| OCR Text |
Show Builders of U. P.-C. P. Laid 1,775 Miles of Track in Four Yea ' un July 1U, 1B65, the first rail for the new Union Pacific railroad was : laid at Omaha, Neb. Nearly 10 : weeks later, only 10 miles had been completed, but there was material on hand for 100 miles more. The distance extended 30 miles by Janu-i Janu-i ary 26, 1866, and after that the builders really, went to work. By , the end of that year they had laid 260 more miles of track. i The year 1867 saw 240 miles added and the line had reached Sherman hill in the Rocky mountains, the highest point on the route (8,247 feet elevation). During all this time the builders had to work heavily armed and under guard of troops because of almost daily attacks by hostile Indians. They laid 425 miles of track during 1868 and another 125 miles brought them to Promontory Point in Utah where was to take place the junction with the Central Pacific. While the Union Pacific was build- tag its 1,085.8 miles of track westward, west-ward, the Central Pacific had been coming eastward with its 690 miles Naturally, these two . routes didn't converge perfectly. Actually, the grading gangs of the 'two companies passed each other and graded mile after mile of parallel route before the actual junction point was determined de-termined by officials of the two companies, com-panies, because each organization was receiving a premium for the amount of track laid. |
