SECTION FIVE
Pages 1 to lO
Woman's and Books
VOL. XXX.
PORTLAND, OREGON. SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 29, 1911.
NO. 5.
FAR NORTH RAILROAD TRIUMPH OF MODERN ENGINEERING
Copper Biver & Northwestern Line, 200 Miles Long, Crosses Stream at Five Points, Piercing Gorges and Mountains to Reach Vast Beds of Metal Cbsed Coal Mines Are Drawback.
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CN3TRUCTtON of miles of the
Copper Rlrrr A Northveatern Rail
ajr from Cordova, on the coast of
Alaaka. to the Copper River mtn-a. at a
coat of tJ". meant orercomlna; of
phrsical obataclra not often found In
railroad buiMtna; and betide the rlgora
of the r! I mate had to be endured by the
men employed. However, modern en
tlneer akil) triumphed, with the result
thai the most expensive and moat scenic
railway of this continent baa been com
pleted. with. !;e exception of a steel via
duct feet Ions.
Nspoleon hewed a wsr for his troops
tnrouxh the Alps wtrh hi cannon, but
enlners on the Copper River A North
western Railway used compass, snow
Fhovel and human endurance, coupled
with bea n, to raht their way a!on the
turbulent current of C"Pfer River. In
t.le face of movlnc lie glaolera. alona;
tbe precipitous Hdes of mountains rival
ing: our own Mount Hood In steepneas
snd altitude, and through anowa. bat
tling with bitxzjrda that swept over the
country at and 90 miles sn hour.
When the fOucway Railroad was built
over the pa.s into the Interior It was
troutSt! to have been the acme of en
gineering skill, hut that line doce not
compare with the Copper River Rail
road. Our own Columbia River, with
Its scenic beauty, when wrapped In the
mantle of snow and Ice, gives some Idea
of the district through which the Copper
River Railway runs.. The construction
of the North Rank Railroad through the
Columbia River rortre presented some of
the difficulties engineer on the Copper
River Railway met and overcame. Rut
on the North Rank supplies were ob
tained easily, while the Carper RIor
Railway was miles away from a food
and fuel base. First a depot was made
at the nhtnr hamlet of Cordova, the
coast terminus of the railroad, as the
beats of supplies. Then the suppllea
f.r the engineers were carrls.1 on the
jwiouldrrs of men as the right of way
. wss surveyed snd marked along the
river, which averaged In width from one
jnlle to M yards, and which la not nav
gahje cnMl Abercromble Rapids have
cd g aased. The rail wax XoUowa tbe
river closely for the er.tir stance ex
cept within a ahort distance of the Cop
per River mines, when It branches off
to a small stream.
A. C. McNeel. of Portland, was en
gineer In charge of construction of five
steel bridges which carry thb track
across Copper River at the several
points. . C. X. McDonald, also a Port
land man. was general foreman of bridge
construction. K. C. Ilowklns was chief
engineer. It. A. Brown and A. O. Johnson
assistants and W. N. Hell, of Portland.
formerly connected with the Southern
Psclttc Company, was chief draftsman.
"When I went to Cordova In 1!H0." said
Mr. CVNeel. '-nine mllee of the railroad
had been built. Cordova, the hamlet on
the coast of Alaska. bcam? (he depot
and base of supplies. t doubt whether
any rsiiroau in tne I riled Htatee ever
was built under so great difficulties, and
yet with a little loss of life, taking Into
consideration the nature of the under
taking and the physical difficulties that
were to be overcome. While I was not
connected with the building of the rail
road. I waa brought Into contact with it
as rng'neer In charge of bridge construc
tion. The work of the engineers who
pusncd their way Into the interior over
the tracklna waste of mountain. Ice
bergs. acrot moraines and moving gla
ciers Is a story of rare Interest and tells
something of the endurance and deter
mination of the engineers and men who
carried forward the work of clearing the
right of way for the track and then con
structed the roadbed Itself. As the river
Is not navigable up to Miles Glacier, all
supplies used by the engineers" corps
were taaen in on tne shoulders of men.
We transported some supplies by boat.
We loaded supplies on barges and. with
10 or men hold of lines, we pushed
up the river, the men with the lines of
ten wading In the Icy waters of the Cop
per River and the inlets. It waa dan
gerous and tested tbe hardihood of the
men as nothing else could have done.
"The railway was built from Cordova
and supplies' were then shipped out as
the tracks were laid. We had MO men
employed on an . average and 1000 men
most of tne time. Men In my depart-
meat, oC course, were of fcighsr - grade
4
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to- -l5-.7-.
than the railroad laborers who lalQ-the
tracks, as they were men who worked
on the bridges and were structural steel
men drawn from different portions of the
country.
'The company had parts of a small
steamer transported to Copper River
from aides. This wss uped In the
transportation buvineai above Abercrom
ble Rapids. The river Is dangerous and
not navigable up to that point. I had
one experience on the river In a small
boat and I felt, as we whirled through
the current, threatened with destruction
at every moment, that If I got out I
should stay on shore afterwards. The
engineers who surveyed the line of the
railway, of course, had to crocs and re-
crnss the river many times In the courn
of their work.
We built five steel bridges of the
heaviest character. The longest Is the
Miles Glacier bridge. 16S0 feet long.
