REVIEW OF THE PACIFIC RAILROAD PROJECT. 
In the selection of the route of a railroad to the Pacific, the requisition as to the class of line 
to be adopted, and the plan of construction to be attempted, is the first and salient feature of 
the whole question. 
This unsolved problem in engineering is dissimilar from that of any road hitherto completed. 
It is, nevertheless, a problem to which one system of construction is more particularly applicable 
than any other; the physical obstacles to be overcome are in no degree to be deemed subjects of 
consideration, as compared with the practical difficulties which conspire to prevent its ready 
solution. 
The opinions of professional parties on this question, which are the result of experience in 
railroad-building, should meet the direct notice of legislation. 
If it can be readily demonstrated that the selection of the class of line which will best solve 
the present urgent necessities of this nation for rapid and effective means of overland com¬ 
munication restricts the whole question to the selection of a route or routes over which such a 
class of line or mode of building can alone be attempted, then the choice of these routes should 
not he made subordinate to any other consideration. 
It is not yet particularly known that a wagon-road, a rough, rapidly extended railroad, 
suited to military and mail transportation, and an elaborately completed, thoroughly equipped 
Grand Trunk railroad, can each exist in their turn, as called for hy the necessities of civilization, 
and each aid as successive steps towards the consummation of the legitimate object required. 
The wagon-road and the rough railroad come within the limits of discussion of constitutional 
legislation ; and if deemed expedient, would progress together. But the Grand Trunk road, 
if viewed only in legislation as the development of a requisition beyond the reach of constitu¬ 
tional aid, would alone appear as the result of the efforts of private parties to procure remu¬ 
neration to a patriotic and commendable enterprise by the carrying trade of western commerce. 
A review of this whole question is necessary to the purposes of the present report, and as an 
explanation of the engineering views herewith submitted. 
REVIEW OF THE PACIFIC RAILROAD PROJECT. 
It is now nearly ten years since the patriotic Whitney first advocated the construction of a 
railroad to the Pacific. He then asserted that, in working out the grand problem of self-govern¬ 
ment, this nation occupied a position to command the influx of that commerce of the Indies, 
which had caused the prosperity of nations to ebb and flow like the waters of the sea over which 
it had been transported. He visited the principal cities of the Union. He addressed the 
legislatures of States and the Houses of Congress. He spoke of the development of territory; of 
the march of a martial people towards the shores of the distant Pacific; of a great highway of 
nations existing through a line of flourishing settlements ; of commerce and agriculture walking 
hand in hand ; of the east and of the west united. He enforced these arguments with the full 
powers of a commanding intellect, and by the expenditure of his private fortune. But he failed 
of receiving the support of congressional legislation ; and as long lines of railway had never 
successfully competed with water transportation, private individuals declined this investment 
without government aid. Whitney went to England. He was received and noticed with honor. 
He addressed the British Parliament; but he was never able to achieve this grand purpose and 
glory of his existence. His patriotism and the devotion of his high nature only have their 
record in the present character of this great project, now fully before the American people, and 
with which his name must forever remain connected. 
But the idea of a Grand Trunk railroad, elaborated from the very outset to the needs of an 
immense carrying trade, huilt in sections of one hundred miles, by a system of land grants, and 
existing, by some act of intuition on the part of its well-wishers, over mountain ranges, mighty 
rivers, sterile deserts, and regions devoid of wood, building materials, and sources of supply, 
has never yet been surrendered. When the munificent land grants of Texas, held out as a 
