“LET EVERY STEP BE AN ADVANCE.”?

 

 

Vol. 1.

 

 

Cheyenne, Wyoming, May 27,

 

The Trans-Gontinental, |
Published Daily on the Pullman Hotel Express,
Between

 

Boston and San H'rancisco.
W.R. STEELE, Hditor.

 

 

UNION PACIFIC AND CENTRAL
PACIFIC RAILROADS.

 

There are many who read our little
sheet at home who will feel interested
in the following items, which we gather
from the Trans-Continental Railroad
Guide:

“The government grant of lands to
the national highway was every altern-
ate section of land for 20 miles on each
side of the road, or 20 sections equaling
12,800 acres for each mile of the road. By
the company’s table, the road as com-
pleted, is 1,774 miles long. This would
give the company 22,707,200 acres, divided
as follows: Union Pacific, 18,875,200; Cen-
tral Pacific, 8,832,000.

“Tn addition to the grant of lands and
right of way, Government agreed to
issue its thirty year six per cent. bonds
in aid of the work, graduated as follows:
for the plains portion of the road, $16,
000 per mile; for the next most difficult
portion, $32 000 per mile; for the mount-
anious portion, $48,000 per mile.

“The Union Pacific R. R. Co. built 526
miles for which they received $16,000 per
mile; 408 miles at $32,000 per mile; 150
miles at $48,000 per mile, making a total
of $28,456,000.

“The Central Pacific R. R. Co. built 12
miles at $16,000 per mile; 522 miles at $32,
000 per mile; 156 miles at $48,000 per mile,
making a total of $24,386,000.

“The total subsidies for both roads
amount to $52,840,000. Government also
guaranteed the interest on the Com-
panies’ first mortgage bonds toan equal
amount. .

 

1870 No. 3.

 

 

“We give a tew figures showing approx-
imately, what the road cost, and the
amount of material used. In the con-
struction of the whole line there were
used about 300,000 tons of iron rails;
1,700,000 fish plates; 6,800,000 bolts; 6,126,
875 cross-ties ; 23,505,500 spikes.

“ Besides this there was used an incal-
culable amount of sawed lumber, boards
for building, timber for trestles, bridges,
&e. Estimating the cost of the road
complete by that of the other first-class
roads ($105,000 per mile), and we have the
sum of $181,650,000 as the approximate
cost of the work.

“To give the traveler some idea of the
amount of rolling stock required to op-
erate a road of this magnitude, we give
thenumbers of the cars of all kinds, and
locomotives, now in use.”’

 

 

 
    

 

Locomotives... ... 0... 2... eee eee eee 319
Passenger Cars..........0..-eee ee eeee 163
Emigrant and Second Class Cars.. 88
Pullman Sleeping Cars.............. 22
Silver Palace Sleeping Cars......... 20
Mail and Express Cars......-.--.... 45
Caboose Cars.... 12... eee ee eee ee eee 88
Flat Cars.............-.0004 765
Hand Cars..... 0... c cece cee eee eee 421
Dump Cars.............-..++. Peet 142
Section Cars............. ce eee eee . 109
Trom, Cars..........-.-sseseceeeee cone 50
Coal Cars. 231
Bridge Ca . 12
Gravel Cars... 2... 0... cee cece eee ee 20
Derrick Cars.... 60... cece eee eee eee 2
Wrecking Cars............-2200 ee eee 1
Rubber Cars...........0 00020 eee eee eee lk
Powder Cars..........-.. eee eee e wees i)
Water TankCars ..............2.2- . 4
Cook Car..... 2... ecc cece eee eceweees 1
Pay OCars.....---...-¢-ccre essen cco es 2
Officer’s Cars...........-. 2
President’s Car..............--. le. 1

7,133

te
OMAHA.

 

“Omaha is situated on the western
bank of the Missouri river, on a sloping
upland, about fifty feet above high-water
mark. It is the present terminus of the
U. P. R. R. Co., and a thriving, growing

es

city of from 20,000 to 25,000 inhabitants.
The state capitol was first located here,
but was removed to Lincoln City in
1868. In 1854 a few squatters located
here, among whom was A. D. Jones,
now one of the ‘solid’ men of the
place. In the fall of that vear he receiv-
ed the appointment of postmaster for
the place, which as yet had no post-
office. As Mr. Jones was one of the
most accommodating of men, he im-
provised a post office by using the crown
of his hat for that purpose. When the
postmaster met one of his few neigh-
bors, if there was a letter for him, off
came the hat from the postmaster’s
head while he fished out the missive
and placed it in the hands of its owner.
The battered hat post office has given
place to a large first-class post office
commensurate with the future growth
of the city. It is now the distributing
post office, and employs six clerks be-
side the assistant postmaster.

“The inaugurating of the U. P. R. R.,
gave it an onward impetus, and since
then the growth of the city has been
almost unparalleled. There are many
evidences of continued prosperity and
future greatness.

“TheOmaha Herald, daily, Republican
daily, Western Journal of Commerce
Nebraska State Journal, The Agriculturist
and the Western World are published
here. There are two collegiate insti-
tutesand convent schools, seven private
and six public schools in the city.

There are also fifteen churches.
“Omaha has eleven hotels. There are
twenty-nine manufactories, one dis-

tillery, and six breweries. The whole
number of merchants who report sales
of and over the value of $25,000 for the
year is eighty-five, twenty-five of whom
are wholesale. The sales of these firms
for the year ending May, 1869, foot up a
total of $8,800,000.”