Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1921-02-14 | Page 8 | Railroad Built at below Zero

'MRU BUILT AT BELOW ZERO Cold and Deep Snow Fail to Stop Progress on U. S. f Line in Alaska I SAN FRANCISCO. Feb. 14. Ends lot steel being pushed north and south by I'nlted States government engi-j engi-j m-ers building the Alaska railroad ln I miles across the continental divide. nr I now oni eighty-four miles apart, according ac-cording to the report of the 1920 work on the road, received here recently from Anchorage, Alaska, the headquarters head-quarters railroad town 'With an abundant supply of labor and good weather conditions there seems no reason why the tracks should not he connected this year," William Qerlg a'-tMs'.an: chief engineer, was quoted as saying. By 1322, the engineers en-gineers hope, trains will be running between Seward .and Anchorage, seaport sea-port towns on the "ocean end" of the road, and Fairbanks nnd Nenana, interior in-terior points on the great Alaska rivet highway system WORE WHI N BELOW ZERO Trains will not run through to Fairbanks, Fair-banks, however, until a big brldgo Is built across the Tanan.i river at Nenana. Ne-nana. when tho line between Nenana and the coast is completed the road will he use.) to carry- north the mo-j terlal for the bridge. During tho winter, when tho Tanana freezes.! tracks are built across on tho ice. On the coat eiiil of lhi line trnlns Operated thl winter between Seward! und Anchorage, snowsheda having been built last summer. Already, reports re-ports said, the sheds have stood aev- eral heavy slides which under conditions condi-tions which existed a year ago would! have blocked the road. Short Alaska winter days, tempera-hires tempera-hires ranging as low- as 20 degrees below be-low zero and two to four feet of snow I are not stopping work on the road I this winter. Grading, bridge building build-ing and cut work Is progressing at practically the same rate of speed as j In summer. The engineers garb themselves In the native "parka" and i brave the elements. An Anchorage newspaper man who recently visited the advance gangs at Hurricane, a point on the road, said the commission commis-sion Is giving one of the most remarkable remark-able examples of overcoming nature STSr witnessed in railroad building GREAT BRIDGE ERECTED. ' One of the achievements last year was erection of a steel bridge, having a span of 604 feet, across the Sueltna' r!v. r, north of Anchorage. The bridge' i parts were made ln the states, num-1 bored and sent north by rail and' ; steamer. At Susltna they were puti I together and by spring trains will be' operating on the crossing. Acroas the elghty-four-mile gap.' (dogn and horses are used to carry mail .and pa-ssengere. Passengers from tho! coast can make connections to mile 27:.. the end of the road, where they I take the stages across Broad Pass to Mile 374. tho southern end of the ' northern section. In tho past, mail during the winter has always reach-led reach-led the interior by way of another route. oo