Show CUTOFF CUT OFF th century magazine for january will con illuminated article on the ogden lucin cutoff cut off by oscar king davis several of the illustrations arc taken from the special railroad edition of the ogden examiner of last march we quote from the century article as follows when the first survey of the union pacific railroad came out of the mouth of weber canyon a little south 1 east of the present city of ogden it found the great bait lake lying across its path westward to a junction with the central pacific even at that early date some idea of the possibilities bili ties 0 tho later day triumphs of railroad construction seems to have occurred to the engineers of the survey for they discussed a little though perhaps more jocularly than seriously the idea of driving straight across the lake or at least across its eastern arm of course they gave it up the idea then was almost chimerical there was neither the genius in finance bold to undertake such a stupendous work nor the traffic to warrant such a expenditure it may be doubted too if there was engineering faith equal to the task so the line was built up through the hills around the north end of the lake but that light talk of the early sixties was not without its fruit the I 1 idea remained the dream the hope the faith of one of the young men employed in building the central pa cefic william hood was of that company of across the isthmus pioneers who have made their mark and their fame in the development of california and the pacific slope As he worked ills way up to the responsible post of chief engineer of the southern pacific system owner of the old central pacific he never lost sight of the possibility of that line across salt lake collia P huntington the master of the pacific railroads was inclined to think that it might be aone but tho time was not yet ripe th traffic was not hevy enough to justify the expense and such enterprises not easy to finance but after mr death there came to the head of southern pacific affairs a man whose financial ability and boldness matched the engineering gi skill and pluck of mr hood in edward H harriman sir hood found a man who sympathized with and believed in his plans and who was able and willing to provide the money |