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Show WESTERN PACIFIC OPENING. The first through train of tho Western West-ern Pacific Railroad for passenger service serv-ice arrived in this city on .Friday and departed on its return journey yesterday yester-day morning. Tho. coming of that train marks a now and firm step forward in the progress prog-ress of this city. We now have a double dou-ble connection with San Francisco, and offer to all of the transcontinental lines of the middle west, a four-track connection con-nection to the coast, tho two to Sau Francisco, one to Los Angeles and one to Portland. By building to this city the Burlington, the Chicago & Northwestern, North-western, tho Rock Island, and tho Chicago, Chi-cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul can all rc-ceivo rc-ceivo and deliver their coast freight for through transportation in Salt Lake Cit3' in place of in Omaha. This will give them a thousand miles additional haul over their own tracks, and be a corresponding .benefit to them. Tho only requirement is that they shall build to Salt Lake, which wo believe all of them must necessarily do within a few years. The Burlington has but a short distance to build, from central Wyoming to this c:t3. and the Chicago & Northwestern has even a shorter distance. dis-tance. Tho Rock Island can make it b3' getting tho Moffat Road, and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul will simph need to build a branch from northeastern Wyoming to this city to make it secure in this additional thousand thou-sand miles haul of its transcontinental traffic. The difficulties in the financing of the building of tho Western Pacific have been very great. Tho work was proceeding when the Roosevelt panic of 1907 struck the country, and that made tho raising of monej' for an' purpose exceedingly difficult. Then there was the tussle to get water frontage at Oakland, Oak-land, this being arranged satisfactorily with Oakland City and lator with Mr. ITarriman. The physical difficulties of building the road wcro also considerable. consider-able. Thero were a great many tunnels tun-nels and much heavy grading through the north and south ranges in Nevada. There was extremely heav- work up the Feather River in California, and in surmounting Beckwith Pass. The heavy work of the road was in fact on that California division. Tho other, while costly, was by no means so slow nor so heavy in cost as that particular region in getting out from the vallej' lands of California. Now that tho Western Pacific is finished fin-ished and the regular passengor sched-ulo sched-ulo will be inaugurated on Tuesday', the twenty-second, to- bo added to as the business grows, this city must take- immense im-mense satisfaction in tho opening up of this new through line. For tho first jtime Salt Lako City is on the line of direct through transcontinental passenger passen-ger service from ocean to ocean, and 't will reap corresponding advantage therefrom. Salt Lake City has such a start in wealth and population that it is bound to ho the great railroad center of all this mountain region. Tho completion and putting on of train service serv-ice on the Western. Pacific adds materially mate-rially to Salt Lake's prestige, and will be another link in the chain of evont3 making for its supremacy in a wide region where no competitor appears or can appear for live hundred miles in an3' direction. |