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Show RIO GRANDE PLANS BIG . COLORADO IMPROVEMENT Announcement has just been ade by President Bush and Vice-President Vice-President Brown that at a recent neeting of the Board of Directors of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company, New York . Cjty, it was decided to standard gauge the present sarrow gauge line over Marshall Pass between Salida and Montrose. Colo. This involves widening the gauge from three feet to four feet eight and a half inches for a distance of 136 miles at a cost of approximately $2,000,000.00. From 1883 to 1890 Transcontinental trains of the Denver &Rio Grande were perated over Marshall Pass, but in the last mentioned the Standard gauge line by way of Tennessee Pass and Glen-wood Glen-wood Springs to Grand Junction was constructed, and .since then through trains have been operated over the latter route and the Marshall Pass narrow gauge line has been reserved especially for tourists and sightseers and such local freight as originates in the narrow gauge territory. The Marshall Pass route, famed the world over for its scenic attractions, crosses the Continental Divide at the altitude of 10,856 feet, and the new standard gauge line will cross at the same elevation and preserve the many scenic attractions of the old route. Marshall Pass by reason of being the first, is perhaps the best known crossing of the Continental Divide. This comparatively low pass was discovered dis-covered in 1871 by ;Lieutenant W. L. Marshall, at that time attached to the Geological Survey, now Brigadier General of the United States Army, retired, and a resident of Washington, D. C. The pass was named after Lieutenant Marshall. The decision of the Directors to ap- j propriate so large a Bum of money .was : arrived at in order to properly take' care of the rapidly increasing trans-continential trans-continential traffic augmented by the opening of the Western Pacific Kail way, the Pacific Coast extension of the Denver & Rio Grande, as well as to to take care of the enormous tonnage in fruit, coal, grain, cattle and ore traffic being developed on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, Colo-rado, and thereby increase the road's transportation facilities by having two standard gauge lines through the Rocky Mountains7 A large engineering force is now in the field, making surveys and rectifying rectify-ing the alignment of such portions of the narrow gauge as are unsuitable for standard gauge operation on account ac-count of the curvature. These surveys are being rapidly made, and when completed com-pleted contract will be let for the new work. An order will be placed in the very near future for a large number of heavy steel bridges, which will be re-;V re-;V quired to take the place of the present structures, which are adapted for narrow nar-row gauge equipment. It is anticipated that the work will be completed within the next twelve months, in ample time te move the 1913 fruit and potato crops of ithe Un-compahgre Un-compahgre and North Fork Valleys in Colorado. When the new Marshall Pass Line is completed the Denver & Rio Grande will have two standard gauge main lines through the Racky Mountains between Denver and Salt Lake City, one by way of Tennessee Pass, Glen-wood Glen-wood Springs and Grand Junction, .and the other over Marshall Pass through the Black Canon of the Gunnison by I way of Montrose, Delta and Grand Junction. |