supposition of uniform grades, the descent is 59.8 
feet per mile for the short tunnel, and 48.4 for the long one. Uniform grades in such country 
never occur in practice. It is the opinion of Mr. Tinkham that the most difficult grade of the 
short tunnel will be eighty feet to the mile, and for the long tunnel sixty feet, and these grades 
only for short distances; and in his conclusion I place great confidence, from the ability and 
judgment he has shown in the discharge of his duties throughout the exploration. 
If the short tunnel should involve but eighty-feet grades, and only for some fifteen miles, it would 
be better to have additional locomotive power for this small portion of the route, than to be at the 
expense, in money and time, of the long tunnel. Should the use of the short tunnel involve 
inclined planes and a large expenditure of stationary power, it will be a question simply of cost, 
as between it and the long tunnel, as to which shall be adopted. The worst aspect of the case is 
the practicability of the route only by using the long tunnel, and to this single point I shall con¬ 
fine my remarks. 
Before entering upon this subject, it may be well to advert to the foot trail referred to in both 
the reports of Captain McClellan and Mr. Tinkham. It connects Lake Kitchelus with a tributary 
of the Snoqualme river, and may furnish, though passing over a more difficult and impracticable 
country, a shorter line to pierce the mountain. In Mr. Tinkham’s winter examination, the 
Indians who accompanied him reported that pass to be better, and more free from snow, than 
the pass examined. It is more obstructed by fallen timber, and cannot be used with horses. 
There has already been a large experience in tunnels, both in Europe and this country. The 
average cost of tunnels in England has been about <£35 per lineal yard. Shafts are sunk from 
four to six hundred feet. In this country the tunnels on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad cost 
$260 per lineal yard. A tunnel is being constructed in Massachusetts, under the Hoosack 
mountains, 24,100 feet long, passing under a country ranging from 300 to 1,700 feet above the 
line of the tunnel, and the three shafts varying from 300 to 800 feet in depth. A tunnel is 
now being built in Hungary, ten miles long; and one under the Alps, devised by Mr. Maus, and 
