RAILROAD PRACTICABILITY OF SNOQUALME PASS. 
119 
From the crossing of the Columbia to the commencement of the pine timber, a distance of 
ninety-six miles, the general character of the valley is wide, open, and terraced—the ground 
of sand, gravel, or loose stones; but little clay or vegetable mould; curves easy, long stretches of 
straight road, perfectly practicable. In this distance there are five points where the hills come 
close to the river, making at most ten miles of side-cutting necessary. This cutting is generally 
in earth, loose stone or trap rock, easily broken into blocks. In addition to these points, the 
last eight miles of the ninety-six will be principally side-cutting in earth, gravel and sand, the 
work light, and no very high side-slopes. In the first eighty miles from the Columbia the grade 
will be twelve and a half feet to the mile; in the last sixteen miles it will be eight and a half feet 
to the mile. 
By keeping thus far the north bank of the Yakima, the only bridges of any consequence required 
will be two over streams each about seventy-five feet in width. At some place in this vicinity 
it would be advisable to cross to the south bank of the Takima, which is here about forty yards 
wide, good crossing easily found, plenty of timber on the spot, and stone for masonry within 
twenty-five miles by water. The road now keeps to the valley twenty-one miles farther on; 
four miles beyond Ketetas, passing through an open pine woods; soil light, sometimes gravelly; 
about two miles side-cutting; grade eight feet to the mile. 
If the short tunnel be used, the road must at this point leave the valley, take a side location 
on the northern slope of the mountain bordering the valley on the south, and ascend eight hundred 
and ninety-five feet in eighteen and a half miles, giving a grade of 48.4 feet per mile in fifty per 
cent. rock. The plateau of Willailootzas, one mile long, will be entered by a curve with a radius 
of about 2,000 feet, the road passing along the north bank of the lake, with side location, in eighty 
per cent, trap rock, easily worked. This lake should be partially drained ; its shores are steep 
and of broken stone. There will be some, little difficulty in preparing a proper depot for the work¬ 
men, tools, &c., at the entrance of the tunnel. The tunnel, about 4,000 yards long, will pass 
through solid rock (silicious conglomerate,) and will debouche on the western slope, at an eleva¬ 
tion of about 3,000 feet above the sound at Seattle. The road must now have a side location 
on the mountain spur bordering the valley of the Nook-noo, in about seventy per cent, rock, 
generally conglomerate ; follow this valley twenty-nine and a half miles, then take the summit 
and northern slope of the low ridge separating Lake Mowee from the valley of the Snoqualme, 
and from that taking a spur running from the Nook-noo falls to those of the Snoqualme, reach the 
latter falls a distance of forty-five miles from the tunnel; all in side-cutting, with rocks as above. 
The grade will be 59.8 feet per mile. With reference to this stretch of forty-five miles, and 
that of eighteen and a half miles on the eastern slope, leading to the tunnel, it is to be observed 
that the grades given above are on the supposition that a continuous grade can be obtained; 'but 
it must be expected that the grade will necessarily be broken, and be higher than the estimate in 
many places. 
From the Snoqualme falls to Seattle is a distance of about thirty miles, of which the first ten 
must have a grade of 20 feet per mile, at most, and the remainder, twenty, pass over quite a level 
country. 
If, instead of a tunnel from the level of Lake Willailootzas, we consider a tunnel from the 
level of Lake Kitchelus, the case will be as follows: Commencing at the point eighteen and 
a half miles east of Willailootzas, there will be eighteen and a half miles with a grade of 15.2 
feet per mile, and but little side-cutting, through a thickly timbered country as far as Kitchelus. 
The divide must now be pierced by a tunnel 11,840 yards long, of a character similar to the 
one considered above. The grade to the Snoqualme falls will be 46.3 feet per mile; all other 
circumstances unchanged. The greatest grades will probably be 80 feet to the mile in the case 
of the short tunnel, and 60 feet in the case of the long tunnel, and both for short distances. 
A line along the Columbia river to the sound will be necessary, even with lines both down the 
Columbia river and through the Snoqualme Pass. 