The piers of this bridge were built, as
were the bridge piers of the North Bank
Railroad across the Columbia at Port
land, with compressed air. It was built
In the face of the great Miles Glacier.
Huge Icebergs were swept toward the
bridge with tremendous force. While
we were building the Miles Glacier
bridge I stationed a watchman on the
lookout for the Ice mountains, and we
kept out of their way.
"The site of the bridge was located
In the Summer of "1907 by Assistant
Bridge Engineer A. O. Johnson, who was
sent there. In 1908 to continue the me
teorological collection of data begun in
1907, and he also made a profile map
of the river. After consideration It was
decided to use spans 400 feet, 300 feet,
450 feet and 400 feet long. Solid ice
berg fenders were constiucted of con
crete and railroad Iron. In piers of
that bridge 16.146 varus of concrete
were used, and the total welg-ht of the
steel used was 982.712 pounds. The
conditions under which this bridge was
bullU.were severe. ' Sometimes the wind
90
would attain a velocity of 60 and
miles an hour, and tnen no one could
work. Often the temperature was SO
degrees below zero. Daylight lasted
for four hours, and we worked with
lamps, putting In nine hours on the
bridge. The blizzards frequently drove
us Indoors.
- "One of the interesting scenes on the
route Is the bridge over Kuspulana
Gorge. The center span stands 23S feet
above the water, in the ravine below.
The cantilever span was used in this
structure. The surroundings 'are the
wildest and most picturesque Imagina
ble. The other bridges ranged down to
52S feet. One bridge to be built will
be 1300 feet long. At present the track
Is laid over a temporary structure,
which will go out In the Spring.
"While the Copper Kiver Railroad
was built for commercial purposes, it
bids fair to become one of the most
popular In the world for tourists. Many
tourists visited the line while, we .were
at work. I do not know of a railroad
of the same length, that presents so
great scenic attractions as this one
does. The railroad follows the bank
of the Copper River from Its delta to
the copper mines, crossing and recross
Ing the river five times and skirting
the stream. Cordova, the hamlet on tne
coast, has become a prosperous town
of 2500 people where there had been a
few fishermen before construction was
started.
Of course, only men of great means
could have undertaken so great an en
terprise. The road runs to Bonanza
mine, the richest of the group of cop
per mines. In which the ore averages
80 per cent. Another company other
than Morgan & Guggenheim own a lot
of low-grade ore mines which run from
5 to 10 per cent, but the mines gener
ally have not yet been developed. The
railroad will be kept open by. the use
of rotary snow plows. It Is expected
that the shipment of ore will be staMed
thi3 Spring. We Bhlpped our coal at a
cost of $13 a ton, while within CO miles
t:cre Is coal as good as can be found
anywhere In the . world, and yet ve
could not get a pound of It. Uncle Sam
has locked up the coal mines of Alaska
and Is retarding Its growth. It takes
milllor.s to open these great coal fields
of Alaska. Men of cdinary means are
powerie.'.s to develop these mines. There
is coal enough stored In Alaska to fur
nish the United States with fuel for
many years, and yet it Is locked up as
securely as If it never existed at all.
The people of Cordova pay as high as
$18 a ton for coal when there Is an
abundance within a short distance.
Morgan & Company stand " ready to
build a railroad to the coal mines when
the Federal Government permits them
to be developed. All Alaska is waiting
the action of the Government that will
throw open these mines to development.
It means more to the Northwestern ter
ritory than almost anything else.
"Portland should have a large share
of the business that Is bound to be de
veloped by the construction of the Cop
per River Railroad. So far Seattle has
reaped the -benefit of that great en
terprise. We got our supplies from
Seattle. Construction of a railroad only
200 miles ions and at a cost of $20,000,-
000 means that a vast stream of money
goes for supplies, and Seattle prac
tically secured the main portion of this
stream of gold. But the opportunity
still remains for Portland. Morgan &
Company will develop the Copper River
mines, for they have not spent $20,000,
000 in the construction of the railroad
to let it stand. . They will follow it up
with the development of the great cop
per mines at the end of the tine. I
think that the pressure will be suffi
cient to urge the Federal Government
to unlock the coal mines of Alaska be
fore long."
JOB-SEEKERS SWARM CHINA
Throne Is Asked "to Stop Practice of
Selling: Titles.
PEKIN, Jan. 28. (Special.) A cen
sor has memorialized the throne,
touching the wretched and alarming
condition of officers In the administra
tion. Though the sale of real office
has been abandoned some years, titles
are still sold, and under the new edu
cational system a whole new layer of
"expectants" has been superadded to
Jhe crowd of office-seekers haunting
each provincial capital, and "expecting"
either substantive posts or temporary
Jobs" in consequence of, "service" un
der the old and new system, or of "con
tributions" in money, or of some other
special claim.
Things have arrived at such a pitch
now that there are a hundred or more
expectants for each post. In some
provinces where there is only a single
post of a special kind, there are actu
ally 1009 special expectants entitled in
the future to succeed In turn to that
single post. It has come to this, that
"when at last a job does fall into their
hands, they pounce upon it as a hungry
tiger pounces upon a dog or a goat,
fastening their teeth Instantly upon the
fat morsels, forgetful of everything:
else."