30 
ROUTE FROM PUGET SOUND TO THE GREAT BASIN. 
the headwaters of that river,) which is the apparent location for a Grand Trunk road, assuming 
the most direct line between termini. 
After crossing the summit between Grande Eonde and Powder rivers, the route can either 
skirt the base of the same hilly country toward the south, and which extends in an easterly 
direction to the valley of the Burnt river,- or pass down the valley of Powder river to the 
Snake. Either location is practicable—the former the most direct, and the latter the least 
severe. The character of grade and curvature is favorable upon both, although continued rock- 
cuttings will occur near Burnt river upon the former, or southern line. 
Both routes are designated upon the sketch. 
The former, or southern route, can still skirt the mountain base, and, crossing Malheur 
river, six miles from its confluence with the Snake, preserve an easterly direction toward Fort 
Boise and the broad valley of the Snake. The northern can keep the valley of the Snake, and 
by side-cutting gain a road-bed through this valley, which, in the immediate vicinity, does not 
offer so favorable facilities for railway construction as exist a few miles farther east. Either of 
these routes, hereafter assumed as a grand location line, will need care in adjustment, the 
engineering problem resolving itself into the “keeping up” of grade, or making facile descent 
from the pass at the head of the Walla-Walla, by skirting the Grande Eonde valley, and thence 
by skirting the broken and mountainous country south, avoiding too sudden and abrupt descents 
and ascents of the various water-drains of this mountainous country flowing toward the great 
valley of the Snake, and which occur in the crossings of the Powder, Burnt, and Malheur 
rivers. 
Fifty miles of country, extending west from Burnt river, is severe, but of a nature which 
reducing the character of the line, by adjusting either steep gradients or sharp curvatures, can¬ 
not obviate. Fifty per cent, of the work is rock-cutting at short haul, spurs of ledges which 
cannot be avoided, but with no bad summit section. The work is so placed, that large forces 
of laborers could be applied to it. At prices of excavation in New York and the eastern States, 
this 50 miles of line could be readily reduced to gradients of 40 feet per mile, and a road-bed 
of 35 feet, (which admits of a first-class line, with double track of wide gauge, properly bal¬ 
lasted and drained,) at $100,000 per mile. This is the severe ledge section of the line east of 
Columbia valley, and extending to the Great Basin. The summit section of the Walla-Walla 
will undoubtedly prove deep ledge-cutting, and may require tunnelling, but its approaches are 
of 80 per cent, earth. 
From the valley of Burnt river to Fort Boise no great difficulties of location or construction 
will occur. 
The route, by detour through Snake-river valley, would possess features of a decidedly more 
favorable character, as traversing a gravel surface. In reaching the country in the vicinity of 
the Powder river, the route north of the Blue Mountains would occupy common position with 
the most northerly of the lines upon the sketch, or continue down the valley of the Snake. 
Side-cutting would occur in the latter instance for a distance of twenty (20) miles, or would be 
avoided by forming a road-bed of the debris of the neighboring basaltic ledges, which are near 
the mouth of the Burnt river, and jut down upon the line. For the purpose of keeping a road 
elevated in approaching the higher plateau west of Fort Boise, the line should encounter the 
ledge-cutting. This would render the road more expensive at the particular section, but would 
reduce cost in advance. No deep rock-cutting should occur upon a preliminary railroad. The 
line could be temporarily adjusted to make passage of this unfavorable point for first transport¬ 
ation to the interior, and, when the obstacle is reduced, the main route supersede the prelimi¬ 
nary one. 
The description of the second division of the route from Puget Sound to the plains of the 
Great Basin may be briefly summed up, as the extension of a line over a broad gravel surface, 
at merely nominal cost of grading, all questions of location being readily solved. The con¬ 
nexion between the southern plateau of Snake river and the valley of Bear river was obtained 
