No. 3 
EXTRACT FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR, DECEMBER, 1856. 
A report is herewith submitted from the office of this Department connected with the explora¬ 
tions made to ascertain the most practicable route for a railroad to the Pacific, to which I refer 
for a detailed account of the duties performed in that relation during the past year. 
My last annual report contained a brief reference to the principal results of the explorations 
and surveys made during that year in connexion with the routes near the 35th and 32d parallels, 
and between the Gila and Rio Grande. The report of the officer charged with these duties shows 
the proposed railroad line between the hay of San Francisco and the plain of Los Angeles to he 
an eminently practicable route. It occupies the valley of the San Jose and Salinas rivers ; 
crosses the Santa Lucia mountains near San Luis Obispo; traverses the rolling country adjacent 
to the coast as far as Tres Alamos river, and thence, to the mouth of the Gaviote creek, 
passes either along the valley of Santa Inez river and the Gaviote pass, or follows the coast, 
turning Point Concepcion ; from the mouth of Gaviote creek it follows the shore line to San 
Buenaventura, and crosses the Santa Clara plain, the Semi pass, and San Fernando plain to 
Los Angeles. 
The distance from San Jose, near the hay of San Francisco, to Los Angeles, by the shortest 
line, is 396 miles. Two tunnels are proposed, each three-fourths of a mile in length, one on 
the San Luis pass, through the Santa Lucia mountains, and the other in the Semi pass. The 
estimated cost of this route, including equipment, is $20,823,ThO, or about $52,600 per mile. 
A favorable pass, leading from the valley of the Salinas river to the Tulare valley, was dis¬ 
covered by this party, forming a good connexion with the bay of San Francisco for the route of 
the 35th parallel. 
The results of the survey, it was formerly stated, have greatly improved the aspect of the first 
route surveyed between the Pimas villages, on the Gila, and the Rio Grande, by changing the 
line for nearly half the distance from barren ground to cultivable valleys, and entirely avoiding 
a jornada of eighty miles which occurs in that section. The route now follows the valleys of 
the Gila and the San Pedro rivers to the mouth of the Aravaypa, a tributary of the San Pedro, 
discovered by this party ; continues up that stream to its source ; crosses between Mount 
Grabam and Chiricahui mountains by a very favorable pass; proceeds in a direct course 
through the Peloncillo mountains, and joins the former line in the vicinity of Colonel Cooke’s 
emigrant road. From this point to the Rio Grande the route lies in the lowest line of the 
depression which characterizes the plateau of the Sierra Madre in this latitude, the mean eleva¬ 
tion of which is about 4,400 feet above the level of the sea, the summit being 4,600 feet above 
that level. 
The maximum grade upon this route is 64.4 feet per mile. The route for two-thirds of the 
