34 CONNEXION OP BRANCH ROUTES WITH CENTRAL ROUTES—ESTIMATES OP COST. 
"Should future instrumental survey demonstrate the section to he more practicable than is 
now anticipated, it will he a source of pride and gratification with me to withdraw any expres¬ 
sions of opinion I have offered on the subject, and to claim the location thus developed as 
giving still greater character to the southern route to Puget Sound. It must necessarily appear, 
however, that during the excavation of the deep-rock cuttings and long tunnel of this summit, 
communication should he extended to the interior; and I should most emphatically advise the 
development of the Columbia valley, by cheap railway facilities, to afford such communication. 
The cheap or rough railway to he extended to the interior by detour from direction north of 
the Blue mountains, and through the Snake-river valley, to the extensive plateaux east of 
those mountains—solving the problem of construction at low cost, and existing for the period 
of years required to construct the more direct route of the Walla-Walla and Powder rivers, as 
a full solution of the Pacific railway problem. 
CONNEXION OE BRANCH ROUTES, AS ABOVE DESCRIBED, WITH THE VARIOUS CENTRAL ROUTES TO CALIFORNIA. 
Connexion can alone occur with the straight route of the 38th and 39th parallels from St. 
Louis to California, (that advocated by Colonel Benton,) by extending the branch line from 
Puget Sound along the eastern shore of the Great Salt lake, and by the line of the Mormon 
settlements to the vicinity of Little Utah valley—an entire distance, in round numbers, of 1,200 
miles from Puget Sound. 
Should the Pacific line reach California through the Bridger’s Pass, the connexion of the 
branch road could take place on the plains of the Great Basin near Salt Lake City, by a route 
of 1,050 miles from Puget Sound. 
But should the line to California adopt the route of the South Pass, a line might he adopted 
which would afford opportunity for the connexion of the branch road to Puget Sound by a route 
of 815 miles. In the latter instance, the Pacific project would he restricted to reasonable limits, 
and to the least cost in first outlay which will afford results desired. 
My estimate of the cost of a branch line will he confined to the intermediate length of line of 
1,050 miles. 
ESTIMATES OF COST. 
All approximated estimates of cost upon the route from Puget Sound, via the South Pass, 
to the Mississippi river, must necessarily he confined to the branch road from Puget Sound to 
the plains of the Great Basin—the continuation of the reconnaissance toward the Missouri not 
being of a character to admit of more than a very general statement of the features of the sec¬ 
tion passed over. This general study of the route is, however, fully sufficient to demonstrate 
its merits regarding facility of construction as a railroad line, as compared with the more 
northern route. The material of excavation, readiness of reaching mountain sections, charac¬ 
ter of surface, &c., &c., will appear in a general comparison herewith given. 
No estimate of the cost of a Pacific railroad ean he deemed reliable, from the remarkable con¬ 
tingencies which must inevitably occur during the consummation of the project, and serve to 
defeat what may at present appear quite warrantable conclusions on the nature of the question 
and the cost of the road. 
I resolve the whole question of the construction of a railroad to the Pacific, in present esti¬ 
mates, to the mere extension of a railroad to the Pacific, of unelaborated character and of medium 
equipment; not in broken, or temporary working sections, but actually making connexion between 
eastern lines of similar gauge, and eastern water transportation, and a Pacific terminus. The 
connexion with terminus, and the passage of trains, without breaking bulk, along the whole 
line of the road, giving greater character to the conviction I have so often directly expressed, 
